How Great Experts Never Run Out of Clients in 3 Moves.
How Great Experts Never Run Out of Clients in 3 Moves
Have you ever noticed how some coaches always seem to have clients lined up? They are launching new programs, speaking on stages, and consistently filling their calendars. Meanwhile, many other talented coaches are still wondering where their next client will come from.
There is a reason for that difference. After eight years of building my coaching business and helping others do the same, I have learned that great experts approach their growth very differently. They make three powerful moves that keep clients coming to them again and again.
If you are ready to stop chasing clients and start attracting them, this is where it begins.
Move 1: Create Catalyzing Conversations
A great coach does not rely on chance conversations. They create catalyzing conversations—meaningful discussions that spark transformation.
The real currency of your coaching business is not social media followers or email lists. It is conversation. But not every conversation is valuable. The conversations that lead to clients are the ones rooted in solutions. They center on real challenges, real transformation, and real action.
When you have a catalyzing conversation, you are not simply networking or chatting. You are helping someone see a new perspective, find clarity, and take a step toward change. Every time you do that, you are demonstrating the power of your coaching before they ever invest a dollar.
To create these conversations, focus on three things:
Talk about real problems. Address the challenges your audience is facing right now.
Offer new insight. Share a perspective they have not considered before.
Spark an aha moment. Let them walk away with a fresh realization about what is possible.
That is how trust and transformation begin.
Move 2: Build a Conscious Sales Process
Selling is not about pressure. It is about clarity.
Many coaches believe sales should feel effortless, but it is actually a conscious process of helping someone decide whether change matters enough to commit to it. When your sales process is built on empathy, inquiry, and truth, it becomes a service in itself.
During a sales conversation, help your potential client uncover:
How deeply they want their goal.
Why now is the right time.
The cost of staying the same.
What it truly takes to reach the transformation they want.
When you guide them through that level of clarity, you are not “closing a deal.” You are opening a door.
I call this conscious sales because it keeps both you and your client aligned. You are not using tricks. You are helping them make an empowered decision to grow.
Move 3: Build Your Visibility and Trust Engine
Trust is earned through consistency. The more often people experience you, the more they will believe in you.
Being trustworthy is not about saying, “I am honest.” It is about demonstrating it. Show up through content, conversations, and community. Let people see who you are, how you think, and what you value.
Visibility is not vanity. It is how people discover you, understand you, and decide whether you are the one to help them. That could mean speaking at events, recording videos, running a group, or showing up online. What matters is that you are present where your ideal clients can experience you.
At the same time, make it easy for the right people to enter your world—and for others to exit gracefully. Think of your audience like a house party. The right guests will stay because they love the energy you create.
That is what happens inside my community, Clients Over Chaos. It is a space for coaches who are ready to turn their skills into a sustainable business with less stress and more confidence.
The Mindset That Ties It All Together
Every one of these moves depends on one mindset: ownership.
You are not just a coach. You are a founder, a leader, and a creator. Your business grows in direct proportion to your willingness to act like the CEO of your mission.
Do not wait for someone else to tell you that you are ready. You become a coach the moment someone calls you “coach.” You become an expert the moment you choose to lead with intention.
I began with eight names on a post-it note. No audience, no fancy brand, and no confidence in front of a camera. What changed everything was consistency—the decision to keep showing up with value and truth.
Start where you are. Lead with purpose. Create catalyzing conversations, build your conscious sales process, and show up with authenticity. The clients will follow.
Chapter List:
00:00 – Why Some Coaches Never Run Out of Clients
01:20 – What Really Makes You a Coach
03:05 – The Truth About Starting Small
05:15 – Move 1: Create Catalyzing Conversations
08:10 – Move 2: Build a Conscious Sales Process
11:25 – Move 3: Grow Your Visibility and Trust
14:35 – Final Takeaway: Be the Coach They Seek
Full Transcript:
Amanda Kaufman (00:00)
Have you ever noticed that some coaches seem to always have another client lined up? They're getting ready for the next retreat. They're getting ready for the next launch. And you're kind of looking at them and going, what are you doing so differently? Because a huge amount of the industry is scrambling for their next client. They're giving away their services for practically free, or they're just waiting to be noticed. I've been building my business for the last eight years and I've sold over $2 million in coaching services. I've noticed that the
Coaches that really have sustainability, this predictability about the level of income that they're going to generate month to month, that they can have real cashflow of a real business. They're doing three things really differently than the rest. In this video, I'm going to walk you through not only what are those three things, but some actionable ideas so you can implement it in your business right away. So you can stop hunting for clients and start being the hunted coach.
