Hi there. This is somewhat lengthy.
I am in the brand new certification class. I had set a goal of making back my $18k investment prior to the start of the class. I did not do that, and in late February, realized I was not fully committed to that goal. I was having the thought, “I can make back the $18k once I’ve completed certification and know more.” Which sounded all fine and dandy, but that was a way that I was punting the goal into the “someday” land. “Someday when I know more.” “Someday when I’m ready.” The same b.s. that caused me to obtain a business license and EIN and stuff for my coaching business in 2017 but let it sit for over two years.
About a month before certification started, when I realized that I was “somedaying” this $18k goal, I decided to try on the identity of a person who had to make that money back ASAP and from the coaching business. I decided to be curious and just try it.
I hired a local marketing person to sit down with me for two hours and walk me through Facebook ads. I also utilized the free 30-minute calls you can get with a Facebook employee to help figure out the rudiments. I got my Instagram account going. I bought an Instagram marketing course and am about halfway through it. It’s helping.
Over the month of March I spent about $1100 on Facebook and Instagram ads. I tried lots of different ways to tinker with the criteria to target women lawyers age 25-40. I built my email list to 38 people. I do feel like I spent quite a bit of money just to get 38 leads, but I am telling myself that this is just an experiment and that is sometimes what experiments cost.
The whole thing got me to a very interesting realization. When I built my law practice, I never got many clients from so-called targeted advertising other than having a website. There were times when I paid for it, but always regretted it because it was paying for a bunch of garbage leads; no law firm marketer knew my niche as well as I did and do. Clients just come to me like magic. Sometimes they find me directly and sometimes through referral. The “magic” began when the day I knew exactly the problem I solved (and solve) and the value of the solution. Today, I can boil it down to a three-word sentence that needs little further elaboration. I’m just super, super clear on the problem I solve.
So, I’m aware that I’m not exactly clear WHICH problem is the biggest pain point for women lawyers age 25-40 with 0-5 years experience, and that’s why they’re not beating down my door for consults yet. I haven’t yet nailed my offer with the same clarity as my other service business. My ads and content kind of bounce around between wellness/health stuff and confidence/self-belief stuff. The confidence/self-belief ads get more clicks, but one of the chief complaints I hear when talking to women in my target group (on listservs) is the wellness issue. They complain there is a causal relationship between being overwhelmed and lacking confidence and then letting the health go sideways.
I have days, or hours of a day where I wallow in frustration a bit because I am thinking the thought, “I don’t know which message is more effective.” I had one client I worked with who had all the problems, using “anxious,” “overwhelmed,” and wishing she were “more confident” and needing to “take better care of herself” pretty much interchangeably as if they were markers of a single syndrome called “plight of the young woman lawyer.” My own personal heroine story is that I solved that “syndrome” for myself.
So my next experiment is taking the best bang-for-the-buck Facebook ad audience and just telling this audience of women that I’m doing some pro bono coaching, and inviting them to apply to be coached using a survey that asks them to rank their various problems and then elaborate. Then I can coach some of them for my certification and do market research at the same time.
The unintentional model:
C: Marketing
T: I’m doing all this stuff, and still don’t have it figured out.
F: Frustrated.
A: throw money at it and see what sticks. Listen to all the business calls and the big earner interview calls. Spend too much time at the computer.
R: Some information, but still not figured out.
Intentional models
C: Marketing
T: I am normal and I am figuring this out.
F: Accepting
A: Slow down and analyze the early results before throwing more money at it. Listen to the podcasts analytically. Really imagine trying on the identity of a coach who has figured out precisely what she is offering.
R: get it figured out
C: my law practice
T: I know exactly what problem I solve and the value of it
F: Knowing (this is the really high vibration “knowledge,” where Abraham-Hicks would put it…..)
A: Speak clearly about my offer on my website. Speak clearly about my offer at conferences and networking and listservs and parties and grocery stores and not even be on the lookout for opportunities…..I just AM this offer. No need to market or psych this out.
R: never without a client with a good case right in my wheelhouse. Know what each of those cases is worth and what it should pay.
How can I get this clear with my coaching offer? It took me 5 years of trial and error to get there in my law practice before I could just enjoy riding the wave. I believe I can get to that level of clarity faster in my coaching practice just because I have done a similar process before in another service business. I am not expecting it to be overnight, but it doesn’t have to take 5 years.
Thanks for any additional insight you can offer!
