About Sai

Sai Blackbyrn is the founder and CEO of .Coach LLC.

Sai grew up in London and comes from a family of coaches. He first started out as
a dating coach with his company “SaiFai Dating”. He was forced to shut down the
company when, because of a visa issue, he was deported from Australia to Bali.

In Bali with a little over 400 AUD in his pocket, a laptop and a microphone – he
laid the foundations for Double Your Database, which eventually became .Coach
LLC.

Since the foundation of his company Sai has worked with the likes of Rock House
Global founder Christopher Howard, founder of London’s biggest entrepreneurial
meet-up Patrick Powers and the founder of “I Love Coaching” magazine Luke
Charlton among many others. His vision for his company is simple, he wants to
empower coaches to inspire as many people as they possibly can without
worrying about the technological side of their business.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The importance of niche research PG. 2

2. Why and how to package your programs PG. 16

3. Creating your client funnel PG. 25

4. Social media as a tool PG. 34

5. Blogging PG. 85

6. Customer Delight PG. 93

7. Bonus Chapter PG. 106

 Introduction

Building a coaching business from scratch is simple to understand but it’s definitely not easy.

In order to write this article, we took a poll in different Facebook groups and sent surveys to our
email list. We asked coaches what was the most common problems they face whilst making
their business.

What we got was a vast array of topics. Some didn’t know where to start, some didn’t know how
to present their coaching properly, some didn’t know how to get clients and some didn’t know
how to market themselves.

So what we have done here is address each of these issues and find out actionable steps that
you can get to solve each of those problems.

Without further ado, let’s go over the 6 factors which will make sure that you have the perfect
foundation for a thriving coaching business.
 Chapter 1: The importance of niche research.

What is niching and why is it so important?

Let’s check the dictionary definition of a niche:

Alright so why is it so critical for us to master?

Let me introduce you to Ron Voake. I came across this guy when I was going through NY Times.

After reading up on him I googled his name and saw that he has been covered by NBC news as
well.

Now I was really curious so I put in the URL of his website and what I saw next was pretty
shocking:

That’s his homepage!!!

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His freaking homepage!

Now I don’t know about you but that, for me, is a horrendous homepage.

“But Sai, that is a homepage…I am sure his product catalogue must be pretty good right?”

Ahem…

Yup it’s pretty bad.

But then WHY is it that this man is covered so extensively by mainstream media?

The answer is simple: Niche.

We will come back to Ron Voake’s story a little later.

For now, let’s test your general knowledge.

Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic?

Charles Lindbergh.

So let’s make it a little tougher.

Who was the second person to fly across the Atlantic?

Go on…I will wait….

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Bert Hinkler.

Not that easy now was it?

There is a chance that you might have googled that as well (and that’s ok, I needed to google it
as well… ermm I had to google Charles Lindbergh too!).

Hmmm, now let’s make it even tougher…

Who was the drumrolls THIRD person to fly across the Atlantic?

Hint: You will know this, in fact, there is a chance that you will know this person even if you didn’
t know who Charles Lindbergh was.

The answer?

Amelia Earhart.

But we don’t know her as the “3rd person to fly across the Atlantic” now do we?

Nope, we know her as the “1st Woman to fly across the Atlantic”.

See what happened here?

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She created an entirely new category for herself… so that way she could be the first one in her
category and create a unique niche for herself.

Alright, so let’s use the same idea and see how businesses have prospered by creating a unique
niche and category for themselves.

Throughout the 70’s and 80’s IBM owned the computer industry, no one could even come
close.

There were loads of pretenders to the throne but no one had the bottle to compete with IBM.

The reason is pretty simple isn’t it?

Nobody could dominate a niche that was already dominated by a giant.

But then why is it that Dell, a company founded in 1984 somehow managed to keep growing
and be worth $54.9 Billion (as of 2016)?

It is pretty simple.

When they first launched, they created a new niche for themselves.

They were the first company to sell computers by phone.

The category or the niche doesn’t need to be complicated…it just needs to be a unique.

How did Dominoes generate revenues worth $2.2165 billion just on 2016 alone?

Because when they launched, they were the FIRST pizza company to do home delivery

See the trend here?

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But then we have a problem.

Just because you HAVE a unique niche doesn’t mean that it will generate profits.

Its nice to be unique…but should you be so unique that you will be left all alone?

It’s all about hitting the sweet spots.

It’s about finding unique niches which has the POTENTIAL of being extremely profitable.

So how do you do that?

Well it’s a simple 3 step process.

1. Decide your niche.

2. Clickbank test.
3. Google test.

In order to show you how these processes work…let’s do a dummy case study.

Suppose the niche that I chose is “Dating”.

Now let’s see whether it passes the Clickbank and Google test or not.

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Clickbank Test

So what is Clickbank?

It’s a retail site where people can buy products or sell their own products (both physical and
digital).

So if you log in to Clickbank.com you will see their homepage, which will look like this:

As highlighted in the pic above, you need to click on “AFFILIATE MARKETPLACE” tab.

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So once you are in the marketplace you will see something like this:

What you see here are ALL the products available in Clickbank under various categories.

So let’s take a guess under which category should “Dating” be? I am assuming “Self Help” pretty
much fits the bill right?

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And there you go…boom.

“Dating Guides” and “Marriage & Relationships” are the ones that fit the bill, right?

Once you click on them, you will need to sort them by “Gravity”.

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What this does is it will sort the products by the descending order of their gravity.

Higher the gravity the more people are making sales by the product.

You know you have a winner when the last product on the first page has a gravity of nearly 20.

So let’s checkout the last 2 products on the first page of Dating:

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So as you can see, the gravity is nearly 20, which means that we have a winner.

So we have passed the Clickbank test.

Now to the next phase.

Google Test

Firstly, you need to log in to adwords.google.com and search for “Keyword Planner”.

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So this is what the next page will look like:

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So here you need to take care of two things:

 Firstly, you need to put in the countries that you are targeting. Since most people target
English speaking first-world countries, I went for USA, UK and Australia.
 Under “Your product name” you will put in the keyword. A keyword is basically what your
target audience will put in google to search for things related to your niche.

So as you can see in the pic above I put in “Meet women online”.

Since, online dating is all the rage these days it only makes sense that people are going to
search for keywords like.

With our keywords what we are ideally looking for is an average monthly search count between
1k – 10k and “high” competition.

Why we are keeping the monthly search count between 1k -10k?

If more people search for your keyword then that simply means that its extremely general and
generic.

Remember, the idea is to niche it down and arrive at something which shows:

1. Not a huge amount of people are searching for it.

2. The people who are searching for it have “buyer’s intent” i.e. they are looking to buy it.

Now as to why the competition needs to be “high”, because it states that other people are also
competing in the same field.

Which means that the niche is profitable.

So we searched for “meet women online” let’s see whether it hits the sweet spot or not.

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BOOM.

1k-10k and “high” competition.

Which means that the niche is prime and ready to use.

So now we have passed both the clickbank test and the google test.

If your niche has passed both these tests and you are extremely passionate about it then you
are ready to rule the world.

If you have any doubt, then why don’t you ask our old friend Ron Voake?

Remember our friendly toy maker with a really crappy website who was getting interviewed by
NY Times?

Why was he so successful even though all signs point towards the other direction?

Its simple, he defined a very unique niche for himself.

All of his toys are handcrafted and made from wood, he truly cares about his toys and that
shows.

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When parents buy toys from him for their kids, they are looking for that exact care and careful
attention to detail.

Plus, with the recent crackdown on Chinese toys because of lead poisoning made his products
even more valuable and safe.

He has been selling so many toys that he didn’t even have to design a beautiful website, he just
sold all his products regardless.

THAT is the power of a powerful niche.

Here are some great resources that you can use to learn about the importance of niche
research:

http://lornali.com/how-to-research-profitable-niche-market/

http://nichehacks.com/ultimate-guide-finding-niche-market/

http://www.copyblogger.com/niche-keyword-research/

http://www.jonasblog.com/how-i-do-niche-research

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 SUMMARY TIME
 Before you start your coaching business you need to find your niche.
 A niche should be unique but at the same time profitable.
 Without a proper niche you will just be lost in the crowd.
 Your niche should pass both the Clickbank test and the Google test.

