From Stranger To Ideal Client: How Mrs. W Filled Her Multi-6-Figure Practice Using The MTFC System (Without Funnels, Ads, Or A List)

This week we mixed things up a bit in The Coach’s Plaza FB group and we had a LIVE down-to-earth interview about how Ms. W did it…

And by “did it” we mean she got 25 clients and filled 3 group coaching pods without posting to social media multiple times a day, running ads, or even hosting webinars!

This week’s episode of The CRUSH Method Show is a little different than how we usually do it, but you’ll be thrilled to catch this discussion with a REAL entrepreneur coach that owns her stuff.

She was able to build a multi-6-figure coaching practice that allowed her to quit her old job to be a full-time Certified High-Performance Coach in her own business.

We’re covering how Ms. W’s mindset changed since the beginning of her coaching journey, how she had to learn how to say “no” when her coaching practice snowballed into something she never imagined, and what it was she learned from The Coaching Biz Accelerator Program that made the difference!

There are some amazing tips and insights on how to maintain a strong, goal-oriented coaching business, so don’t miss out on this inspiring interview in this week’s episode of The CRUSH Method Show.

Join the Real Coach’s Community at The Coach’s Plaza at www.thecoachesplaza.com 

Get the full vlog, transcript, and mp3 at https://bit.ly/3yDKlKZ

From Stranger To Ideal Client: How Mrs. W Filled Her Multi-6-Figure Practice Using The MTFC System (Without Funnels, Ads, Or A List)

Transcript of Podcast - September 3, 2021

Hello and welcome to The Coach's Plaza. My name is Amanda Kauffman, and you are here with me LIVE. If you can see me and hear me, let me know in the chat you are watching our live training, and this is a really special, special edition because we are interviewing Ms. W! She filled her multi 6-figure practice using the MTFC system.

And what's really exciting about that. She was able to create 25 private coaching clients and fill three group coaching pods without the use of funnels without running ads, without doing a bunch of techie tech, tech, tech, tech. And instead, she did this wild thing that she learned in the accelerator program. It was such a pleasure to get to work with her and to be able to help her help her out.

But of course, she's just an amazing coach. She's really good at what she does. She's a high-performance coach and we're super excited to be able to welcome her here. But first, before I, before I do, before I bring her on camera, I want to make sure that everything's working and you can see us and hear us. Okay.

So if you are an old friend, shout out friend in the chat, if you are new to the coaches, Plaza, shadow new, let us know that you can hear us and see us. Okay. I think I can see that Rebecca's here. Hello? Hello. I'm so glad that everybody can be here with us today and, and I'm super stoked to get to interview Ms.

W I'm going to bring her up on the stage here. We got Robert here. We got Julie here. Awesome. Awesome. Well, let's get to it. I'm super excited to welcome Ms. Karen to the stage. Here we go. Hey Karen. I'm glad you're here. I'm going to pop you over. There we go. There we go.

Hi. How are you today? Can you hear me okay. I can hear you fine. Can you hear me? Yes. Ma'am yes. Ma'am. We'll carry in. Welcome to the coaches Plaza. I'm super excited and honored that you have agreed to join us here, to chat about your journey. I'm glad to be here. Awesome. Awesome.

Well, I just go ahead and take like 30 seconds. Tell us a little bit about your, your business. Where are you located? And, and, and like, how did you, how'd you find us? Well, basically I found you when we were going through our first certification, I watched you from afar and then I happened to catch you online and watched you from there.

And we've attended a couple of seminars together, and I was able to speak to you and Chris, I started in, I want to say it was right after my significant other had passed away. And I had gone to a Brendon Burchard seminar in San Diego. And he pitched, well, no wrong word. He explained how you could become a coach.

And I was lost and I figured, okay, this is something that I can do. So I signed up and it snowballed from there, but it really caught on when I started listening to Ms. Kaufman and Chris, and a bunch of other people who paved the way and had a process that was easy to follow. I love it. I love it.

So catch us up. So you started, you got your certification as a certified high performance coach back in 2018, and you've, you've kept up your certification and you, at the, at the moment you have 25 private clients and you have three group coaching programs going right now, you are busy. You are a busy, busy lady. Yeah. It,

you know, if you had asked me a year ago where I thought I was gonna be, I didn't expect this. And my original goal was 20 clients, but I also had learned how to say no, you know, or, or find another way to, to help someone, which was the reason why the group started, because I couldn't take on any more than what I would I already have and still be able to live.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So learning how to steward your time, and that's something that you picked up when you were in our mastery level program. And, and I remember that, cause you came to one of the group coaching calls and you said to Chris, you were like help. You know, you had more people waiting on your waiting lists and they were paying to come onto that list.

