September 8, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets our guest is Jaimie Skultety, founder and CEO of Upscale Your Business, where she helps coaches and consultants attract ideal clients, clarify their marketing strategy, and scale with streamlined systems and signature solutions. With a career that began as a top-tier virtual assistant, Jaimie now empowers purpose‑driven professionals through her proprietary “90 Days to Clarity & Clients” methodology, actionable mini‑courses, and live implementation coaching.
You can find her on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimieskultety/
https://upscaleyourbusiness.com/
https://upscaleyourbusiness.com/5-day-map
You can also watch this podcast on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/@CareerCoachingSecrets
If you are a career coach looking to grow your business you can find out more about Purple Circle at http://joinpurplecircle.com
Get Exclusive Access to Our In-Depth Analysis of 71 Successful Career Coaches, Learn exactly what worked (and what didn't) in the career coaching industry in 2024: https://joinpurplecircle.com/white-paper-replay
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Don't recommend ads on LinkedIn.
They're very expensive, but I dosee just making connections with
people.
And the key really is thatclarity piece of exactly who you
serve.
Many coaches that I speak with,and especially career coaches, I
would say, are very lumped intothe, I help anybody with a pulse
and a credit card, right?
I'll help anybody who needs myhelp.
And I think I could help anybodywith marketing, honestly, that
(00:20):
they don't even have to be acoach.
I could probably give them somegreat, everybody great strategy.
But our focus is to try to getthem to our clients to really
hone in on exactly who, that wecall it a minimum viable
audience.
That's not our term.
We kind of borrowed that fromSeth Godin.
Having just a very tight nichemarket and being able to find
them on LinkedIn and be able toconnect with them and build a
relationship.
So most people go to LinkedInand they go or any marketing
(00:42):
channel and they say, hey, I'vegot a program.
Come buy my program.
SPEAKER_02 (00:45):
Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast
where we talk with successfulcareer coaches on how they built
their success and the hardlessons they learned along the
way.
My name is Davis Nguyen and I'mthe founder of Purple Circle,
where we help career coachesscale their business to$100,000
years,$100,000 months, and even$100,000 Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (01:16):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of
Career Coaching Squared'spodcast.
I'm your host, Regan, andtoday's guest is Jamie
Skoltetti, a seasoned businesscoach and founder of Upscale
Your Business, where she helpscoaches and consultants rebuild
profitable practices withclarity, consistency, and
confidence.
After a 30-year corporatecareer, Jamie discovered
(01:36):
firsthand the challenges ofstanding out in a crowded
coaching industry and createdher own purpose-driven framework
to help others avoid overwhelmand attract the right clients
with more than a decade ofexperience guiding professionals
into thriving second careers.
She empowers her clients tocraft standout offers, design
authentic marketing thatresonates and align their
(01:57):
business vision with theirvalues and lifestyle.
And it's a pleasure for me tohave her on the podcast today.
Welcome to the show, Jamie.
SPEAKER_01 (02:03):
Thank you very much.
Glad to be here.
SPEAKER_03 (02:05):
Thank you for coming, Jamie.
And I wanted to ask you when itcomes to your beginnings as a
coach, first of all, whatinspired you to take that step
and become a coach and thenstart your own coaching
business?
business?
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
Actually, I didn't even start in the coaching
space.
When I came into the onlinespace, it was really out of
necessity.
So I had lost my job during the2008 2009 kind of economy crash
here in the US.
I actually consulted with acareer coach, ironically, and
she suggested that because I wasan executive assistant for 30
years.
So she suggested I become avirtual assistant.
And at that time, I reallydidn't know what that was.
(02:38):
Although I did have a friendsuggest that to me about three
years prior, I launched thatbusiness, the virtual assistant
business.
And I did that for about fourand a And then I started
coaching other virtualassistants because it took me
about two and a half years tofind my rhythm, find my
marketing strategy that wouldwork.
And so then I started to getsome clients and a lot of my
clients were actually careercoaches.
(02:59):
That's how I started,ironically, in this
conversation.
So I got one career coach as aclient and then she referred
other career coaches.
And so I kind of niched intothat area.
And now, like I said, it was,well, actually it was in 2009
when I launched that.
And in 2017, I had a client comemy way who ended up becoming my
business partner.
And really, we were starting tosee places where my clients, my
(03:20):
career coaching clients andother coaches that were being
referred to me were didn't havethe clarity on exactly who they
were meant to serve and exactlywhat they offered and how to
price themselves effectively andhow to have effective marketing.
So I really started to step intothe teaching space.
And that's how I became a coachfor coaches.
And so I've been doing thatsince 2017.
And so that's how I stepped intothat role is that my business
(03:41):
partner actually saw me as morethan just a task based, you
know, virtual assistant.
And I was really really burnedout on that business, to be
honest.
Just enjoyed the journey ofreally teaching people exactly
what they need to do from my ownexperience.
SPEAKER_03 (03:52):
Yeah.
When it comes to what you'redoing now, it's been around
eight years of doing this in2017 till now.
Yes.
Cool.
How would you describe exactlynow the ideal client profile?
We're now working with coaches.
Is there a specific type ofcoach?
I know we started with careercoaches.
How is it now?
SPEAKER_01 (04:09):
Yeah.
So I have pretty much any coachreally that just has a passion
and maybe they're new andthey're stepping out of their
corporate role and they'restepping into the coaching space
and so there might be a gap inthe knowledge there of exactly
how do I step into this role andmarket myself people think well
I just need a laptop and aninternet connection and maybe a
website and people will justcome beat a path to my door and
(04:29):
it doesn't go that way and sopeople are very surprised by
that and I know the feelingbecause I've been there but who
I serve now are anyone fromcareer coaches executive coaches
life coaches even businesscoaches people who want to help
other businesses succeed butmaybe they haven't found their
own rhythm yet as well reallyI'm a coach at coach as any
coach, really.