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 Chapter 2: Why and how to package your programs

Some time back we worked with this woman called Jan Cross.

Jan runs a company called The Extraordinary Mind Project.. and it really is
extraordinary.
They basically train you to find the artist hidden inside you…it truly is pretty
incredible.

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But the thing was that for the first one year she couldn’t find any paying clients at
all. I mean sure there was the odd speaking gig wherein she got the customary pat
on the back but no results whatsoever.

She literally had to starve for a year because she was not able to make any money
through her coaching at all, and whatever money she had saved up she invested it
into her coaching.
So with whatever money she had left she decided to enroll herself in my program.
That was the last bit of money and she entrusted it to me.
You have no idea how flattering that was plus, I liked her guts and courage and we
got to work straight away.
We focused on two things:

1. How to create a client funnel (which I will tell you later).

2. How to package her programs properly.
Now, what is the philosophy behind program packaging before I continue with
Jan’s story it is imperative that you know that.
How do people value things?

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Think about this.
Say tomorrow your friend Earl has to wear a suit how much would people think that
suit is worth?
$500?
Maybe even $700?
Now, what if, tomorrow Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise came out for an interview with say
Oprah Winfrey wearing that exact same suit?
How much would people think that suit is worth?
Definitely way more than $700 right?
This is important if you want to learn how to start a successful coaching business
So what is it about our perception of value?
Why can one person charge $5 for one thing and the other person charge $500 for
the exact same thing?
Here is why:
As a general rule, people are NOTORIOUSLY bad at gauging the value of things.
I saw the best example of this in BBC’s Sherlock.
So, in one of the cases Sherlock Holmes was searching for a Jade Pin that was
supposed to be a valuable Chinese Artifact.
He deduced that the thief must have gifted it to his girlfriend who was his
secretary, and she was unaware of the true value of the pin.
Anyway, long story short, Sherlock asks her, do you know how much that pin costs?
The girl says that he never cared for her anyway, must be 5 -6 pounds.
Sherlock then looks at her and replies, “2 billion pounds”.
The expression on her face was priceless!
So what does that tell you?
People will try to gauge the price of something compared to what they are
familiar with.
Oh it’s a jade pin? My friend Nancy has something similar in plastic which costs $3,
so this must be somewhat similar.

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That’s their thought process.
And it is because of this thought process that your coaching will fail if you charge
by the hour.
You don’t believe me well then think about this for a moment.
Let me give you an example from my Saifai Dating.
When we just began we were charging $50 an hour.
We used to say, give us $50 an hour and we are going to help you approach a
woman.
$50 is nothing right?
Guys flocked towards us by the hundreds right?
Right?
Well..no.
It was a disaster and let me tell you why.
Like I already said, humans suck at gauging the true value of things.
When you tell them that for $50 an hour you can teach them how to approach a
woman they will automatically think of the other things that they can do for that
$50.
Remember, people compare the value of things to other things that they
understand.
Oh $50? Hey, I could finally buy the Final Fantasy PS4 game that I always wanted.
You know for $50 I can eat an awesome meal.
Hey for $50 I can go down the pub and have a great time… they are having happy
hours right now.
They are willing to let go of something that could potentially change their lives just
so they can order that extra special pizza they always wanted.
Human beings are funny.
This is why, the only way that you can make them truly understand the true value
of your coaching is by showing them the true value of coaching.
And one of the best ways to do that is by charging as per results and NOT per hour.
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Let me give you an example of Saifai Dating again.
When we started out, we had a great team, we had a lot of investors and a sweet
office as well.
Just one problem.
No clients, and no that’s not an exaggeration, ZILCH clients

That’s when I spoke to my mom (the savior…again,,,I think will just call her Moses
from now on…or maybe … MOMSES…. Please don’t judge me :( ) and she told me to
make this shift.
So that’s when we changed our strategy.
From then on we said “Attract Any Woman, Any Time, Any Where.”

Now, doesn’t that sound sexier and grand?

If tomorrow you go and ask a guy:” Will you be willing to pay someone $1000 if he
showed you how to get any girl, any time and any where”, don’t you think he will
more than willing to leave everything and go head first into it?
That’s the difference, when you show them the true value of your coaching.
Now don’t get me wrong, you can’t just make up any claim.

We had been doing this for quite some time, and whoever we managed to work
with improved insanely.
So our claims were based on reality.

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Moving on, how do you channel this philosophy into selling your programs
efficiently and in a way that it will not only make your program look desirable BUT
also make sure that you are positioned as the leading coach in your niche as well.
That’s where the packages come in.
So there are 3 kinds of packages that we go for:

1. Standard
2. Mid-Range.
3. Premium

What are you supposed to include in all those packages?

Suppose you are a computer salesman. In the standard package you will sell the
monitor. In the mid-range you will sell monitor and keyboard and in the premium
you will sell the whole thing.

Basically, in the standard you will sell one thing…in the mid-range the standard plus
one more thing and in the premium you go all out and sell everything that you
have to give.
The pricing of the packages will be somewhat similar as well.
Standard will be priced around $97-$150.
Mid-Range will be from $200- $600
Premium will be from $900 – $1200.
(Those are not absolutes; I am just giving you an example here).
So let’s go back to Jan for a moment.
How did we change her coaching career around?
We asked her a simple question… do you want to teach individually or do you want
to do group sessions?
She said that she wanted group sessions.
So, this is how we positioned her program:

$550/hour for 8 weeks (1 session per week) and you will discover the extraordinary
artist inside you.

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See that image, that’s a screenshot of one of her packages.
You see how she is talking about results?
What is the end result of her program?
To turn ordinary people into great artists by making them discover their inner
creativity.
Hence: “Draw your way to creativity”.
By the end of the month she ended up with 12 clients.
12 clients who ended up opting for the $550/hour group session package.
Let’s do the math here.
That means, she made $6600 in 8 weeks….. but that’s not a fair estimate.
You need to remember that she was only investing 1 hour of our time every week.
So let’s break it down even further… that is $825 per hour.
Jan didn’t need to starve after that day :)
You can hear from her here.

Here are some great resources that you can use to learn about program packaging:

 Are You Making This Mistake With Your Coaching Packages? | Rule Breaker’s
Club
 How To Create & Package Your Coaching Services | Erickson International
 How To Price Your Coaching Programs | Nudge Coach

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 Chapter 3: Creating your client funnel

What is a funnel?
Well to answer that question what you need to understand is, when you decide to
become a coach, people don’t automatically rush towards you and buy your
program
In order to make that happen you need to create something called a “Funnel”.
A funnel, to put it crudely, is a system wherein you turn complete strangers into
your clients.
Now before I explain it any further, let me tell you about some of our extremely
embarrassing attempts at making a funnel.
So back in the day, when Saifai dating was in its infancy…we had rather…ahem…
creative ways of getting (not getting) clients.

Like I already said, we had the, say it with me now, ULTRA MEGA DATING ADVICE
SEMINAR EXTRAVAGANZA.
That was attended by 5 people….2 of whom happened to be my friends.

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After that, when things weren’t working out, one of head coaches Boris decided to
take matters into his own hands.
Okay so imagine this.
You are hanging out with your friends and this burly, giant of a man comes over to
you.
Taps your shoulder.
And says, “Do you want help with your dating life?”
Oh and guess how many students that got us?
DRUMROLLS
0.
Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing.
So, one day I was talking to my mentor.
And I asked him, how does a funnel work?
What is the secret of a successful funnel?
He asked me “Do you have an iPhone?”
I said, “Yeah”.
He replied, “Think of how and why you bought that iPhone… think of what Apple
did with you and you will know exactly how a funnel works.”
I started researching and then it dawned on me.
This is how Apple became the modern giant that it is today… They have created the
finest and the most flawless marketing funnel in history.

And no that’s not an exaggeration.

The funny thing is that it is so deceptively simple.