And you kind of felt bad because they kept showing up on your list and you didn't know what to do with them. So Chrysalis helping you come up with new ideas, Right. It was at that time, it was a little overwhelming because you're here to serve in, you can't serve it, sitting on a waiting list. And you're trying to help the people that have actually said yes to and work with.

And I was about ready to pull my hair out when I, when I came to that session. And I'm like, what do I do? You know? And that's when the group situation came up. And then also speaking to human resources at the fire department and saying, Hey, this is what I had to offer. What do you think? You know?

And it just snowballed and it continuing snowball, I thought maybe two or three clients would walk away and they resigned with the signature package. So I'm like, okay, I'm doing something right. You obviously are. So, so let's take let's, let's take a big step back. I mean, you're obviously doing pretty well and like, you, you have a virtual assistant now,

right. That's helping you a little bit good for you. Awesome. I'm glad to hear that, that, that, that's now helping you with a little bit of the load. So take us back, you know, you had got the certification and you had learned how to coach, but you kinda got stuck for a little while. So just before you hired us,

like, what were you facing in the way of the challenge of getting your coaching business started? Oh my goodness. There were two obstacles. Number one was actually talking to people and the other one was, was I giving the right message when I was talking to people, you know, you know, I understood the clarity behind it. It was like,

I got nobody. It, it was just, they didn't even want to sign up for a 15 minute coffee and back then it was face to face. They didn't want to go to Starbucks and just sit down and talk. And then I message. So it was like, it was just awkward to even get the, the initial foot in the door conversation going much less to get the rest of the conversation going necessary.

And of course coaching is a conversation. It's all a relationship. And now you've got, you've got a new, better problem where you're too busy. And then the other thing too, is that I can't remember exactly where you taught us, but you taught us to networking. And again, this is before the pen, the kit. So I went out to one of the networking events that happen here in person.

And by the way, I live in Carson, California, Southern California, I should say. And I just stood in the corner watching and not talking. And it's like, okay, what did I do wrong? And then I came back and I, re-read something that you had sent me. And it's like, oh, you know, the light bulb hit.

And it it's like this same thing. Well, I was open honest and I'll be honest. I came from a, it wasn't a brutal session, but I came from a session with you that morning and you just hit home. And it was like, okay, I got to sit back and just be me. And didn't mean being the gallon, the corner that meant being open to the conversation and just being there,

you know, you, you often say you do you coach. And that's what stuck in my mind. And it's like, okay, but I'm not going to do me. I pretended to be you, Amanda. I'm gonna be honest. I was open and just ready to talk and listen. And I'll never forget that day. And that past several conversations like that at the bank,

since we've had our parking lot conversations is what I call it. And I meet some really interesting people that way, because I, I didn't meet, but I did it as you. It's hard to explain, but I took my introvert out. You took your introvert out what a very interesting thing. And for those that are watching along with us, how many of you would say that you are an introvert and how many of you would say that you are an extrovert?

And like, how does that show up for you when it comes to meeting people for the purpose of growing your business? Because something that shows up for a lot of coaches is exactly what you just said. Karen is that sometimes like you go to those networking events, or even in a virtual environment, you, you have these opportunities to meet people and to talk to people and connect with people.

But you're not always sure about exactly. Like, how do you step into that? How do you let the introvert come out? How do you, how do you do you and be you authentically to connect with somebody that you can, you can be fully you. And what's really cool. Is, is that when you really owned that, Karen, like,

it sounds like when you really owned it, it created like this Daisy chain of opportunity. That one opportunity led to the next opportunity led to the next opportunity. And you've been really busy, like ever since you just let her come out. Exactly. And as you do it, it becomes easier. And I no longer I channel you sometimes, but I no longer have to channel you 24 hours a day.

And I, and I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just, I've come a long way, you know? And I'm excited every morning I get up and I do my 24 hour a day, you know, from my journaling to my exercise, to looking at what's coming next. And then what the topic is that I'm going to be talking to client X.

I feel so much better than I did a year ago. You know? And I'm so happy that I took that. I know most of the people may have heard this story story, but I am so happy. I took that credit card, added the freezer, broke the ice and made the move. I mean, it was, I was there at the right time,

in the right place. Now, like, I've done that too, you know, where I've, where I've, you know, did the scary thing and, and, and made that investment in a mentor. And, you know, we actually talked a couple of times and you said, no, you said, no, you were like, Nope,

not gonna do it. I like you, Amanda. But Nope. And, and then that one time you did say yes, but like when you kind of think about, when you think back to the times when it wasn't right for you to do it and, and, and, and you didn't want to get the mentorship yet, and you weren't quite ready for it.