When people come inbound and they want to sign up for your private coaching or your group coaching program, or they want to have an intensive with you, or they're going to invite you to a paid speaking gig, that is a different level of freedom, my friend. When I started this business myself, I was really uncertain of how all of this really worked. And that was one of the reasons why I decided to start my brand, The Coaches Plaza, is because that's a lot of coaches. A lot of coaches, they Google...
Or they ask around and they find out, what's the best certification or what's the best qualification? And they get that. And then at the end of the certification, they're like, I'm a coach. So not to be totally contradictory or anything, but I don't think you're a coach just because you got a certification. You're a coach when someone calls you coach. Right? You're a coach when someone's enrolled or engaged you to be their coach. When that has happened, then you're a coach, right? Before that, you're qualified to coach. But
you know, the title, I think that should be reserved for people who are actually coaching other people. Let me know what you think in the comments. So let's talk about the three big moves that are going to help you with having more lead flow and client flow and how we can get that to be actionable. But before I go into those three things, my name is Amanda Kaufman, by the way, and I've been helping coaches build their business for the last six years. And it was after I successfully did it myself.
to the tune of multiple six figures before I started really teaching anybody else how to do this stuff. And I share that with you because I think there's a lot of people who see the opportunity of coaching coaches, but they never actually sold coaching to consumers before. And I still sell coaching to just like everyday people, but I love working with coaches because I think that coaches have a lot to deliver in the world, but they are sold a bill of goods that a certification
is enough to have a business. And that's not true. And that's why the Coach's Plaza is here, so that we can actually show you the business education that you might be missing. So you can start shoring up those capabilities, so you can start getting some results and, you know, building a real asset on the basis of your coaching skillset, as opposed to just sinking it into this endless money pit. Okay, so before I dive into the three things, just a quick story.
The other day I got a DM from someone who had watched me do one of my presentations. You know, I present in different summits and conferences around the world. And she sends me a DM and she says, Amanda, I loved your story. I loved what you had to say about the marketing. Just one problem. I don't have an audience and you do. Like, of course it's going to be successful for you, Amanda. You have so many people paying attention to you. Now I know what it's like to feel kind of obscure or feel like you're not relevant.
And the reason I know that is because at the beginning of my business, my whole audience was eight names on a post-it. When I started, I was terrified of social media. I didn't want to have my picture taken. I didn't want to be on video. Nevermind live video. I didn't want to do any of those things. I had no interest and to this day still have no interest in being a influencer that's selling, you know,
brand deals and things like that. I never pursued this career because I just wanted to create content for the sake of attention. I've always as a coach sought connection. And so I know what it's like to feel like you're, you got nothing. But the truth is that if you start taking steps in the direction of your success, you'd be so surprised how quickly things can actually come together for you.
Now, this is probably a good place to disclaim a little bit that I am not promising financial results to anyone, whether you work with me, whether you're watching some of my content. I'm really careful about that because the coaching industry has historically been a very predatory place where people are selling you things you don't need. They're making outlandish promises about what you're going to be able to accomplish and achieve. And they wrap it up in spiritual bypassing and magical, you know, woo woo stuff.
The thing is you can actually have a business that's legit. It can be very real, but you have to approach it as a founder and as a CEO who's bringing a skillset that has value into the marketplace. That's the mindset. That's the skillset. And even if you're starting like I did with just a few names on a post-it, start now. Cause yes, eight years later, I have a bit of an audience. I've been on a couple of stages, but it started so small and
It's the consistency and the continuation of the things that I'm going to share with you in a moment here that have made the biggest difference to making sure that there's always opportunity waiting. Okay, so let's unpack this stuff. The first big move is great experts. They are really good at bringing actual solutions. So I had a coach tell me a few years ago that the currency of a coaching business is conversations.