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Ok so, let’s take a look at their funnels.
It all started with iTunes.
iTunes was free and it was compatible with both windows and mac.
When they released it, everyone made fun of them.
Why were they releasing a software that could be accessible on their competitor’s
platform?
Well, there was a method behind the madness.
As more and more people started using iTunes, they realized how much better and
easy to use it was as compared to say, the Windows Media Player.
As more and more people got into it Apple went into the next stage of their funnel.
They released an MP3 player which was superbly compatible with the iTunes: The
iPod.

With a brilliant tagline “A thousand songs in your pocket”, the iPod was a raging
success.
But Apple didn’t stop there.
Apple’s objectives were twofold:
1. Replace Window’s as the industry leader in laptops.
2. Create a cult following.
As the iPhones became a raging success, they released the iPhone.
iPhones became the next big thing that you just HAD to have, a combination of
brilliant branding and a robust funnel.
Eventually, when you have bought the iPod, the iPad, the iPhone you just had to
buy the Macbook Pros.
And guess what happened?
You got ensnared in the Apple web.
All those billions of dollars, but more importantly, the fanatic cult-like following that
Apple has built up over the years, that’s the result of their brilliant funnel.

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So, just to summarize, the Apple funnel looks like this:

 Create iTunes and make them platform-free and available for free download.
 Make people buy the iPod.
 Make them buy the iPhone.
 Make them buy the Macbooks.
 Turn people into Apple fanatics
So how can you adapt that model for your coaching business?
Ok think about this… in order to create a funnel, the thing that you need first and
foremost is a traffic source for you to tap into.
Are you using a Facebook? Do you plan to bring them in through Joint Ventures?
Maybe a meetup seminar ?
Firstly, you have to decide a traffic source.
After that you have to give them a free offer, basically what Apple did with iTunes.
You have to take them to a page where you give them genuine value and some
free content. It could be an eBook, a free video course anything.
Remember this has to be valuable content, because this is where you are going to
show how valuable you can truly be.
Think about this, if iTunes sucked Apple wouldn’t be the giant it is today.
After they have downloaded your content you get them give their emails.
And now comes the fun part.
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This is when you start to nurture them and turn them into hungry hounds who are
desperate to chomp at anything that you throw towards them.
The nurturing sequence that we use is a 5 email series.
The purpose of it is to make them sign for a one-on-one session with you.
So you have to make sure that your nurturing sequence is alluring and tasty
something they will be willing to sink their teeth in. Basically, when they have gone
through the sequence they MUST know that you have a lot of value to give and
they are going to benefit immensely from that.
(NOTE: If you are interested in checking out the 5 email nurturing sequence that I
use with my target clients then just drop in your email in the comment section and
I will send over the templates to you.)
After they have gone through your nurturing sequence you make them fill up a
qualification survey.
Here you ask them a variety of questions and basically qualify THEM for your
coaching. Not everyone who has come through your funnels so far may necessarily
be ideally suited for your coaching.
This is basically a screening process. Trust me, you don’t want to be wasting time
(theirs and yours) if they don’t happen to be a good fit for your coaching program.
And finally, the one-on-one session.
You get them on a call and weave your magic.
So, let’s list out the steps now shall we?

 You tap into a traffic source.

 You take them to a fee offer page wherein you give away free yet valuable
content.
 You make them go through a 5 step nurturing sequence wherein you give
them 5 valuable emails to make you and your program look immensely
valuable and desirable.
 You make them give a qualification survey to find out whether they are a
perfect fit for your program or not.
 You have a one-on-one session with them.
Take a look at that list again.
Now tell me… where in that funnel have you hooked your audience in?
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After passing which step are they well truly under your finger?
Think about it…
It is the nurturing sequence.

If they have passed that and gone to the qualification survey then they are in your
control…it is easily the most important part of your funnel.
Christopher Howard is a world renowned NLP coach, if fact he is easily number 1 or
number 2 in his niche.
However, he was facing a lot of issues with his webinar funnel.
Long story short, he was simply not getting many clients through his funnel
nowhere near what he truly deserved. So we had a look at his funnel and decided to
rework it a bit.
The results?
Well why don’t you hear from the man himself.
Here are some great resources that you can use to know more about
implementing various funnels:

 5 Steps to Building Your First Online Sales Funnel

 How Do You Build a Funnel? Start at the End
 17 Best Sales Funnel Examples to Help Your Website Convert More
Customers
 3 Steps to Build a Social Media Marketing Sales Funnel

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 SUMMARY TIME
 To get clients on autopilot you need to set up bulletproof funnels.
 Apple has created one of the best funnels of all time.
 Apple funnels: iTunes -> iPod -> iPhone -> MacBook -> Apple Fanatics.
 Coaches can model the Apple funnels to create something of their own.
 Coach funnels: Traffic Source -> Offer Page -> Nurturing Sequence ->
Qualification Survey-> One-on-One sessions.

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 Chapter 4: Social Media as a tool

It won’t be stretch to say that we live in the era of social media.

People are closer now than they ever were before… even the most introvert people
have some sort of presence online.
And guess what…this is an absolute boon for us coaches.
Never has connecting with strangers been easier, never has it been easier to share
with people your vision and what you can do for them.

In this day and age, if you are not leveraging social media to suit your needs then
you are missing out on one of the most effective marketing tools out there.
But therein lies a problem.
Social Media overwhelm
Go on google and type “social media platforms”.

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Talk about being attacked by a barrage of social media!
It is so simple to be completely overwhelmed and by the sheer number of options
out there.
You have reddit, google +, telegram, myspace (remember this?) etc.
But as with anything in the coaching business, it’s not about what you do, it’s more
about how you do it.
Disclaimer
Before I continue I think that a certain distinction should be made clear.
A lot of people have a misconception that the moment they enter social media they
are going to make an absolute killing.
That’s the wrong idea to have.
Remember:
Social media is a marketing tool NOT a sales tool.
By using Social media you will:

 Show your prospective clients your vision

 Share your thoughts with them
 Introduce people to you and your world.
 Drive traffic to your website.
 Advertise your upcoming webinars, workshops etc.
It’s an extremely organic process which will endear you to the masses IF you utilize
it properly.
So it is important to remember to keep this in mind before we move forward.
Implementing the 80-20 principle
In my journey one of the most important things that I have learnt from my mentors
is the importance of the Pareto principle aka The 80-20 principle.
The principle in essence states that you can achieve 80% of your tasks by just using
20% of the resources.
Basically smart work > hard work.
So how do you use this principle with social media.
Its pretty simple.

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Instead of having accounts in 20 different platforms and overwhelming yourself
from the sheer amount of social media management that you will have to go
through…
Its much MUCH better to allocate your resources to a select few platforms.

In my research thus far I have come across 4 platforms which you can utilize to
narrow down on your selected audience:
1. Facebook.
2. Twitter.
3. Instagram.
4. Snapchat.
Facebook
Surprise surprise! Of course Facebook had to be on top of the list.
Why is Facebook such a heavy hitter?
Well, let’s check some stats:
1. More than 1.79 billion users use Facebook and that number keeps
increasing by 16% year after year.
2. 1.18 billion people are active Facebook users, and that number keeps
increasing by 17% year after year.
3. Maximum users are between 25-34 years of age making up 29.7% of the
demographic.
4. 59% of people who “Like” a Page do so because they have used/purchased
the product.
5. 45% of “Likes” are from people who want to inside information on special
deals and offers.
6. Facebook users are 55% female and 45% male.
So as is pretty evident from the stats… Facebook is wayyy too big for you to ignore,
there are simply loads of people that you will miss out on if you don’t have a
presence there.
What does Facebook content usually look like?
In my experience there are two kinds of content which work the best:
1. High value content post.
2. Live videos.
High value content post
When it comes to posting on Facebook its all about high value posts.
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What does a high value post look like?

Now what is the first feeling that you will get the moment you see this post?
Credibility.
Now if someone doesn’t know Tony Robbins and sees this post…what are they
going to think?
“Wow this guy has Gerard Butler in his video? He must be big!”
So let’s dissect the post and see why this post is so good:

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Content
Your content has to be engaging.
It needs to be informative, have a sense of awe and inspire people.
Look at the the post above:
a) It instantly proves its value by showing off a famous Hollywood actor.
b) It hits an emotional core.
c) It provides as much information as possible without meandering too much.
As with anything, content is king.
Link

As I have already said above, social media is a highly effective way of driving traffic
to your site.
So whenever you post, be sure to include links in your post as well.
Video/Image
Always use a high value image or video in your posts.
The moment you do that, you are gonna instantly stand out from the rest of the
noise on Facebook.
Next time you post something on Facebook, remember these 3 simple rules.
When to post on Facebook
Now, keep in mind something when I share this information with you.
Here I am only talking about American audiences.