Like that's okay too. You know, we all step into the journey when it's right for us. But what do you think was different for you the time you did say yes. Like what, what, what had to change in inside of you that you felt ready to receive mentorship and you were ready to make that change? Because I think sometimes, sometimes people feel really guilty about not asking for help,

but like, I think what's cool about your story is you actually did say no a couple of times. Yeah. And then you said yes, which I'm glad you did say yes, but you know, what do you think was the difference between when you said no? And when you said yes. And if somebody was just like, thinking about that,

like what, like, there's good reasons to say no, and there's good reasons to say yes. Like, what was it for you? For me, it was a trust factor as much as I have watched and listened. And, and it had been a pseudonym years when you did the daily show, for instance, I trusted you, but to me,

the price of the price of that particular course, I had to choke down. Okay. Because I hadn't been working, I had been living off of my own money and I'm like, okay, it's going to go dry. What am I going to do? I didn't want to go back to an office. I didn't want people to tell me what I was going to do.

And I didn't want their agendas on my schedule. Didn't want it at all. You know? And, and I had learned that through being coached, listening in knowing that I've got to do something, or I can't have the house in the car and, you know, and live in eat. And that's basically what I did. I just trusted and said,

okay, you're going to have to, excuse me. I've got some dogs on top of birds. Don't I know he got a menagerie today. So yeah, What I'm hearing is I'm going to just meet you for a second. But what I'm hearing is is that you, you had like this mindset of ownership that had to change for you to be ready to step into that.

And I'll say like, as a coach, too, I noticed the same thing, like for my clients that get really amazing results and you have gotten some amazing results. Like, this is just very good work. It's incredible what you've done and, and not incredible in that. It's impossible. Like, would you say what you've done is impossible. It's definitely not impossible.

I mean, if I can do it, anybody can do it as long as you have the, the, the get up and go and you do you. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, I think that that's, that's a, that's a really key piece of it is, is like, you've got to do you. And, and you're one of the reasons why I wanted to invite you here into the coaches pauses.

You are a very real, you're a very, you know, authentic. You do, you kind of a person and, you know, you are also a real hard worker and you're also a person who chose to own your dream and own what you wanted. And like I heard in your answer, it's like, I wanted to own my house. I wanted to own my car.

I wanted to own my time. I wanted to be an owner. And the thing that I see again and again, among my clients who really do get the results of creating the real business as a real business owner, is it all starts before you ever hire me, which is you decided to own it. Right. And so that's a really, really key distinction.

So my next question for you is like, where to next, what are you going to be working on next in your business? Like, what do you see is that big, that big thing that you want to focus on now that you've figured out how to let the introvert out, how to, how to really be in front of people. And,

you know, obviously client acquisition is something you've really figured out what next, Actually I'm preparing for something in October, which I haven't shared with you yet. And that is, there is a women's conference here in LA. It's hosted by the fireman, the paramedics. And there's another group. The it's not the police academy, but it's the junior, the junior academy they're hosting a three-day event.

And I have been asked to speak in a four hour block. How do you like freak out in the comments for Karen? What an amazing opportunity. Congratulations, You know, and my dream was never to walk across the stage and I have been doing that lately. So I think it's time to dream changed a little bit. I will, I don't see myself doing the Brendan Bouchard campaigns and things like that,

but I do see myself being in service with, with general folk. And this is the way, you know, I've had to turn down a lot of speaking opportunities because my clients will always come first. And if it's a weekend and I'm not doing an intensive or group, then yeah, I'm all for it. So Karen, did you, did you know when you started on this journey that you were going to work with first responders or that you,

that this was going to be kind of your niche or specialty area? No, I know it actually was not even in, in contention because I had been a caregiver and I had gone through everything that I had gone through with Joe and, and helping him through his, his journey. I thought my niche was grief to be real honest with you and working with people who were dealing with death and dying situations,

because that's where I was the most comfortable. And I'd been an oncology nurse even before then. So I figured, okay, this is my experience, and this is where I'm going to take it. But in doing that, I discovered it wasn't me, you know, and I just happened to have an opportunity with my niece to speak to the women of fire.

And it just snowballed from there. And I've been talking to a group of paramedics over at UCLA that that is going through the program right now. And I guess, you know, the first responders are finding me, let's put it that way. I'm not calling them calling me. Well, isn't that very interesting, because that was very much my own experience as well.