SPEAKER_03 (04:47):
How does the program work?
What type of program do they gothrough?
SPEAKER_01 (04:51):
So we have my partner and I, when I say we,
that's that I'm speaking up.
It's now a six month program,but it was originally a 90 day
program.
And really it's 90 days for thecore curriculum.
So we have, you know, trainingand we have three phases, which
is clarity clients and thenconsistency.
And through that, we have threesteps per phase.
So it's really a nine stepprogram and we walk them
through.
And so we do this kind of atribrid.
(05:11):
So there's some self-guidedpieces of it.
There's also one-to-onecoaching.
So at every phase they meet withwith my partner and I, and we
help them tie things in and allof that.
And then there's also weeklygroup hot seat sessions and
everybody gets a chance to haveany points that they need
addressed.
And so we do some group coachingas well to benefit each other or
the whole group as a whole.
SPEAKER_03 (05:29):
Where are you right now when it comes to marketing?
And this will be a questionthat's going to be interesting
also for other coaches.
What marketing channel are youfinding that is working really
well for you?
You mentioned initially you hadreferrals.
How is it working out right now?
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
Yeah, so we still have a lot of referrals.
We have a workshop that we give.
So that's kind of our littlelead magnet, if you will, is we
do a five-day and it's a freeworkshop where they get some
general principles, right?
And of course, the intentionthere is that they find enough
value that they want to continueand they want to continue with
the momentum that they'rebuilding in the workshop.
And LinkedIn is our, to answeryour question, LinkedIn is
(06:01):
really our primary channel.
And honestly, coaches can have avery thriving business with just
using LinkedIn if they know whatto do and how to do it.
There's obviously a lot ofstrategy around that that is not
just common knowledge.
It's really all about buildingrelationships and LinkedIn is
the place to do that.
You just have have to have thestrategy for it.
And that's what we teach.
SPEAKER_03 (06:18):
I want to dive a little bit into that.
So what sort of strategy do yousee working really well for you
right now?
So either you can do content,you can do outreach, you could
run ads.
There's so many things you cando in LinkedIn.
So what are you seeing workingreally well?
SPEAKER_01 (06:31):
I don't recommend ads on LinkedIn.
They're very expensive, but I dosee just making connections with
people.
And the key really is thatclarity piece of exactly who you
serve.
Many coaches that I speak with,and especially career coaches, I
would say, are very lumped intothe, I help anybody who with a
pulse and a credit card, right?
I'll help anybody who needs myhelp.
And I think I could help anybodywith marketing, honestly, that
(06:52):
they don't have to be a coach, Icould probably give them some
great everybody great strategy.
But our focus is to try to getthem to our clients to really
hone in on exactly who that wecall it a minimum viable
audience.
That's not our term, we kind ofborrowed that from Seth Godin,
having just a very tight nichemarket and being able to find
them on LinkedIn and be able toconnect with them and build a
relationship.
So most people go to LinkedIn,and they go or any marketing
(07:14):
channel, and they say, Hey, I'vegot a program, come buy my
program.
And that's not how to domarketing.
Nobody wants that.
They don't want to be sold to.
So it's really just aboutconnecting and then building
some authentic communication, ifyou will.
And then from there, we teach awhole process around doing some
market research.
And many of our clients haveactually gotten their first
clients by doing marketresearch, not selling.
We teach them don't sell.
(07:34):
Just find out what your audiencereally needs, wants, and values.
And then from there, you'll beable to speak to them in that
authentic way and give them whatthey want, what they're saying
they
SPEAKER_03 (07:42):
want.
When you say market research,you're basically reaching out to
people to include them into aresearch paper or something like
that right
SPEAKER_01 (07:48):
no not a research paper more like just can you
give me some feedback this isthis is what i think people in
your niche want am i on theright track is this something
that you need you know justreally just finding out what
they want and without sellingthem even if they say i need
exactly what you say you'reoffering it's not a sales call
from there you can you know ifit's appropriate you can go to
that but it's really just aboutvalidating what you think you're
(08:10):
going to put out there a lot ofcoaches are really putting out
like they've got they've spentall this time building out a
program And I can tell you thisfrom experience.
People come to us and say, Ibuilt my program.
I've spent years perfecting it.
I'm ready to sell it.
I just need your help to sellit.
And the bottom line is you don'teven know that people want it.
So you've spent all that timeand you haven't validated what
you think people want.
You're going what you think theywant.
So our goal is to help them getout there and find out, is this
(08:33):
what your audience wants?
And through that, a lot oftimes, like I said, many of our
clients get their first clientsand we do it in a very effective
way.
We have scripts and templatesthat actually help get this done
in a way that has somebodygoing, I'd like to know more
about that.
When you have that ready, I'dlike to talk to you about that.
That's the way I'm speaking ofmarket research is really
validating what you think you'regoing to be putting out there.
SPEAKER_03 (08:52):
Interesting.
That is a very interestingapproach.
It actually validates if youroffer is actually going to work
before you actually build allthe packages and get everything
ready.
You actually validate it.
And then if you feel like it'sgoing to work, then you might
still have people who have saidthey are interested.
We can still reach out.
So you kind of like have leadsalready in the
SPEAKER_01 (09:12):
list.
Yes, exactly.
I mean, you can go back to thosepeople and say, I've now
referred find.
And I thank you for your supportin helping me to work this out.
And I've got a, I've got atoolbox and I'm ready to help
you to, to address these thingsand help you with your, the
transformation that you want.