The reason why I do that is because most if not ALL of my clients have USA as their
target of interest.
So, to answer the million-dollar question:
When do you post on Facebook?
There are 3 different time zones that you can use to make sure that your post
reaches the maximum amount of people:

a) Before 9 am: People usually tend to log in to Facebook on their way to work.
Your posts can really reach out to these people, especially if your
demographic is between 25-30 years old.

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 b) Between 12 – 3 pm: This is done to target people during their lunch break.
People usually tend to check out social media during their break from work.

c) After 6 pm: You see the pattern here? People have left their work now and
they are free to access Facebook. This is a pretty good time to hit them with
your posts.
So these 3 time zones are when you can hit the ideal “sweet spot”.
Live Facebook videos
Now this is one of the most important tools that Facebook has up its sleeve.
Let me explain the concept of live videos to you.
Imagine this… anytime you have a thought or a moment of inspiration that you
want to share with your audience, you can instantly “go live” on Facebook and
connect with them.
And the best part?
Facebook will SEND them a notification letting them KNOW that you are live.
How cool is that?
I recently did a live video which reached more than 70,000 people:

37
There are certain things that you need to take care of before you go live:
a) Make sure that you have a sizeable fanbase to reach out to as many people as
possible. I did my live video through my Facebook page “Motivational Quotes

As you can see, we have more than 2.9 million fans so it goes without saying that I
would gain a sizeable audience on my live video.

b) Make sure that you have something valuable to share with your audience. Trust
me. Nothing feels worse than people just seeing that you are live and ignoring you.
So yes, this is not something that you can implement instantly, you need to have a
strong base for this.
But once you do, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.
Anyway, keep these points in mind and you will conquer social media.
Sources on Facebook education:
https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

https://www.postplanner.com/facebook-post-ideas-for-businesses-that-guarantee-
engagement/
Twitter
Ah twitter.
Twitter can be a weird weird place.
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Twitter has fast taken over as THE primary source of news for a lot of people.
In fact, there was a US Airways plane crash way back in 2009 that was reported first
in twitter before any of the major news networks.
All of the heavy hitters and world leaders have an account in twitter which they
maintain judiciously.
And when I say all the heavy hitters:

39
I mean all the heavy hitters:

Oh come on…you don’t think that the man who gave us the following lines of
poetry is not a heavy hitter?
“Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Then I flow that a harpoon daily and nightly Will it ever stop?
Yo, I don't know Turn off the lights and I'll glow”
Shame on you!!
Anyway so let’s check up some statistics:
1. Twitter has 310 Million monthly active users.
2. There are a total of 1.3 billion accounts that have been created.
3. 37% of adults between 18-29 and 25% of adults between 30-49 use twitter.
4. 24% of adult men and 21% of adult women use twitter.
5. 66% have have discovered a new small or medium business (SMB) via
twitter. 79% have retweeted an SMB and 94% plan to make a purchase from
an SMB.
Ok now that we are done with the stats…why should you start tweeting?

a) Twitter encourages short impactful content. If brevity is your thing, then

twitter is perfect for you.
b) Exposure: The amount of people that you can reach via your twitter account
is way more when compared to any other social media platforms.

40
 c) Frequency of posts: If you are the kind of person who likes to post frequently
(more than twice a day), then twitter is perfect for you.
d) Hashtags. (This is very important and needs a paragraph of its own).
e) If your audience is in between 18-29 then twitter is the best way to reach
them.
f) Your tweets will drive traffic to your website and show off your brand.
g) Retweets. I will explain this a bit later.
Hashtags
Let me state it right off the bat:
If you cannot master hashtags then you cannot master twitter marketing.
But here is the fun part, they are super simple to master.
So what are hashtags?

See those “#FlatWhite and #CoffeeCraft

Those are examples of hashtags.
So what are hashtags?
Hashtags are simply phrases following a “#” that is used in twitter and Instagram.
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How do they help you?
They help you find specific topics of discussion on twitter.
So eg. If you want to find any tweets or news related to life coaches then all that you
have to do is log in twitter and search for “#lifecoaches”:

See that?
Pretty convenient isn’t it?
So how can you use Hashtags for your marketing?
1. They will help you find people who fit the criteria of your preferred audience.
2. They will help you reach as many people as possible through your tweets.
So how you find people?
As I have already stated above if you are looking for a specific topic then all that you
have to do is to search that particular topic.
And people who you’re targeting will also be interested in the same topics right?
So there you go, find the topics that the people that you are targeting will be
looking for and you will find them.

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And now for the second part.
How do you reach as many people as possible by using Hashtags?
Check this out:

Yes, that’s another tweet by Starbucks, they absolutely crush it on twitter.

See that hashtag?
“#GreenTeaLatte”.
Obviously they are targeting health conscious people.
Now whenever someone in their target audience is searching for a “green tea latte”
they are going to find Starbucks’ tweet, who will in turn gain a new customer.
So what are the Hashtag Rules?
1. Keep it simple. A hashtag should be as concise as possible without being too
wordy. Think of words or phrases that you will use in everyday conversations.

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 2. You can use more than 1 hashtags, you don’t need to keep yourself limited
to just one hashtag, in fact use as many hashtags as you need to reach out to
your audience. (But do not overpopulate it). Basically you can #use
#hashtags. #But #using #too #much #of #it #will #just #look #ridiculous
#sigh.

3. Not all your tweets need to be hashtagged. If you do that then you will look
more like a robot and less like a human.

4. You don’t need to create your own hashtags most of the time, sometimes
you can simply piggy back off popular and trending hashtags.
Retweets
Ahh… retweets.
Along with hashtags, retweets are the ones that give twitter that “oomph” factor.
Retweets are basically reposted and forwarded tweets.
Why are they important?
They are the ones that, along with the hashtags, increase the reach of your tweets.

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You must have seen this photo, this image is the most retweeted tweet of time:

Look at that number.

Over 3.2 million people have retweeted that tweet!!
3.2 million!!
The best thing about retweeting is that it has a cascading effect.
Let me give you an example.
Suppose you tweeted something valuable out.
And person A retweets you and he has 100 followers.
So now your tweet is visible to your followers and person A’s 100 followers.
Now suppose person B who is a follower of person A decides to retweet your tweet
and he has 1000 followers.
Now your tweet which was initially visible only to your followers is now visible to
person A’s100 followers and person B’s 1000 followers.
See how the cascading effect works?

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So, how do you get more retweets?
NOTE: The graphs that I am going to use now are taken from Dan Zarrella’s
“Science of Retweets”. I am going to link it out below. Its highly valuable.
The Retweet Mojo
1. Keep your characters within 110 characters. Twitter has a 140 characters limit,
so when someone retweets you they are probably going to add some of their
own words as well. Best to give them a 40 character limit.

Also keep in mind that there are certain words that you can use which will
greatly increase the number of your retweets while there are some which will
greatly decrease them.

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 While here are some words that are going to decrease your retweetability:

2. Send out links in your tweets.

Also what needs to be noted is the use of certain URL shorteners.

Eg. Bit.ly is the best url shortener that you can use, while tinyurl is the worst.

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 Here is a graph of the comparative study:

3. Add an image to your tweet:

You want further evidence? Just checkout that Oscars tweet again. Its all
about that image. That Image and that moment got that tweet 3 million +
retweets.

4. Using correct grammar:

This is a strange one. Obviously tweets with spelling and grammatical
mistakes wont get retweeted much but certain punctuation marks have
higher retweetability than the others.

For some reason the Colon and the period has a higher preference over the
semicolons which apparently is a no-no.

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 5. Tweeting at the correct time of the day.