And I thought, my God, that is great. The currency is conversation. So it's got a great ring to it. Here's the thing. You can have a lot of conversations that are going to be a giant waste of both your time and the person that you're speaking to. Why? Because your coaching is not the cure-all for everything. When I got my first certification, they really indoctrinated us to this idea that this type of coaching, this particular methodology was this
be all that could solve anything. And a lot of people believed it. I actually believed it for a hot minute there. And then I realized I was like, that's kind of culty. know, like if it was true that it was such a cure-all, then it would be far more popular than it was. And it wouldn't engage in some of the practices that they engaged in to make me not look at the rational, not look at the science, and not look at the behaviors.
of my clients and myself that were leading to outcomes, right? So was very magical, very woo woo. And, you know, fast forward to now, I got another certification as a certified high performance coach. And what I love about that certification is it's very rooted in science. There's a lot of scientific studies that reinforce some of the recommendations that I make as a high performance coach. So I'm a big fan of CHPC, certified high performance coaching. Whatever your methodology,
The thing that matters the most is your behavior. It's the thing that you are doing repeatedly over time that is gonna be the biggest input indicator to whether you're gonna get the outcomes that you're actually looking for. So when you're having those conversations, the currency of coaching is conversations, but I would say they're catalyzing conversations. So what's a catalyzing conversation? It's a conversation that's rooted in the idea that you actually offer a solution.
Right? It's a catalyst moment for the person who's participating in the conversation with you. So it probably has a few components. The first thing is you're probably talking about a pain, a pain point or a challenge or an issue. I like the word puzzle. It's a thing that someone's trying to figure out and they're trying to figure it out right now. So we're not living in the land of hypothetical. We're living in the land of this is their real life and they want to have a real outcome that is different than their current reality. Like
That's the first thing. If we're not talking about a solution and the transformation, there's really not a lot of utility to the rest of the conversation from a coaching context. Now, just so you know, when you go out into the world and you're like networking with people, there's gonna be plenty of friendly conversations that are not catalyzing conversations and that's okay. But what we're after is we're looking for those catalyzing conversation moments where we get to talk about the transformation that they care about like right now. The second thing.
is that we want to be able to offer an insight or an emphasis on how they're thinking about the challenge that is new, different, novel, right? Because that is how, as a coach, we're going to be able to deliver value, is we're going to be able to offer perspective, we're going to be able to offer a new way of thinking about it. And very often, as a coach, the best way to do that is to just ask an exploratory question that no one else has thought to ask them.
The third piece in a catalyzing conversation is that they should walk away with some kind of an aha. So when I started working with coaches in much more detail and I had the opportunity to observe some of their conversations and review the notes with some of their conversations, I noticed that they would ask these questions that they felt were super bold and really interesting. And the coach was really focused on being interesting through their questions. The goal of the catalyzing conversation is the person has
an insight or an aha moment that inspires them to want to have a deeper further conversation. So the first part of this is definitely catalyzing conversations and it's about bringing the next solution. This is punctuated by actually having coaching skills. So coaching skills include yes inquiry. So inquiry is a really important coaching skill. It's our ability to ask questions that elicit
discovery and more thorough understanding and clarity. Like that's incredible. Coaches are also really great cheerleaders. They're great at encouraging people towards positive outcomes. They're also fantastic leaders. So they themselves are going to be having the hard conversations, saying the hard truth, being really present with someone. They're also typically going to be empathetic and compassionate. A lot of coaches really are, and sometimes they're way overboard with it.
You want to find kind of this balance point where you do have an understanding of where this person is coming from. But another thing that a great coach does is they drive. You know, one of my mentors says they pay you to push. And anytime I just sort of feel like I want to pull back from saying a truth or questioning a reality, I always push myself to ask because I would rather be fired than be one of those push over coaches that doesn't help their client discover the truth and doesn't help them.
to move past roadblocks, right? Super, super important. Okay. So the next thing that a coach who never runs out of clients has going for them is they have what I call a conscious sales process. So that means you have high conversion and your sales conversation is not about pressure. There's a lot of sales trainers out there that are going to teach you tips and tricks and tools to be more effective with
selling coaching. The thing is that as a coach, you already have some pretty awesome sales skills if you have great coaching skills. Namely, it's going to be inquiry, it's going to be empathy. And the main thing that in a sales conversation we want to make sure we uncover is we want to uncover how intensely they want the goal, how the timing is perfect for the goal.
their capacity to invest time, energy, and focus in achieving the goal, that they are very clear about what we call the opportunity cost, which is the cost of doing nothing, that they're very, very clear about what that cost is, and they are also clear on what the process is to work with you. Now, I have a deeper dive training on how to show up to sales. Just make sure you follow the link in the show notes below and I'll make sure that you have access to
be able to jump into my high achieving sales training at any time. All right, let's keep going. So the next thing that a coach really has is they have this visibility and trustworthiness engine. Okay. So being trustworthy. So many coaches say, I'm trustworthy. People should choose me because I'm a really great listener and I always want the best for other people. Fantastic.