Right.
And a lot of coaches areselling, you know, hours or
they're selling, you know, I'llwrite a resume and you have to
decide, do I want to be seen?
And we're speaking to careercoaches here, just as the
(09:34):
example, having just a writtenresume, anybody can go and find
that.
That's not hard to find.
People don't pay, you know, apremium price to have a resume
written.
What they pay a premium pricefor is, is finding their dream
job Right.
So you've got to learn to selltransformation, not sell hours,
not sell a resume.
Right.
That's that's not really whatthey want.
They think they want that.
(09:54):
But what they really need isthey want a better job and they
want it sooner rather thanlater.
Building that in and being ableto price it in a way that is
accessible to people, but alsonot cheap.
Right.
And I'm not suggesting that yougo high ticket.
That's also some people won't beable to reach that plateau.
But being able to speak to whatthey want and if they want that
transformation.
And again, it's not about aresume.
(10:15):
resume it's about what they wantultimately what is the outcome
of the outcome what if they hada great resume what would that
do for them so we help ourclients actually uncover all of
those kind of points you knowwhat is having this phase and
this step in your call it aprogram and we help our clients
actually develop their signaturesolution is what we call it and
so this step will provide youwith this right so every step
(10:35):
has several steps beneath it andeach of those steps that are
aligned with all of that what isthe outcome that the client can
expect to get from that
SPEAKER_03 (10:42):
how do you recommend when doing the market research
how do you recommend aapproaching to someone you
don't, basically you startconnecting with them on LinkedIn
and then you send them amessage.
How do you recommend themessaging?
It should be short andauthentic.
How do you recommend that?
SPEAKER_01 (10:54):
We teach a process called the WIO formula stands
for warm, engage, educate,offer, offer to meet, not offer
to sell.
So you have to warm people upbefore they're willing to give
you their time and energy to doa market research call, but it
should be very brief.
It should be very tight.
As far as the call itself, nomore than 15 minutes.
Like, you know, people are,they're doing you a favor,
right?
You're asking for a favor forthem.
(11:15):
to meet with you.
But how you get to that messageis you warm them up.
You know, you notice somethingabout their profile that speaks
to you and you comment on that,right?
So it doesn't feel like it's anautomated, like so many, so many
coaches out there are hittingpeople with these automated
messages.
I get them myself.
So I know how it feels, youknow, Hey, come by my program.
It's a total turnoff.
But if you say to me, you know,Hey, I was on your profile and I
(11:35):
noticed that you turned yourvirtual assistant business into
a successful coaching career.
You kind of approached me inthat way, you know, and so I'm
here I am, right?
There's something that waspersonal that you were able to
experience.
extrapolate from my profile thatreally had me go yeah i'm
interested in talking to you thekind of feeling that you want to
bring across is thatauthenticity it's not you're
just a number you're just youknow 50 000 people in my
(11:56):
automation process you knowthere are automated tools to
speed this up but you've got toconnect on a human level
SPEAKER_03 (12:01):
i see because obviously it's not to their
benefit coming to the call likeit's just not they don't get any
value yeah it is tough butyou've seen that it works really
well which is important
SPEAKER_01 (12:11):
yeah i see it works for us very well and i and we
teach it to our clients we teachour whole process I mean, I'm
just giving you kind of the tipof the iceberg, but we teach our
entire process.
We give templates and scriptsand how-tos and what to do in
this scenario.
And like I said, it works.
And that wasn't even theintention.
We were experimenting and peoplewere going, well, what are you
offering?
I'd love to know more.
(12:31):
And that is a natural result.
So for us, it's okay.
We have this market researchcall.
We find out.
We're validating if what weactually have.
First of all, for us, and Iwould say in this whole
scenario, we're validating whatwe have, but we also are trying
to uncover, do they need ourhelp?
Could they potentially be aprospect.
Those are the people weultimately want to get on a
call, market research orotherwise, right?
So I will always dig throughtheir profile and find areas
(12:53):
that they might be missing forthemselves.
And for career coaches oranybody in your audience, that
makes sense.
You go and find out what theymight be doing wrong.
You don't point that out tothem.
That's not what it's about, butit's that inherent knowing.
And so when you're on that call,you can kind of probe a little
bit.
I noticed this on your profile.
Tell me a little bit about whyyou do that or what does that do
for you and kind of turn itaround that they're coming to
(13:14):
the call as a favor to you.
but really you're uncovering, dothey need your help?
So for us, we will invite themto our five-day workshop.
There's no cost to it.
They can come and they can findout what we offer without it
feeling like a pressure saleskind of a thing.
It's an actual workshop.
It's hands-on.
You're going to come away with alot of insights that you can
take on your own or you can workwith us and we'll help you to
(13:34):
really tighten things up.
So that's kind of how thatstrategy works for us is that
they show up in the workshopbecause I built in enough
curiosity through that 15-minutecall that they go, I want to
know more about her.
It seems like she knows whatshe's doing.
I should maybe go find out more.
I should go to her workshop.
And so it works really, reallywell.
And again, it's not like a baitand switch.
You know, it really islegitimate market research.
And we use a lot of what we findout in those calls in some of
(13:57):
the other marketing that we do.
And like you, you know, our goalis to put out some kind of white
paper or report because we askfor their permission.
May we quote you in what we'redoing?
And then they reach out and go,when is your report going to be
ready?
I'd love to see myself in yourreport.
I'm sure you get that too.
SPEAKER_03 (14:11):
I like that.
And thank you for sharing.
It's a really fresh perspectivethat we haven't seen a the
podcast, I feel like it's goingto be very helpful to many
coaches who are listening tobeing creatively in that sense.