According to the stats the best time of the day to get retweets (if majority of
your target audience is in the US is between 2pm EST to 6 pm EST.

Consequently Monday and Friday have noticeable spikes as the possible days
for your retweets.

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 6. Simply ask for them

Sometimes the best solutions in life are the simplest ones.

7. But there is a way of asking for retweets:

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 So basically this:

8. Use hashtags

Dan Zarella to the rescue once again!

All the graphs in the above section are taken from Dan Zarrella’s “The Science
of Retweets”
http://danzarrella.com/science-of-retweets.pdf

So keep these in mind the next time you send out a tweet.
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Twitter education resources:
https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/44-twitter-stats-2016/
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/twitter-statistics/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-tactics-to-increase-engagement/
Instagram
Instagram is all about the visual element and over the last couple of years no other
platform has grown as much.
If you are a health/fitness or a lifestyle coach, then this is perfect for you.
So let’s check up the stats: (Taken from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/37-
instagram-stats-2016/)
1. Of the top 100 brands, 90% have an Instagram account.
2. Outside of China almost 50% of Instagram users conduct product research
on social media.
3. Over a third of Instagram users have used their mobile to purchase a
product online– making them 70% more likely to do so than non-users
4. Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook,
54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.
Ok so now that we have the stats, let’s look at how we can maximize the benefits of
Instagram.
One thing to keep in mind though, you cannot expect a lot of sales from
Instagram…BUT what you can expect is:
1. Nurture your potential clients by showing them glimpses of your life.
2. Drive traffic to your website.
Anyway let’s get started.
Identity
Having a unique identity is paramount no matter what you do, but it is doubly true
for Instagram.
The reason for that is simple.
Instagram is completely visual based, even before they read your captions they are
going to be checking out your photos.
Your photo needs to capture the essence of who you are and what you can give to
the world.
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And funnily, it begins right at your profile description:
Checkout the profile of Health Coach Arielle Haspel:

The moment you read that bio you know exactly who she is.
Plus, she shows her human side as well by stating that she is a “Mom-to-be”.
Another brilliant example of a bio is that of President Obama’s.

Even though this is his twitter account the principles still hold true.
You can tell everything about the man just by reading the bio.

And look at how he puts “Dad, husband” before “President”. It instantly humanizes
him.
Along with a bio one more thing that is required is a link to your website in your
bio profile itself.
Let’s checkout Arielle Haspel’s bio again now shall we?

Oh would you look at that? A link to her blog.

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Of course you can also put the link in your posts as well but if you do it too much
you will come off looking very spammy.
Best to have it in every 4th or 5th post instead of having it everywhere.
Types of images to use
While Instagram definitely has the option of putting up videos as well, it is highly
recommended that you stick to images.

TrackMaven conducted a study where they found that post containing and image
has 96% chance of engagement when compared to posts containing just videos
which is just 4%.
When it comes to the images itself, the rule is simple:
a) Post images relevant to who you are and what you are.
b) Use high quality images.
Post images relevant to who you are and what you are
This is pretty much an extension of your identity.
Remember, your Instagram images are going to be an extension of your brand
itself.
So what can you post about?
If you are a health, wellness or a lifestyle coach then Instagram hands you the key to
your dreams on a silver platter.
Here are some of the things that you can post about:

 Healthy food (Food photography is HUGE on Instagram)

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  You in the middle of workout.
 Amazing destinations that you have traveled to.
 Interacting with your clients
 Your coaching programs.
 Pictures from your seminars.
 Pictures with high value people.
 Pictures in super posh places.
 Motivational quotes.

 Anything that shows off your humanity in a subtle way.

 Your library/ any books that you may be reading.
One of the best users of Instagram, even though he is not a coach, is the pro
wrestler turned actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

1.4 million likes.

WOW.

Now you can say that since he is so famous he is bound to have a lot of followers on
Instagram.
And that is true…
BUT
55
1.4 million + likes is still pretty darn impressive.
So let’s dissect this post and see what all we can learn from it:
a) The photo: The Rock is one of the most well known action stars in the world.
Of course his big bulging biceps are going to be super popular. Along with
that the setting itself, i.e. the gym, is perfect for the pic and adds to the awe.
b) The content of the caption: He instantly distances himself by talking about
being a star in an action film and shooting scenes for one of the most well
known film franchises ever, while at the same time he humanizes himself by
saying how he wakes up at 4 am everyday to “dent the universe”. He shows
us that being a successful actor is all about putting in hard work.

c) Hashtags: As it was with twitter, hashtags are very useful when it comes to
Instagram. In fact, I will cover them later on.

d) Quality of the picture: Ah the second part that I was going to talk about…let’s
bring it on.

Quality of the images

Long story short: If you have an image which is grainy, blurry, distorted, not taken
from the right angles or relevant to who you are then delete it immediately.
Do not even think of putting blurry pics on Instagram.
Remember, Instagram pictures are a reflection of your brand.
Choose pics which are fun, invoke an emotion, and captures who you are.
Checkout this amazing post by health coach Andrea Beaman.

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Just looking at that image will tell you everything that you need to know about her.
You don’t even need to read her caption, that image just captures everything.
She is a fun and lively person who is into healthy cooking.
When it comes to the usage of Filters, TrackMaven did a study which found out that
“MayFair” is the most effective filter of all:

As they say, a picture speaks a 1000 words.

So see the link that she has posted in her caption?
That’s how you link out in Instagram posts. In fact, let’s cover this right now.
57
Linking out in Instagram posts
Remember, you cannot link out in all of your posts if you do that then you will look
spammy and desperate.
You can however link out on every 4th or 5th post.
In case you don’t want to give out a link then you can do what The Rock did in this
post:

See that?
“Checkout the link in my bio”.
AKA go back to my profile and checkout the link whilst admiring pictures of me
flexing my beautiful biceps.
Smart.
Don’t forget to show off your human side
There is a quote that my friend often uses:
“I hope your life is as awesome as your Instagram profile shows!”
It’s important to humanize yourself, it will be easier for your clients to relate to you
like that.
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A great example of this is this post by Sales/Lifestyle coach Grant Cardone.
Most of his posts are about flying around the world in private planes or showing off
his expensive suit and watch collection.
As you can imagine, it must be very hard to relate to him, which is why he also
posts pics like this:

Everyone loves a family man right?

Everyone has a family right? In one form or another.
This post humanizes him instantly while at the same time shows off his lavish
lifestyle (Checkout the background).
Killing two birds with one stone.
I am not saying that Grant did this by design, I am saying that it serves a purpose.
Hashtags
Ah, the H-word again.
Its quite similar to the twitter hashtags in a lot of ways.
Its imperative that you put them in your posts, otherwise how else are people going
to find you?
Also unlike twitter it is advisable to put 11 hashtags for maximum possible
interaction
According to Quicksprout posts with 10 hashtags have 22% interaction which is a
huge dip from the 49.5% interaction that posts with 9 hashtags have.

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But interestingly enough, posts with 11 hashtags have a noticeable spike of 79.5%!!
Here is the whole table:

As you can see, its extremely variable.

This also means that you need to do some homework when it comes to finalizing
your hashtags.
This may take some time.
The easiest way to go about it is to checkout your competitors and see what
hashtags they are using.
No need to fix it if it ain’t broken.
Once you have those hashtags and have added some of your own brand you can
simply copy paste them in a note in your phone.

After that everytime you post a new image, you simply copy paste those hashtags
and put them in your post.

NOTE: I am going to share some important and frequently used hashtags in the
bonus chapter.
It has also been noticed that posts which has the location tag along with multiple
hashtags get the most engagement.
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Best time to post on Instagram

So Monday and Thursday are the best days while 2 am, 8-9 am and 5 pm are the
best times.
Keep these points in mind and you are going to absolutely nail Instagram.
Resources used for this section:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-stats
http://www.integrativenutrition.com/blog/2016/07/how-health-coaches-can-use-
instagram-to-grow-their-brand
Snapchat
Ok I will be perfectly honest with you.
When I was first planning to write this article I had no intention to add Snapchat.
I was going to go for a more traditional option with LinkedIn.
There is no way that an app that emo teens and milenials use to express their hurt
feelings by using that godawful puppy filter is ever going to be an important
marketing tool right?
Right?
Well…just goes to show what I know.
But then while doing my research, I saw the stats, and numbers do not lie.
Snapchat is HUGE, too big to ignore.
Let’s look at the stats.
1. Snapchat has over a 100 million daily users.
2. 54% Snapchat users use the app daily.