When I first started as a coach, I thought I was gonna do like helping executive women overcome burnout because I had been an executive woman who had overcome burnout and let me know in the chat as well. If you, if you feel like, oh, because I have this specific recent experience, that is what I must coach in, because that, that was pretty much how I started to Karen.

And like, one of the things that we teach in the accelerator program is, is that you can actually coach across all kinds of niches. It's a big myth that you have to, that you have to have your particular niche figured out in advance, or that you have to have a particular ideal avatar figured out in advance. And that's one of the coolest things about your story as well is,

is that we, we teach, like if you're not comfortable, you're not sure about what you want to coach on or who I, who ideally you want to start with. You can actually ditch the niche and we have three different strategies that you can follow to identify who it is that you want to serve. And it sounds like they found you and they keep calling on you and wow.

What a great opportunity coming up in October. That's fantastic. Good for you. That's fantastic. Yeah. And I'm really excited about it as you can tell. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I've seen some of your, your content that you've prepared for them and everything. Like you're really starting to, to build out that content. What's so cool about just getting started in service is,

is like you do get paid as a coach. Like they, they want your coaching. They're ready to pay for it right now. You get into action. You start, you know, like tell me, tell like dish a little bit. If you don't mind, Karen, like, because you started getting really paid as a coach, like, what are some of the other things that improved in your life because you really claim that ownership.

Like, what else, what else improved in your life? My personal life improved. I have better communication with my brother and my sister. And it's not because we're going through some, some dark times, but it's the fact that we can actually sit down and nobody walks away with, with something that said personally that they take personal. And I've noticed that I have really incorporated everything that I've been taught as far as being a coach,

especially my communication and, and knowing that, you know, someone sees, sees the drink orange and you see it red and that's okay. That is really okay. It sounds like, you know, you learned a lot about communications through your coaching skills and like also just more communication because of the business training too. Like there's different kinds of communication needed for business.

In addition to the types of communication you learn for coaching, is that fair to say? That's very fair to say. And, and then the other thing is it way back the beginning where you told us you not told us, but taught us to do one thing a day. And I had always said, okay, I'm going to contact five people.

I'm going to hand write a quick note, put a stamp on it, put it out in the mail to this day. I still do that five people a day. Wow. You do five handwritten letters a day. They're, they're not full page. You know, sometimes it's just a postcard to say, Hey, I'm thinking about you, but I continue to do that.

And it it's something that you and Chris ingrained in us, you know? And it makes sure that you do that one thing. Granted, I'm not really into posting on Facebook. Like I used to be with my hugs. I kind of missed that, but I don't have time because I have, I have this one month simple rule I don't get on and look at my email till 8 30, 9 o'clock in the morning.

I don't turn my computer on, unless it's a client that I'm meeting with my phone is actually shut off because I'm, I'm not regimented. Now in the very beginning, if we were going to do this interview, my phone would probably be ringing in, distract me, or I would be up at 7:00 AM looking at email and dealing with someone else's agenda and not my agenda for the day to start with,

Do you guys hear this discipline? Like shout out a Y in the chat, if you just hear, like, not only has Karen like built her practice with a very like simple system of meeting people and talking to people and being engaged with people. She's, she's sending handwritten notes, daily handwritten notes, but it's this consistency she's doing it with she's,

she's managing her distractions. She's this is not through like big, fancy funnels and crazy tech. And it's, it's not about doing, standing on her head and doing all of these like Tik TOK videos and being all over, you know, crazy, crazy different kinds of social media. And I mean, like if she wants to, that's one thing,

but you know, you just heard it straight from her. Like it's not, it's not a source of joy, so I'm not doing that. I'm curious, like with the handwritten notes, what's, what's the response been like from people who received those handmade handwritten notes from you? Well, for instance, I just had a birthday and these, these people that I have reached out to,

and the, it actually rotates through like every three months or every quarter, I start all over again. I got a comment from, from the postman who delivers the mail here. And he actually brought me a bag of birthday cards and contact with, you know, and it's like, wow. So it's just, it's phenomenal, you know, and I get actual letters back sometimes more than three pages worth of things that people want to tell me.