And right now, when thinkingabout your coaching business,
how are you seeing the futurefor the next one to three years?
Do you have any specific goalsthat you are working towards?
SPEAKER_01 (14:29):
Goals for myself and goals for our business?
Yeah, we'd like to help morecoaches there for all these
years up until this pastJanuary.
Actually, we could only serve ahandful of people.
We were high ticket, we were,you know, charging a lot, we
were giving a lot of one to onesupport.
So we really could limitourselves to maybe five coaches
at a time one those only alimited number of people could
afford the high price tag rightnow what we see for ourselves
(14:52):
and being able to help morepeople is just to open this up
we've made our price point a lotmore accessible that any coach
should be able to jump in andget the support that they need
now that we've gone through with40 clients in that one-to-one
setting and we still keep itone-to-one at some level but we
can open this up to more peopleso our goal is to fill more
workshops and have more clientsthat really want our
SPEAKER_03 (15:12):
help so basically you have more space and you want
to grow Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (15:15):
we don't want to limit it.
We want to feel like anybody canaccess what the training is that
we have, what our knowledge is,you know, this comes from our
own experience of building abusiness, there is no magic
wand, everybody out therelooking for like, oh, just
sprinkle, oh, this person tellsme on Facebook, if I just buy
it, download their$37, you know,download cheat sheet that I'll
have everything I need.
And they believe that and it'skind of sad, you know, so we're
(15:36):
really trying to kind of flipthe whole coaching industry on
side and saying, you know, weknow what it's like, we've
bought the cheat programs, we'vedone all the downloads, we've
tried all kinds of things.
And it was through building myvirtual assistant business that
really has informed my ownjourney to inform the journey
that we've created for ourclients.
A lot of the feedback that weget from people is that you guys
have the whole picture.
You're not just giving one pieceof the puzzle, you know, where
(15:58):
it's everything.
And it starts with who are youserving?
People really don't think aboutthat.
They think I just want anybodywho will pay me.
That's not a marketing strategyat all.
So we really start with thatclarity piece.
First of all, let's go evenfurther back.
What do you want for your life?
What do you want for your life?
Because only then can you designa business that's going to meet
you where you want to be rightso it's about what are your
(16:20):
financial goals i'll ask peopleall the time what's your goal
what do you want to make let'ssay in a year financially
speaking and they'll give me anumber and i'll ask them well
what are you charging and a lotof times i'm charging this by
the hour right or they're sayyou know i'm charging let's say
five hundred dollars but theirfinancial goal is way beyond
that which is fine everybodywants to make a lot of money but
a lot of times i'll take mylittle calculator and i'll work
(16:41):
it out with them and i'll gowell let's see you want to make
this amount at the end of theyear you're charging this.
So how many clients would youneed?
And I'll show them thecalculator.
And sometimes it's in thehundreds.
You need this many clients.
You can't possibly serve thatmany clients.
And if you think about it, youactually have to attract
multiples of that in order toget those clients.
You want to spend all day longconsulting with a hundred people
here and there, right?
(17:02):
We really try to help them getthat clarity on what they really
want and then try to help themwith, it could be helping them
reframe their pricing, maybecreating a package rather than
hours, creating a package or aprogram or a signature solution
or a road map, as we like tocall it, versus I'm going to
give you a resume and I'm goingto give you some coaching.
SPEAKER_03 (17:19):
Wanted to ask you also from your business
perspective and with yourbusiness, actually, what have
been some investments thatyou've done over time that you
feel very good about?
Either you learned a lot or gota good return from and what have
been some investments that youdon't feel so good about or you
feel like you didn't get thatmuch of a return from?
SPEAKER_01 (17:36):
Sure.
My partner and I are alwaysinvesting in working with
coaches ourselves.
We hire coaches.
Sometimes we have one, sometimeswe have two, sometimes we have
three.
It depends.
It It's for special reasons,right?
It could be for maybe we'redoing Facebook ads.
Maybe we're, you know, we'redeveloping a funnel.
So we need coaches for differentreasons.
Those have been worthwhileinvestments.
The other worthwhile investmentthat I've made in my business is
(17:56):
hiring a team.
As a virtual assistant and as acoach for virtual assistants
over the years, that is soimportant.
You can't possibly build abusiness by yourself.
You also can't build a businesswithout capital.
You've got to have money tobuild a business.
It's just like any otherbusiness.
People think I just need alaptop and I'm fine.
And that's not true.
Investments we've made thatwe've were not solid.
So we've hired people to doFacebook ads, for example, and
(18:19):
we had better ideas than some ofthe people that we were paying
to do it for us.
Retargeting, they weren'tretargeting, even though we
suggested that they do.
So we've spent a lot of money onFacebook ads that, you know,
some lately they've beenworking, they've been filling up
our workshops, but that'sbecause we're doing it ourselves
now.
We know what was missing fromthe companies that we have
hired.
And on a side note, like when Ispeak to people, I get caught
(18:41):
when I speak to prospects, Ihear all the time, I paid a
company to do LinkedIn leadgeneration for me and it didn't
work and I wasted a lot of moneyand I hear them.
I used to do lead generation aswell.
What I push back on them a lotof times is, and it could be the
fault of the lead generationcompany, but sometimes I'll say
to them in all honesty, becauseI know I used to do it for
clients, it might not be theirfault.
(19:01):
If you don't have the clarity onexactly who you serve and what
you want to say in your messageand you're relying on this
company to write your messagesfor you and to, you know, to do
all that, they're going to dojust the basics.
And so it's really not theirfault.
fault.
And it kills me to say thatbecause I know people spend a
lot of money on lead generation.