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 3. Snapchatters view more than 10 BILLION VIDEOS a day.
4. Snapchat is the most used social media platform among 12-24 year olds.
5. 30% US millennials access Snapchat daily.
To be fair, I have to specially credit one person for turning me from a snap skeptic to
a believer.
And that man is Gary Vaynerchuk

His explanation as to why Snapchat can’t be ignored and why it has grown sooo
much is very interesting.
Why You Can’t Ignore Snapchat (According to Gary V)
The reason is pretty simple.
Parents have infiltrated Facebook, Instagram etc. and have made it uncool. Teens
have to be careful with what the post, lest they get caught by their parents doing
something they are not supposed to do.

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“Snapchat created a haven that parents didn’t know about,” as Gary V explained to
the Social Media Examiner. “Plus, the content itself just disappeared. The holy grail
for teenagers.”
It is relatively new
Since it is so new it still has fertile grounds.
As Gary V puts it, other brands haven’t “ruined” it yet.
It is growing frighteningly fast
2 statistics that prove the awesome growth that snapchat has gone through. (All
the graphs in this section are by Edison Infinte Dial)
Snapchat has more users than twitter and LinkedIn

And one more mindblowing stat.

Snapchat is the second most used social media platform in the United States. It was
5th in 2015!

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The self-destructing videos: Boon or Curse?
The biggest doubt that people have about the effectiveness of Snapchat as a
marketing tool is the short duration of the videos.
A single “snap” lasts only for 10 seconds..is available for one replay and then
disappears forever.

Gary V counters this by saying that that is precisely the reason why Snapchats are
valuable marketing tools.
If you had a video on twitter, Instagram, facebook you will know at the back of your
mind that you can go back and watch this video any time you want, it will always
be there.

But in snapchat since the video will be gone forever your audience will be forced to
watch your video with full attention for as long the time period may be.
If your target audience is millenials then you simply can’t avoid it
Among millenials Snapchat is the most used app.
So if they are your target audience then you simply cannot ignore them.
And for good measure since till 2020 this age group is expected to spend over $1.4
Trillion every year and are expected to earn over $30 Billion in inheritance.
Snapchat for Coaches
The best thing about Snapchat is the amount of creativity that it gives you content
wise.
You can string together 15 10-second pics/videos at one go and create a story of
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your own.
The story could be about you goofing around and teaching life lessons or it could
be a glimpse of you in a seminar.
Go crazy and go wild.

Oh and one more thing, keep your phone vertical when you take snaps, don’t
take it horizontally, it decreases engagement.
Here is what Shaun McBride, artist plus snapchat celeb does with his Snaps:

Remember, Snapchat is about having fun and giving life lessons in snippets.
It is not about selling, snapchat is all about nurturing.
Homework: If you are planning to use snapchat then I recommend that you do two
things:
a) Watch a YouTube guide video on how to use Snapchat properly and field test
it. It can be a little complicated for first timers.
b) Follow Gary V. Model and learn whatever he is doing on SnapChat.
Resources used for this section
https://blog.hootsuite.com/snapchat-statistics-for-business/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/snapchat-marketing-with-gary-vaynerchuk-
and-shaun-mcbride/
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http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/snapchat-statistics/
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/5-snapchat-statistics-
that-prove-its-power/
So there you go, everything that you need to know to make you master of 4
different social media platforms.

Before we proceed
One more thing before we go on to the next part though:

Social media presence is useless if you don’t care about interacting with your
followers.
No matter how big you get you simply cannot forget what you are actually
supposed to do.
Use a significant portion of your time to interact with everyone who is replying to
your posts/snaps/images/videos etc.
That is, after all, what you are supposed to do as a coach right?
Sources:
http://www.elizabethkbradley.com/social-media-tips-coaches

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/how-to-use-social-media-to-grow-your-
coaching-business

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 SUMMARY TIME
 Having a social media presence is important in this day and age.
 The 4 most prominent social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
and Snapchat.
 Each platform has its own unique feature and demography
 Its important to take some time out to interact with your followers on social

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 Chapter 5: Blogging

My mentor once told me “Are you not blogging yet? Are you stupid? Everyone
blogs.”
He was always an eloquent one.
So the question that I asked him is probably the first question that you will ask me
as well
Why should I blog?
Well there are 3 reasons:

1. To drive traffic.
2. To show your human side.
3. Share insightful thoughts with your audience.
To drive traffic
There are usually two ways that you can drive traffic to your website:

1. Paid Traffic.
2. Free Traffic
When Neil Patel listed out the factors that contributed to his increase in traffic, this
is what he came up with:

As you can see, free traffic is responsible for a bulk of his traffic.

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But look closely and you will notice that the two biggest sources of traffic are
blogging and SEO.
SEO = Search Engine Optimization aka how highly you rank on search engines
Now here is the thing.
Blogging and SEO can be two sides of the same coin.
Meaning, if you take care of one then you will take care of another.
Think of it like this.
SEO provides the skeletal framework while the blogs fill up the flesh and skin.
It is the perfect symbiotic relationship.

Search engines usually look for regularly updated fresh content, that is a problem
which can be easily solved by regularly updating your blog posts.
SEO needs you to target certain keywords. You can simply create blog posts around
those keywords in order to satisfy that need.
SEO cannot function without backlinks (both external and internal). Creating blog
posts and sharing them with other coaches will solve that problem as well.
So like I said, SEO and Blog Posts are the perfect partners.

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Basically like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, without the divorce, the rough
settlement, the drama, allegations of cheating, and the insults.
You know what, let me rephrase that, nothing like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
So if you are looking to rate highly in Google then you need to have a solid reservoir
of quality blog posts.

You still don’t believe in the power of SEO?

Here is what some of the biggest bloggers have said when discussing their main
source of traffic:

Case closed.
To Show Your Human Side
Writing blogs about what you do on a daily basis, something fun that happened to
you, telling stories etc. will create a deep connection with your audience.
This is where the true power of blogging shines through.
“But Sai I want to learn how to start a coaching business online…how will this help?
Well, blogging can be used two ways:

 To generate traffic.
 To strike an emotional chord with your audience.
Remember, the idea is to be as relatable as possible to your audience.
Share insightful thoughts

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You never know when you get stuck by a moment of inspiration, it can happen
anytime and anywhere.
This is exactly what happened to me when I was sailing off the coast of Komodo:

I was then hit by a moment of inspiration which in turn became a blog post:
http://sai.coach/morning-rituals/
And that’s the beauty of blogging, it allows you to share these moments of wisdom
without prefacing it with anything.
You feel like writing about something? Just write it.
So, now comes the next question.
What are some of the things that you can write on?
Writer’s block can be a very real thing; I have faced it myself quite a bit in the past.
In moments like these I feel that its much better to settle for certain processes and
patterns that have worked for everyone.

You don’t need to come up with new ideas and topics all the time to be creative.
You can simply follow some proven templates and create something new there
itself.
As I have already quoted before:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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So what are some of the ready made blog ideas that you can use?

1. Lists: Everyone likes lists. They have always been popular and they will always
be popular. Eg. 7 tools that you can use to create better webinars

2. Write a review on a book that you recently read.

3. Answer certain client questions by turning them into a blog post. This can
also aid in customer delight (See chapter 6).

4. Write an article on a popular celebrity and how that person should be/
shouldn’t be remodeled. I did an article on Floyd Mayweather once. Check it
out here.

5. Lessons that you have learnt from your coaching journey so far.

6. What inspired you to become a coach.

Just use these simple templates the next time you are stuck on something.