And it's like, okay, this I'm providing a written service too. So That is some serious impact. Karen, what a cool story that is, that is like really, really amazing. You guys like love this. This is like really, you know, it's so interesting that this is out of box thinking and it's really, it's really like, not that long ago,

that was very standard thinking<inaudible>. But, but, but nowadays it is a bit out of box and, but, but I love like there's so many beautiful lessons here about discipline, about having that, that bam, you know, that bare ass minimum of showing up every single day without one thing. And that thing that you can really commit to,

and like honoring that commitment and having that discipline every single day. And it's really paying off in such a huge way. So I'm curious, you know, you have worked with us, you've been in our accelerator program, you joined us in our mastery level program, you know, what would you say? What would you say to someone who is like,

maybe looking from the outside and curious about what it's like to work with work with our team intimately, what would you want to kind of give them as like an inside scoop? The best inside scoop that I could actually say to anybody is just be you and just do it. Don't stop. Don't think if the time's right for you, now's the time to get on the chain.

Cause it may not come back for awhile. And you know, that phrase that you taught us in one of the mastery classes be like, Ben, no, it's not, but I do have a plaque that says be like Ben Plaque. Oh my gosh. That is so good. So there's a character, there's a character in one of the lessons that we teach named backwards.

Ben and it's basically, so you always start with the end in mind, shout out to my brother, Ben. That is so awesome. You made a plaque. Oh Yes. Because there's no way I'm going to go get a tattoo on my wrist. I got to do that. I remember when Natalie said that and I'm like, that's not me.

You, You, we need to remind Natalie to go get that tattoo. I think she's a little overdue. Yeah, but she's doing extremely well too. All my sisters that went through both, both, both classes. I I'll give a shout out to a couple of them. There's Sherry, Natalie. Pretty, even Robert, you know, I have watched,

occasionally I have attended some of Natalie's webinars and I'm telling you everybody's come a long way because we all trusted you. We trusted that process and I can't thank you enough. I can't thank Chris enough. And I still think back to, oh my gosh, did I say I wanted 25 clients? What was I thinking? Careful what you wish for? Be careful what you wish for.

Well, Karen, thank you so much for joining us today. Is there like any, anything else that you'd love to share with, with, with a coach and the coaches Plaza? I mean, we're, we're serving coaches from all around the world who are really impact driven. They're just like you, you know, they want to serve coaches at the highest level.

They want to build a sustainable practice. They want to have ownership over their time. They want to have ownership over where they work and who they work with and all of that. Like what, what, what one single biggest bit of advice would you give to them? Just do you coach, don't be afraid. Just do it. Just do it.

Brilliant. Well, thank you so so much, Karen really appreciate you. You're very, very welcome. That is awesome. That is awesome. So, all right guys, thank you so much. So if you really enjoyed the interview with Karen, thank you so much for joining us. Please let her know in the comments. You can see those comments and if you have any other questions,

do you let us know in the chat? And you know, we love helping coaches, just like you, just like Karen to figure out the whole meat talk, fit coach system. This is the system that we teach coaches to help bring clients that are everywhere all around you. Like Karen said, you know, it could be in the parking lot.

It could be while you're, while you're doing your grocery store, Erin and yeah, it could be online. You know, it could be like she was saying, you know, Natalie did online webinars or, you know, Rob does these really cool facilitations of, of group coaching. There's all these different ways that you could be meeting your ideal clients and having the right kinds of conversations,

to be able to have those fit conversations, to fill your practice. And you don't have to be begging for business. You don't have to be building a business that is unsustainable. You can do it in a way that's driving profit and is something that's going to support you, your family and your goals over the longterm. And we'd love to help you to do it.

So the next step is for you to go to coach CEO, grow.com or just see the word grow. And one of our trained specialists is going to reach out to you and set up a free sales, free zone, 15 minute call, where we're going to help you figure out where your next five clients are going to come from. What they're going to do is they're going to ask you a few questions about what you've already figured out and really just help you kind of figure out where that next place probably is.

That's very nearby for you to be able to create that next opportunity. And if it makes sense to book another call with me or Chris, to talk about a deeper system, something that could be sustainable over time, that could really help you grow your business. They'll tell you how that works, invite you to the call, but it's not a high pressure call at all.

So just say the word grow. If something like that would be awesome for you, or you can go to coach CEO, grow.com. Let's see if I've got the link here. I think I do somewhere in here. There we go. Coach CEO, I'm going to change the background. There we go. Coach CEO grow.com will take you to do a self scheduling of that.

It'll open up a browser. If you go to coach CEO, grow.com and another tab, you'll be able to go to a calendar or not Calendly acuity scheduler, where you can pick a time that works for you. And you just answer a few questions. So our specialists know a little bit about you, what your main goals are for your business, and then they'll take it from there.

They'll just call you at the appointed time and it can be easier than that. So thank you so much for joining us today. And I thank you again to Karen for sharing her story and, and what it took to really get going with her business. I hope you really enjoyed this interview. I know I really did. And we'll see you again next week.

Have an amazing day.