And I also know that thepitfalls of that, if you're not
(19:22):
speaking to people in anauthentic way and you're just
pushing yourself on people,they're going to be turned off
and it's going to hurt yourbusiness.
So that would be just as a sidenote, I've never paid for lead
generation.
I do it myself and I know how todo it effectively.
That's why I know it's not thefault usually of the company
that you've paid.
Unless that company is doingspecific, you know, we know how
to market effectively for youand we're going to do it the
(19:43):
right way, which is BillBuilding relationships, it's
never about just going andselling.
But if that's what they'redoing, it's going to fail every
time.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_03 (19:51):
investing in lead generation, especially if you're
just beginning and you don'treally know your ideal client
profile is not actually the bestway.
So you might be investing, butor at least you cannot complain
about it.
Let's say you are just trying tofigure out what that ideal
client profile is.
So you're getting many differenttypes of clients until you
figure out who you want to workwith.
But relying on an agency to findthat for you is difficult.
(20:14):
cold.
And that's where businesscoaches come in.
SPEAKER_01 (20:16):
That's right.
So it's about being able to seeyour blind spots.
Best investment you can make inyour business is to hire a
coach.
Work with people like Mark andmyself, you know, where we know
we've been down the path.
You know, we didn't wake up oneday and say, oh, we know how to
wave the magic wand and we canhelp people with that.
No, we had to go through our owncrap to get to where we are.
And so we know that we know whatdoesn't work and we know what
(20:37):
does work.
So that would be the bestinvestment I would suggest for
people is if you are a coach andyou think you're going to DIY
your way to success, you'll bestruggling for many years.
I hate to say it, but I came tomy business when I was a virtual
assistant and I had lost my joband I'll frame this up.
I lost my job.
My husband lost his job the sameweek I did.
We had a four-year-old son wewere facing and we ended up
(20:57):
short selling our home andfiling for bankruptcy.
I had to file for bankruptcy.
I had no money.
I had an unemployment check.
That's all I had, but I knew Idon't know how to build a
business.
I've never done that before.
I have no idea how to do that.
I know how to do the work forclients, but I don't know how to
market myself.
So I came to my business with,I've got a credit cards sitting
in my drawer in my desk thatI've never used.
(21:17):
But this coach that I know willhelp me to get to the other
side, I'm going to invest inthat coach.
And I did that several timesover.
First time was$15,000.
Next time was another$15,000.
But both times, I made my moneyback because I did the work and
I put in the sweat equity and Idid exactly what the coaches
told me to do.
And it always brought me areturn.
I am always surprised whencoaches really need the help,
(21:38):
but they stay stuck in, I don'thave the money.
I think people can get thesupport.
I have a business, but there areways to get that capital and it
might be uncomfortable.
But if you believe it's not anexpense, but an investment,
it'll be a good thing.
You'll get the ROI for sure.
SPEAKER_03 (21:53):
And you brought a good point earlier.
When I think about starting thebusiness, you have to think
about having capital, maybeinitially if you didn't have, or
thinking about creative ways youcan get it, but you're
definitely going to investmoney.
There's not going to be thatjust that one laptop and I'm
going to figure it out.
So there's always investments,even like in the smaller level,
like in order to do your job,you got to have tools.
(22:14):
Like there's no way
SPEAKER_01 (22:20):
you can do this on zero dollars.
Yeah.
(22:44):
Thank you so much.
(23:14):
I just need a certification andI'm going to be successful.
And actually, Mark and I kind ofbelieve that, and it's not the
case every time, but I would saycertification can actually harm
your business in a way.
I don't want to scare anybody insaying that, but it can
commoditize you in a way.
So if somebody says, I'mcertified in DISC, just for
example, I have a certificationin DISC.
Well, that's great.
But if you look on LinkedIn,there's probably 30,000 plus of
(23:37):
other DISC certified coaches.
So then they're just basingtheir decision to work with you
on your price, right?
So it's always, they're going togo with the lower price option
every time so that's howcertification can actually be
even though everybody wants tosay i'm going to put that on my
profile that's great don't relyon that to become to become
successful
SPEAKER_03 (23:54):
and we found that from our research as well so we
did our research paper last yearand one of the investments that
had the lowest return wasactually investing in
certifications and they're notcheap either so it's not like
there's like significant amountof money you're putting in to
get the certification but ifyou're thinking that the
certification is going to helpyou in any way marketing wise
that's not happening you mightget some knowledge, but people,
(24:16):
especially for coaches, peopledon't really care if you are a
CPC, MCC, PCC certified coachfrom ICF.
Most people are just not awareof it, that there are
certifications like that.
Only companies, certaincompanies, I guess, do require
you to have a certaincertification, but that is the
only case where you might get.
SPEAKER_01 (24:33):
That's what we say.
If a company is requiring you tohave it, that's the value in
that.
But the certification companies,and it's no fault of theirs,
that's not what they're designedto do.
They're designed to teach youthe technical skills of
coaching.
That's great.
I always said, if you'veinvested or you're planning to
invest in that, fine.
But like you said, it's notgoing to guarantee you business.
So those certification companiesare not teaching people how to
build a business.
(24:53):
And that's been thedisappointment I've heard over
and over and over again.
So that's fine.
Get your certification if that'swhat you choose to invest your
money in.
And you're right.
It's a lot of money.
I would actually suggest topeople, work with coaches like
us.
Let us help you to get marketed.
And then if you feel like youneed that certification and you
need those letters by your nameon LinkedIn, then do that.
But you're going to need moneyto come in the door.
So to be able to pay for thatcertification In your
SPEAKER_03 (25:15):
case, right now, think about your business and
think about growth in thefuture.
What are the challenges thatyou're facing in further growing
your business?