So before I end this chapter, let me make you aware of some common pitfalls that
coaches who blog usually go through:

1. DON’T quit: Writing may not come naturally to you, and that’s ok. But once
you have started blogging you must not stop. If you cannot maintain this
then simply hire someone to do your blog for you.
2. DON”T be afraid of giving away too much: Do not be miserly in your
distribution of knowledge. It doesn’t matter if you are giving way stuff in the
blog that you are going to cover later in your webinars/seminars. Be generous
with your knowledge.
3. DON’T forget that you are a coach first and a blogger second: Just because
you are giving away so much free valuable content though doesn’t mean that
you forget your purpose. Every now and then remind them of what you are
and what you offer. It is perfectly ok to have pop ups on your blog which
reminds them of your upcoming webinars and programs.

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Learning how to start a coaching business from scratch is very easy if you have the
basics straight.
Resources used for this chapter
https://problogger.com/how-to-blog-to-build-your-coaching-business/
http://metamonks.com/blogging-for-coaches-howto/
http://www.thelandofbrand.com/blogging-for-coaches/coaching-blog-post-
topics
https://coachfederation.org/blog/index.php/2627/

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 SUMMARY TIME

 BLOGGING will help generate traffic through SEO.

 SEO helps your site to rank higher in GOOGLE and generates traffic.
 BLOGGING also help to humanize you and share your wisdom with your
audience.
 If you are stuck then there are some proven templates that you can follow.
 Do not fall for 3 common pitfall that most coaches fail for while BLOGGING.

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 Chapter 6: Customer Delight

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.
Put away all your coaching business plans if you aren’t going to implement this
So I was in Gulmarg, India some time back
Oh and btw quick side-note, if you appreciate snow and are a big fan of winter
sports then few places will delight you as much as Gulmarg.

Anyway, back to the main train of thought.

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I was sitting in the common room of my hotel working on my laptop when I
overheard a very interesting conversation.
There were 6 French guys surrounding this one Indian guy showering him with
praise.

From what I gathered the Indian guy was their snowboarding instructor and those
French guys were telling him how much fun they had snowboarding.
Alright, nothing special for now.

But then one of those French guys stood up and gave the Indian guy a hug and
proudly proclaimed “This man saved my life!”
Now I was curious, so when the instructor was left alone I asked him what was all
that about.
Apparently, exactly a year back that one French guy had come to Gulmarg and
hired the Indian guy.
On his last day the French Guy partied so much that he didn’t have any money left
to pay his bills.

He was devastated and extremely scared about what was going to be happening to
him.
So that’s when the instructor said, “Don’t worry, I will pay your bill, just wire me the
money when you are home.”
And guess what happened?
A year later the French guy was back with 5 more of his friends and he insisted on
hiring him.
That is customer delight in a nutshell.
To define it properly: Customer delight means genuinely pleasing your customers
with the amount of service that you provide.

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Customer Delight is nothing new

Remember when you used to go to the barber shop when you were a kid and how
Uncle Tom used to ask you about school and family as he cut your hair?
What about when you went to the grocery store and the grocer gave you a warm
smile as he called you by your name, asked you and yourself and gave you some
free chills along with with the rest of your groceries?
Whatever happened to that?
Ever since small barber shops became huge salons and the tiny grocer shop was
run over by the super market, we have lost this human touch.
We were no longer little Timmy getting his hair cut by Uncle Tom.
We were now Customer A getting their hair cut by Barber X…oh sorry Hair-Stylist X.
And now that most of the business in the world are established online we are losing
this human touch even more.

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Customer Satisfaction vs Customer Delight

Before we continue… remember this formula:

Happiness = Reality – Expectations.
This is pretty simple right?
Remember when your mom bought a candy for you when you weren’t expecting it
in the first place?
Remember how happy you were?
The reason was simple…. Your expectation was 0 while your mom made the reality
>0.
As a result, you are happy.
Now, the converse is true as well.
Remember how sad and angry you were when you were expecting a candy and hot
nothing?
In this case, reality = 0 and expectations = >0.
If that is the case, then happiness goes to negative.
So how is this relevant to customer delight and customer satisfaction?
When it comes to customer satisfaction:
Reality = Expectations.
You give your clients exactly what they asked for.
As a result, Happiness = 0.

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But in customer delight Reality > Expectations.
Which means Happiness > 0..
See, its really that simple!

How do you implement customer delight

There are many ways that you can implement customer delight. I am going to
share with you some of the things that we do in our company to implement this
principle.
1. Surprising them with gifts: When a client joins your coaching program, the
last thing that they expect is a gift. Which is exactly why this is such a great
way to implement customer delight. Whenever a new client joins my
program, I ship them a physical copy of Robert Cialdini’s “Influence” to their
address. That book has changed the way I do business, and I hope that my
clients extract the same amount of value from it as well. The messages that I
get after they receive they book warms my heart every single time

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 2. Have someone is your team to constantly look after the client’s needs and
to check their progress in their program. We have a coach in our team who
constantly checks up on our clients. Not only does she help them out with the
coaching program but she pays constant attention to their personal lives as
well.When you do this you will constantly know what your clients are upto

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 and what they need to be happy. Eg. Recently we had a client whose wife
gave birth. So we were able to send him a card, a wide assortment of baby
products as a gift.Once again, the reward lies in their genuine shock and
happiness.

3. A delighted team leads to delighted clients. As Richard Branson once said..

don’t focus on keeping your customers happy, keep your employees happy.
Because they are going to take care of your customers.I am fortunate enough
to have a great team with me with whom I share a great camaraderie. And
this sort of bond is infectious, people want to be part of it. Let me give you an
example. Before going to Gulnarg I decided to give a seminar in New Delhi.I
was skeptical about this because I have never ever given a seminar there
before, but on the plus side I had half on my team with me.Throughout the
seminar I was joking with them and engaging in some back and forth
banter.At the end of the seminar, EVERYONE who attended the talk signed
up for the application. A 100% application rate! When I asked them they
simply said, they wanted to be a part of our family.Plus, when you have a
great and happy team they always go the extra mile to keep the clients
happy.

4. Making superstars out of your clients. As I said above, we have someone in

our team who keeps a constant track of what the clients are doing and what
they are up to when it comes to my program. So every time they finish a
particular module I come to know of it instantly and then I post about them
on my Facebook Group congratulating them for their success. It’s simple yet
it’s so effective, it always makes them feel like a million bucks.

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 5. Have an entire section of your team dedicated only to client complaints
and to solving them to the best of their ability. In my team we have a people
who work to make sure that the client’s experience is hassle and bug free. If
there are complaints then we make sure that it is rectified.

6. Speed of service. Remember the magic formula that I told you in the last
section? Happiness = Reality – Expectation. So if you TELL your client that you
are going to deliver a certain aspect of your program in 3 days (expectations)
and actually deliver them within 2 days (reality) then what is going to happen
according to the formula above? You are going to have a very happy client.

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 7. Clients Q&A: Every Monday I hold a Q&A session for all our clients. I don’t let
any of my head coaches do it, I do it myself. The reason for that is twofold.
Firstly, it solves any queries they have regarding the program or anything else
coaching related. Secondly: It gives them a chance to interact with me first
hand without the involvement of any middle men. It gives the whole
interaction a personal touch.

8. Be flexible: Its fine to have rigid policies in place but remember, you have to
put the client first. Not everything is black and white, each client has their
own set of personal obstacles and problems. It is important know how and
when you can adjust to suit their needs. Remember without clients we are
nothing.

9. Give them what they need (not always what they want): While you should
adjust as much as possible to make sure that your clients have a smooth
sailing you have to remember one thing. Your clients are not paying you to be
spineless YES-MEN, they are paying you to teach them. When you know that
the client is wrong about something you MUST hold your ground and make
them see why you are wrong. Remember, they are the newbies and you are
the one with expertise. As Henry Ford once said, if he had to give his
customers what they wanted he would have had to make faster horses. Your
clients will respect you for holding your ground and for making them see the
correct path.

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What happens when you implement customer delight?

From a purely financial standpoint there are very real advantages of

implementing customer delight:
1. It costs 5 times more to get a new client than it takes to retain one.

2. Extremely satisfied clients will have a repurchase rate that is 3-10 times
higher than somewhat satisfied clients. Meaning they will go back to you and
buy more of your programs, seminars, webinars, books etc.

