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Show Notes
The year is hurtling to an end a very, very long time ago. Feels like a lifetime ago. And it actually was a lifetime ago. I will have a lifetime ago. I was an apprentice and I was an apprentice lithographer. And that was before graphic design was a thing. And my tradesmen used to say that the older you get; the quicker time goes.
And I can remember thinking he was so old. He was probably in reality all these late 50s, early 60s. But back then he did seem very old. And he’s right. Every year it does seem to go faster. And this year it really has amazingly fast that it seemed like September a minute ago. And now, as I record this, we have two weeks into Christmas.
Land New Clients Before Christmas
The year is hurtling towards the end. And as a coach, you might be thinking, well, I will just take the pedal off the gas. I will just slow down. And a lot of people do. And yes, you really should have a brake and bang. Todd, this time of year is actually really normal. But running up to Christmas can be an amazing time to check in with your clients, to check in with your friends.
And also to remind people of what you actually do. I personally have picked up two new clients in the last two weeks, because it’s a wonderful time to just say hi, to let people know that you are a coach and who you help and what you can do. So we tend to think towards the end of the year. Oh well, this marketing stuff will just slow up on that.
We are busy doing everything else and everybody else is busy. But sometimes it’s just the perfect time because they are busy and they are thinking, oh, I don’t want next year to be exactly the same as you. I don’t want to have those ebbs and flows in my client flow. I don’t want to have those bumps. So maybe it’s time to reach out to Cathy and get a running pipeline to make sure that I don’t repeat the same things have repeated this year.
Use The Holiday to Reconnect
Your clients are actually waiting for you. And we did an episode for that. I think it was Episode 318: Your Next Client is Already Waiting. Checking the back catalog. And it was exactly that. Your clients are waiting for you. They are on your email list that in your database, they are your past clients.
They are people that know you. And they are the most amazing people to reach out to at this time of year, because it can just start with a friendly message like, Merry Christmas, how are you doing? Are you taking a break? That is kind of casual conversations that we are being curious, and we are not specifically putting on our sales hat. We are just having a chat.
Building those relationships and making sure that we are there for when people think, yes, I can’t take that yet. The same as it’s been this year. I need to change something. I need to reach chat and get a coach. And there you are. You have just popped up. In their view, they might not have thought about you for a while, particularly past clients, because as we know, coaching is an ever evolving thing.
Prep Your Pipeline Before the Break
This time of year, we are all tired and it’s okay to be tired. And yes, I’m looking forward to a break too. But this also can be a great time to just put out those feelers and to get that pipeline set for January, start getting that momentum, and then you can go on your break and really enjoy it, because you know that you’ve got clients coming up, you know that you’ve got work, you’ve got your calendar set, you’ve got your workshops coming up and all that kind of thing.
So you don’t have to stress quite as much about what the year going to start like, because you’ve already got your pipeline and your runway set up. And once you get your marketing sorted really well, then it doesn’t become such an issue this time of year because you’ve got those ongoing contracts, you’ve got these ongoing clients and potential
Make Your Goals Stick
Think about what you are doing for your next 90 days, and is that starting now, or are you doing inquiries? And if you are doing in quarters, how much of it have you done? How much can you fill in just before the end of the break?
Because quite often it is. We start to procrastinate. We start to overthink things. But if we make a container for it and we make it shorter, then we really can to a lot more than we think we can. And one of the January episodes is probably going to be about 330. I will do goal sticking. So you have all heard of goal setting, but let’s make your goal stick. Make them actually work for you.
Personally, I print out my 90 day goals and put them beside my desk every time I sit down. I can see them and it just reminds me. I don’t always read them every time, but it keeps it up in the mind. What do I need to do this week? What do I need to do next week? Have I to hit my target for the month?
Have I hit it for the 90 days? How am I going? Are there some things on there that maybe need to be moved to next 90 days? Are there some things on my longer term that can be brought forward? Those kinds of decisions are top of mind when you are saying it all the time. So making sure that you do have these visual reminders.
Make Your Year End Marketing Easy
Also think about your launches. What are you doing for your launches? Now, this is probably not the right time to be doing a great big launch. But you can always do challenges or many things, especially if you haven’t done it for a while. And if you are not taking a huge break over Christmas, I personally advocate for having a decent break, especially here in Australia where it’s summertime, it’s beach time.
It’s going to be amazing. And I remember recording podcasts about this time last year and recording them ahead of time and saying, hey, it hasn’t got hot yet. While it hasn’t really got hot yet at this time either. But I’m sure by the time we hit Christmas and into January, it definitely will. So I’ll be looking forward to spending some of my holiday at the beach.
All right. And why do we reach out to those warm and hot prospects? Well, I think that’s pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? They are people that know us. They are people that have potentially worked with us before, or they know somebody or very often somebody who has. So it’s just a much easier conversation. And this time of year, we definitely want to make things really easy.
Links
Contacts
End of Year Check Ins To Turn Leads Into Clients
Give yourself a bit of self care. And if this one isn’t for you and it isn’t hitting for you, and you really do need to take a break, make sure you do. Because as coaches, we take on so much, and if we are not full to the brim, then how can we serve our clients? So have an amazing Christmas everyone!
Listen to the full episode of Small Business Talk episode 325.
You can also find the video versions of the Small Business Talk Episodes on YouTube.