Where do you typically findchallenges for yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (25:25):
The mindset that we were just talking about is that,
I guess I'll call it a scarcitymindset, or maybe it's the
belief in themselves.
I'm not sure, but where peopleare held back by the financial
investment of getting thesupport that they need.
And that breaks my heart becauseI have a lot of coaches that
I'll consult with and, orthey'll do our workshop and then
they'll go away and go, well, Igot these two pieces and they
(25:46):
just what I needed.
I'm going to go off and figurethis out.
The rest of it on my own, notgoing to invest into your
program or getting the supportthat I need.
And ultimately they end up backin our program.
I tried this for a year.
I tried it for two years.
I'm still struggling andspinning my wheels.
I thought I had what I needed.
I really do need the support.
And we were actually just on aLinkedIn live today with one of
our clients.
(26:06):
And he was talking about thatexact thing.
Like, and he came to us withthat exact story.
So it was funny.
This just came up today.
He's like, you guys invited meto your work.
I came I did it I thought Icould figure this out on my own
and a year later I came back andsaid I should have done it
sooner and I'm really glad I'mhere now and I and he was
talking about all the returnshe's gotten since he's worked
with us and we didn't even askhim to we're like we're just
interviewing him for anotherreason but he went on and on I'm
(26:28):
gonna have to clip a whole bunchof testimonials out of that
that's been our bottleneck isthat we give this workshop it's
fabulous we've improved it youknow every time we do it and I'm
like it's to the point now whereit's just rinse and repeat we
could just do this every monthand ultimately we bump up
against people And even thoughit's what I would consider quite
affordable, like I said, it usedto be high ticket.
Now we've made it so it'saccessible for anybody.
(26:51):
I just want to say, if you can'tinvest this amount into your
business, then maybe you mightwant to get a job.
Like maybe this isn't the thingfor you.
You've got to be willing toinvest in your business to get
support.
That's the first place.
And yet there's other things.
There's software, there's team.
You shouldn't be doing all thework yourself.
You should be hiring a virtualassistant, but don't do that
yet.
Don't think you're going to hirepeople to do things for you.
(27:11):
And we're talking maybe the leadgeneration as an example until
you know what to do, becausethen you'll be wasting your
money.
If you don't know what to do tomarket your business, there's a
difference between outtaskingand outsourcing.
Outsourcing is to somebody whoknows what they're doing.
But again, you have to have yourauthentic voice.
Nobody can replicate that foryou.
So we teach our clients, we usedto do lead gen for the clients.
And now it's like, we're goingto teach you how to fish because
(27:33):
you need to know how to do thatfor yourself.
You need to do the outreach.
You need to have your messagingaligned.
And from there, and another kindof pitfall, like I said, is, and
it's aligned with that is maybethey don't have belief in
themselves if you know you havesomething to transform people's
lives you need to step into thatand be proud of that and be bold
about it so it's that's theother kind of thing that we bump
(27:53):
up against just maybe they don'tbelieve in themselves so they
can
SPEAKER_03 (27:56):
do this so it's mostly a mindset issue that kind
of like affects deconversion onthe workshop you would say that
is kind of like the mainbottleneck right now cool and
that makes sense and i feel likeit is the case with most people
who are running workshops is forthe people who they get on the
workshop not all of them areready or they might get ready
later on you mentioned that theyjust come back later and join
(28:19):
your program could also betiming most of the time and
appreciate thank you for sharingthat right now when thinking
about the coaches like yourselfwho want to scale their impact
and there's a lot of coaches whoare listening who also want to
scale their impact is there anyadvice you'd give to these
coaches
SPEAKER_01 (28:33):
well i think i've given a lot of that as far as
you know listen you've got to bebuilding your network that's
another thing i see a lot soi'll give you that kind of tip
but there's a lot of coaches outthere who are been told they've
been sold a of goods.
It says, oh, just post more postcontent and people will be the
path to your door again, usingthat term.
And then I'll look at how manypeople they're connected to.
And sometimes it's about 150,maybe it's 300 people on
(28:55):
LinkedIn.
I have 30,000 connections onLinkedIn.
I've had to remove some peopleso I could make room for more,
right?
If you're not growing yournetwork, nobody's seeing your
posts.
Those 150 people that you'reconnected to aren't even online
most of the time.
So who is seeing your posts?
So you have to think about thattoo.
So spending your time postingand not growing your network is
not going to help.
So that would be another kind ofpiece of advice that I would
(29:15):
give.
So it's all about, and it allpoints right back to what we
talked about in the beginning.
You've got to be buildingrelationships, authentic,
meaningful relationships, notjust go buy my program.
That is not building arelationship.
And so the market research isreally valuable, but be careful.
I hear a lot of people that aredoing inauthentic way.
And that's why I said we, I'mteasing it.
That's something that we teachand it works.
(29:36):
I know that because like I said,we get clients who tell us and
starting in phase two, when westart to go into the market
research, they're alreadystarting to sign clients.
And They're shocked and we'vebeen shocked.
Like that wasn't always theintention.
It's like, well, we'll help youto build relationships and maybe
one day they'll become a clientin the way that we're teaching
the way to do market research.
People are going, well, I wantthat.
How can I get that?
Well, that's not the purpose ofthis call, but I'd love to talk
(29:57):
to you about that.
So for us, it's to the workshop,but for others, it might be,
well, why don't we book anothercall and I'll walk you through
how we can do that together.
SPEAKER_03 (30:04):
Thank you for sharing.
That was actually one of myfavorite parts of this podcast
is we talked about that as astrategy.
So thank you so much for sharingthat.
And for anyone who is listeningto this and wants to connect
with you or find you, they cango into LinkedIn and look up
Jamie and basically search forJamie.