3. Referrals! Referral leads convert way more than leads brought through
other “normal” means because of social proofing. If you remember the last
step of the sales funnel, the idea is to convert cold traffic into satisfied
customers who will bring in newer clients on their own. A customer delight
system will give a significant boost to that process.

4. You will be saving a lot of client relationships which might have gone sour if
your hadn’t monitored their happiness.

5. It gives that human touch. Remember, most of your clients are with you to
look for a solution to something that is greatly paining them. Wouldn’t it feel
so much better if they knew that someone they trust to help them achieve
their goals is personally doing so much to make them happy and satisfied.

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 6. It creates better testimonials. Customer delight creates “talking points”,
meaning that you are giving your clients something special that they can talk
about in social media and/or videos. Which in turn creates better
testimonials.
Customer Delight is one of the most amazing and poignant tools that you have in
your disposal.
Use it without any inhibitions.
Resources used in this article:

http://www.businesszone.co.uk/community-voice/blogs/andyhanselman/what-
exactly-is-customer-delight-here-are-6-ingredients
http://info.quintainmarketing.com/blog/what-is-customer-delight
http://blog.satmetrix.com/customer-satisfaction-vs-customer-delight
http://www.inc.com/matt-ehrlichman/the-8-principles-of-customer-delight.html

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 SUMMARY TIME
 Customer delight means for exceeding your clients’ expectations by your
service.
 A new client will cost you 6-7 times more than a recurring client.
 Happiness = Reality - Expectations.
 See where in all your business you can implement customer delight.
 An extremely satisfied client will bring in more clients via word of mouth.

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 Bonus Chapter: Hashtag ideas

So the bonus chapter is all about hashtags that you can use for twitter, Instagram
and Facebook.
These hashtags will definitely give you the edge over your competition.
First let’s look at the top 10 most popular hashtags on Instagram:

Ahh…we have a problem here don’t we?

7/10 of these hashtags are brands.

Hmm so we can’t simply piggyback off the popular hashtags because they are not
really valuable to coaches.
So let’s dig deeper.
There are two kinds of hashtags you need to use in your post:

1. General and popular hashtags to drive traffic to your posts.

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 2. Niched hashtags which will direct a specific form of traffic to your posts.
These are usually people who will be most interested in your program.

Here is a list of general hashtags which will work with most of your posts:
 #photooftheday.
 #selfie.
 #picoftheday
 #instacool
In case you are sharing quotes then these are some cool hashtags that you can use:

 #quoteoftheday
 #qotd
 #quotes
 #lifequotes
 #motivationalquotes
 #inspirationalquotes
What about hashtags specific for some days?
 #tbt
 #throwbackthursday
 #motivationalmonday
 #transformationaltuesday
 #followfriday
 #sundayfunday
Now that we are done with the general hashtags let’s go and checkout the more
specific ones.
So if you are a coach with a spiritual niche then here are some that you can use:
 #innerpeace
 #spiritual
 #faith
 #calm
 #meditation
Now what if you are a health coach?

 #fitnessaddict

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 #workouttime
 #gymlife
 #fitfood
 #foodporn
 #healthyliving
 ##freshfoods

Alright now how about some travel hashtags for our lifestyle coaches
 #travelgram
 #thegoodlife
 #cruise
 #vacaymode
 #travelfriendly
 #wheretonext
Awesome now what about some hashtags specific for life coaches?

 #seizetheday
 #lifecoach
 #makeithappen
 #doer
 #empower
So what if you have a super specific niche?
What if you are a coach who awakens the musician inside people?
If that’s the case then have fun with it.
First thing that you can do is to checkout your direct competitors and see what
hashtags they are using.
And if you don’t have any direct competitors or you don’t find their hashtags
relevant enough then simply create your own!
Have fun with it.
So let’s take the example of the coach who awakens the musician inside people..
#themusicianinyou
#makeyourmusic.
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Those could be examples of hashtags that can work well with your posts.
Oh and in case you forgot, your brand name can be a hashtag as well, because if
you remember, among the top 10 most popular hashtags 7 are brand names.
So there you go, if you want more education regarding this then checkout the
following resources:
https://www.postplanner.com/best-instagram-hashtags-for-businesses-by-niche-
market-industry-sector/

Are You Ready To Turn Your Coaching Into An Inspirational Business?

Before I even begin to say anything, take a breather.

I know this has been a very intense read and you may have to take a breather or two. So sit
back and relax, but only for a bit.

Because what I am about to do for you now is going to be a complete game changer for your
business.

So, you have read everything that I have told you so far about building a coaching business
from the ground up.

I had to learn each and every single aspect, I had to force myself to be receptive enough to
understand, THOROUGHLY understand each and every aspect of whatever I just taught you so
far.

Here is the scary part, it took me close to 1.5 years to get everything right, and I don’t consider
myself to be a blunt nail.

During those 1.5 years I was talking to a mentor and I told him out of sheer frustration: “Why do
I have to learn all these things from the scratch? Can’t someone make a template of this?”

I said that to him, and then when I was listening to the recordings, it hit me. If no one is making
the templates…why don’t I make the templates?

It was a moment of inspiration and that inspiration fired me on to making my webinar:

HOW TO TURN YOUR COACHING INTO AN INSPIRATIONAL BUSINESS.

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What is the idea behind the webinar and what you are going to learn from it?

Well if this was any other webinar then this probably the place where I am supposed to sing
praises and tell you each and every little thing that my webinar can supposedly do for you and
your business.

But, I am not going to do that, you have stuck with me so far and heard everything I had to say,
and I respect you too much and take you on a merry-go-round.

So let’s keep this straightforward and simple.

In my webinar you will:

a) Get your hands on the templates which will greatly accelerate the creation process of
your coaching business.
b) How to sell your coaching without appearing “salesy”.
c) The unique 4 step formula for attracting clients aka the method by which you can turn
normal people into rabid lifelong followers.

There a lot more things that you can simply checkout when you are booking my webinar but in
the context of what we just learnt, I feel these are the most important points.

Why should you come to my webinar?

You have just finished reading a PDF where in I teach you how to create a bulletproof coaching
business and I showed you results of how various clients of mine have achieved great success
by following my coaching.

I believe anyone who invests their time into reading what that person has to say ultimately ends
up creating a connection with them. We have this connection as of right now and I don’t want
you to waste any time.

While the contents of the e-book are still fresh in your head, I want you to sign up to the
webinar as soon as possible.

This is the part where unfortunately I have to give you some bad news.
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Since it is an extremely intensive webinar, we have limited seating. As of writing, the last 4
webinars have been completely sold out.

I don’t mean to show off by saying that, I just want you to know that the seats don’t tend to fill
up fast, and since we take in limited number of people, it works in your best interest to sign up
as fast as possible.

This is your dream, being a coach who can inspire people is your dream, why else would read
this e-book?

If it really is your dream WHY WOULDN’T you want to accelerate your education and start
doing what you wanted to do in the first? Inspire hundreds of people.

So why are you waiting?

Do you really need to wait more as more and more “friends” are using your coaching for free
and assuming that you are doing them a “favour”?

Do you really need to question your life choices time and again and do you really need to have
people constantly question whether what you are doing is “wise” or not?

You don’t need to wait at all, I am here for you and the templates that I am going to give you is
going to take you to your promised land.

I have already said that I am not here to manipulate into signing up for anything and neither am
I here to take you on a merry go round.

What I am here for, is to ensure you that I am going to give you all the tools that you will ever
need to create a successful coaching business.

That’s not a promise, that’s not a pipedream.

That’s a guarantee.

So why are you still waiting?

I AM WAITING FOR YOU.

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Conclusion

So there you have it, everything that you will need to create the foundation of a thriving
coaching business. Now the main thing to do is to implement it.

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great,” – Zig Ziglar.

Get our highest-rated, paid course on how to get a consistent flow of high paying
clients FOR FREE

Many folks who have a passion for helping people, get stumped when it comes to getting their
first few clients.

They’re told to do 100 different things, and it leads to ‘information paralysis’, they just don’t
know what will work?

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Then update that information to one of our highest-rated courses.

By taking the course you’ll:

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 Identify what kind of program & pricing will appeal to clients
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clients a week

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