That's a great baseline, but that doesn't mean that people are going to immediately trust you. Rude, right? So to be trustworthy means that you need to allow people the space to experience you more often. So it could be that you're doing videos like this. It could be that you're facilitating a community. There's been stages of my business where I was leading networking groups and things like that where people got a chance to get to know, like, and trust me.
So that when I was having conversations about their solutions, they knew that I was going to be someone who was professional, who was reliable, who was above board. Trustworthiness is demonstrated. Okay. It's not just because you made the decision or the declaration that you are trustworthy. It's because you're doing things that show people that you are. So let's talk about the last part, which is the visibility. So this is the part that a lot of coaches really, really struggle with because
They get very generic advice from their friends. Post more to social media, do podcast guesting, speak at your local chamber of commerce, right? And like, these are all just really quick little tactical ideas that are going to work, but they're going to just ping a little bit. Okay. So when you go to do a speaking engagement, let's just say there was 20 people at the speaking engagement. Let's say that you, you followed Amanda's coaching and you had some sort of a great
lead magnet at the end of your presentation, you might collect half the room of contact information. That's 10 new people to develop relationships with. That's fantastic. But what most coaches do is they have a 20 person speaking engagement, and then they wait for months to do another speaking engagement. So the number of leads that they're getting from that strategy is like this teeny tiny little drizzle of people.
Right. And then they're not really making any progress. Same thing with posting like a maniac on social media. If you're posting on social media for the first while in your business, and honestly, I'm still at the stage myself, it's actually less about using social media to meet new people. And it's more about reinforcing the relationships with the people you already know. lot of people don't realize this. So, and if you're not really clear about why you're online, it's really hard to know what to say. But if you are really clear that you are
bringing catalyzing conversations that you want to bring genuine solutions to a particular transformation that a particular sort of person actually wants to discuss. Now you've got the foundations of a very successful online marketing empire. The other thing that people do that is a little banana phone is they capture the lead and then they never talk to them again. So I just want to draw your attention to this diagram. You see how
It's almost like it's filled with water, right? So I think of it like this. It's almost like people kind of move into your ecosystem and they have an opportunity to look around inside the ecosystem. This is why I have a podcast. This is why I do these sorts of educational videos. This is why I have a community called Clients Over Chaos where you can get daily motivational audios. This is why I have an email list. There's all these different pieces.
where we can develop more trust with gentle invitations forward to the next step. Clear, but gentle invitations to the next step. And you'll notice at the bottom here, I have kind of the bottom of the community where people are quietly exiting. I think of this a little bit like it's a house party. And when the house party is really bumping, people want to come in and they want to hear what's going on. They want to participate and all that kind of stuff. But then at some point you want to leave.
Right? And so if you make it very easy for people to say, this isn't the party for me, I don't like the music, I'm not really sure that this is a great fit. If you can make that exit super easy, what you're left with is this distilled community of people who really care about the transformation that you're having a catalyzing conversation around. And that my friends is what the most successful coaches do differently from the rest. They work hard on the core.
transformation that they help their clients to achieve. Core transformation. So it's not about selling the coaching system. It's not about selling the process. It's not about selling the method. It's not about selling the feeling. It is about the transformation and that your coaching is the best solution for that transformation at this time for that person. Right? On one hand, so simple to lay it out like that, but the thing is, is most people don't do it.
And the reason they don't do it is because they don't know to do it. They don't realize that it is so important that the conversation is really centered around that before and after and being able to cross that chasm between, you know, lot of marketers call it hell island and heaven island. I think that's a great metaphor, right? There's a current state that is undesirable.
They're having undesirable feelings. They're having undesirable experiences. They have undesirable circumstances. They can point to the problems and the flaws in their life that they want to solve. And then they have this view of what heaven is like. Heaven is the, obviously all the problems have gone away, but maybe there's even more good, better things that have happened on heaven island that they really want to have invited into their world. I hope you really loved this, this video and I
plan to do some more. So if you found this really valuable, be sure to hit the like button, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss my next one when it comes out. And if you want to do a deeper dive into these strategies, I've included in the show notes below some ways that you can engage with me all the way from a consult all the way down to something else. I'm going to be doing more of these teaching and training videos and I hope you really love them. We'll see you soon.