And they'll be able to find yourprofile.
SPEAKER_01 (30:24):
Yep.
My first name that was spelledJ-A-I-M-I-E, which is different
than a lot of Jamie.
Make sure you look for that.
If people want to join into ourworkshop, we have it open right
now for registration.
It's upscaleyourbusiness.com.
That's our website.
So if you can't find me onLinkedIn, go to the website,
upscaleyourbusiness.com slashfive, the number five dash day
So we call it the MAP workshop,which is Monetize, Accelerate,
(30:48):
Prosper.
And then when we get into theworkshop, we actually transition
that MAP into another acronym.
But I'll save that as a surprisefor when they join in.
Oh,
SPEAKER_03 (30:57):
thank you.
We'll make sure to put UpscaleYour Business, that link also in
the description of this podcastso people can find it.
Thank you so much, Jamie.
It was lovely to have you on the
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
show.
It was great to be here.
Thank you.
I appreciate the invite.
SPEAKER_02 (31:10):
That's it for this episode of Career Coaching
Secrets.
If you enjoyed thisconversation, Thank you.
Don't recommend ads on LinkedIn.
They're very expensive, but I dosee just making connections with
people.
And the key really is thatclarity piece of exactly who you
serve.
Many coaches that I speak with,and especially career coaches, I
would say, are very lumped intothe, I help anybody with a pulse
and a credit card, right?
I'll help anybody who needs myhelp.
And I think I could help anybodywith marketing, honestly, that
(00:20):
they don't even have to be acoach.
I could probably give them somegreat, everybody great strategy.
But our focus is to try to getthem to our clients to really
hone in on exactly who, that wecall it a minimum viable
audience.
That's not our term.
We kind of borrowed that fromSeth Godin.
Having just a very tight nichemarket and being able to find
them on LinkedIn and be able toconnect with them and build a
relationship.
So most people go to LinkedInand they go or any marketing
(00:42):
channel and they say, hey, I'vegot a program.
Come buy my program.
SPEAKER_02 (00:45):
Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast
where we talk with successfulcareer coaches on how they built
their success and the hardlessons they learned along the
way.
My name is Davis Nguyen and I'mthe founder of Purple Circle,
where we help career coachesscale their business to$100,000
years,$100,000 months, and even$100,000 Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (01:16):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of
Career Coaching Squared'spodcast.
I'm your host, Regan, andtoday's guest is Jamie
Skoltetti, a seasoned businesscoach and founder of Upscale
Your Business, where she helpscoaches and consultants rebuild
profitable practices withclarity, consistency, and
confidence.
After a 30-year corporatecareer, Jamie discovered
(01:36):
firsthand the challenges ofstanding out in a crowded
coaching industry and createdher own purpose-driven framework
to help others avoid overwhelmand attract the right clients
with more than a decade ofexperience guiding professionals
into thriving second careers.
She empowers her clients tocraft standout offers, design
authentic marketing thatresonates and align their
(01:57):
business vision with theirvalues and lifestyle.
And it's a pleasure for me tohave her on the podcast today.
Welcome to the show, Jamie.
SPEAKER_01 (02:03):
Thank you very much.
Glad to be here.
SPEAKER_03 (02:05):
Thank you for coming, Jamie.
And I wanted to ask you when itcomes to your beginnings as a
coach, first of all, whatinspired you to take that step
and become a coach and thenstart your own coaching
business?
business?
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
Actually, I didn't even start in the coaching
space.
When I came into the onlinespace, it was really out of
necessity.
So I had lost my job during the2008 2009 kind of economy crash
here in the US.
I actually consulted with acareer coach, ironically, and
she suggested that because I wasan executive assistant for 30
years.
So she suggested I become avirtual assistant.
And at that time, I reallydidn't know what that was.
(02:38):
Although I did have a friendsuggest that to me about three
years prior, I launched thatbusiness, the virtual assistant
business.
And I did that for about fourand a And then I started
coaching other virtualassistants because it took me
about two and a half years tofind my rhythm, find my
marketing strategy that wouldwork.
And so then I started to getsome clients and a lot of my
clients were actually careercoaches.
(02:59):
That's how I started,ironically, in this
conversation.
So I got one career coach as aclient and then she referred
other career coaches.
And so I kind of niched intothat area.
And now, like I said, it was,well, actually it was in 2009
when I launched that.
And in 2017, I had a client comemy way who ended up becoming my
business partner.
And really, we were starting tosee places where my clients, my
(03:20):
career coaching clients andother coaches that were being
referred to me were didn't havethe clarity on exactly who they
were meant to serve and exactlywhat they offered and how to
price themselves effectively andhow to have effective marketing.
So I really started to step intothe teaching space.
And that's how I became a coachfor coaches.
And so I've been doing thatsince 2017.
And so that's how I stepped intothat role is that my business
(03:41):
partner actually saw me as morethan just a task based, you
know, virtual assistant.
And I was really really burnedout on that business, to be
honest.
Just enjoyed the journey ofreally teaching people exactly
what they need to do from my ownexperience.
SPEAKER_03 (03:52):
Yeah.
When it comes to what you'redoing now, it's been around
eight years of doing this in2017 till now.
Yes.
Cool.
How would you describe exactlynow the ideal client profile?
We're now working with coaches.
Is there a specific type ofcoach?
I know we started with careercoaches.
How is it now?
SPEAKER_01 (04:09):
Yeah.
So I have pretty much any coachreally that just has a passion
and maybe they're new andthey're stepping out of their
corporate role and they'restepping into the coaching space
and so there might be a gap inthe knowledge there of exactly
how do I step into this role andmarket myself people think well
I just need a laptop and aninternet connection and maybe a
website and people will justcome beat a path to my door and
(04:29):
it doesn't go that way and sopeople are very surprised by
that and I know the feelingbecause I've been there but who
I serve now are anyone fromcareer coaches executive coaches
life coaches even businesscoaches people who want to help
other businesses succeed butmaybe they haven't found their
own rhythm yet as well reallyI'm a coach at coach as any
coach, really.
SPEAKER_03 (04:47):
How does the program work?
What type of program do they gothrough?
SPEAKER_01 (04:51):
So we have my partner and I, when I say we,
that's that I'm speaking up.
It's now a six month program,but it was originally a 90 day
program.
And really it's 90 days for thecore curriculum.
So we have, you know, trainingand we have three phases, which
is clarity clients and thenconsistency.
And through that, we have threesteps per phase.
So it's really a nine stepprogram and we walk them
through.
And so we do this kind of atribrid.
(05:11):
So there's some self-guidedpieces of it.
There's also one-to-onecoaching.
So at every phase they meet withwith my partner and I, and we
help them tie things in and allof that.
And then there's also weeklygroup hot seat sessions and
everybody gets a chance to haveany points that they need
addressed.
And so we do some group coachingas well to benefit each other or
the whole group as a whole.
SPEAKER_03 (05:29):
Where are you right now when it comes to marketing?
And this will be a questionthat's going to be interesting
also for other coaches.
What marketing channel are youfinding that is working really
well for you?
You mentioned initially you hadreferrals.
How is it working out right now?
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
Yeah, so we still have a lot of referrals.
We have a workshop that we give.
So that's kind of our littlelead magnet, if you will, is we
do a five-day and it's a freeworkshop where they get some
general principles, right?
And of course, the intentionthere is that they find enough
value that they want to continueand they want to continue with
the momentum that they'rebuilding in the workshop.
And LinkedIn is our, to answeryour question, LinkedIn is
(06:01):
really our primary channel.
And honestly, coaches can have avery thriving business with just
using LinkedIn if they know whatto do and how to do it.
There's obviously a lot ofstrategy around that that is not
just common knowledge.
It's really all about buildingrelationships and LinkedIn is
the place to do that.
You just have have to have thestrategy for it.
And that's what we teach.
SPEAKER_03 (06:18):
I want to dive a little bit into that.
So what sort of strategy do yousee working really well for you
right now?
So either you can do content,you can do outreach, you could
run ads.
There's so many things you cando in LinkedIn.
So what are you seeing workingreally well?
SPEAKER_01 (06:31):
I don't recommend ads on LinkedIn.
They're very expensive, but I dosee just making connections with
people.
And the key really is thatclarity piece of exactly who you
serve.
Many coaches that I speak with,and especially career coaches, I
would say, are very lumped intothe, I help anybody who with a
pulse and a credit card, right?
I'll help anybody who needs myhelp.
And I think I could help anybodywith marketing, honestly, that
(06:52):
they don't have to be a coach, Icould probably give them some
great everybody great strategy.
But our focus is to try to getthem to our clients to really
hone in on exactly who that wecall it a minimum viable
audience.
That's not our term, we kind ofborrowed that from Seth Godin,
having just a very tight nichemarket and being able to find
them on LinkedIn and be able toconnect with them and build a
relationship.
So most people go to LinkedIn,and they go or any marketing
(07:14):
channel, and they say, Hey, I'vegot a program, come buy my
program.
And that's not how to domarketing.
Nobody wants that.
They don't want to be sold to.
So it's really just aboutconnecting and then building
some authentic communication, ifyou will.
And then from there, we teach awhole process around doing some
market research.
And many of our clients haveactually gotten their first
clients by doing marketresearch, not selling.
We teach them don't sell.
(07:34):
Just find out what your audiencereally needs, wants, and values.
And then from there, you'll beable to speak to them in that
authentic way and give them whatthey want, what they're saying
they
SPEAKER_03 (07:42):
want.
When you say market research,you're basically reaching out to
people to include them into aresearch paper or something like
that right
SPEAKER_01 (07:48):
no not a research paper more like just can you
give me some feedback this isthis is what i think people in
your niche want am i on theright track is this something
that you need you know justreally just finding out what
they want and without sellingthem even if they say i need
exactly what you say you'reoffering it's not a sales call
from there you can you know ifit's appropriate you can go to
that but it's really just aboutvalidating what you think you're
(08:10):
going to put out there a lot ofcoaches are really putting out
like they've got they've spentall this time building out a
program And I can tell you thisfrom experience.
People come to us and say, Ibuilt my program.
I've spent years perfecting it.
I'm ready to sell it.
I just need your help to sellit.
And the bottom line is you don'teven know that people want it.
So you've spent all that timeand you haven't validated what
you think people want.
You're going what you think theywant.
So our goal is to help them getout there and find out, is this
(08:33):
what your audience wants?
And through that, a lot oftimes, like I said, many of our
clients get their first clientsand we do it in a very effective
way.
We have scripts and templatesthat actually help get this done
in a way that has somebodygoing, I'd like to know more
about that.
When you have that ready, I'dlike to talk to you about that.
That's the way I'm speaking ofmarket research is really
validating what you think you'regoing to be putting out there.
SPEAKER_03 (08:52):
Interesting.
That is a very interestingapproach.
It actually validates if youroffer is actually going to work
before you actually build allthe packages and get everything
ready.
You actually validate it.
And then if you feel like it'sgoing to work, then you might
still have people who have saidthey are interested.
We can still reach out.
So you kind of like have leadsalready in the
SPEAKER_01 (09:12):
list.
Yes, exactly.
I mean, you can go back to thosepeople and say, I've now
referred find.
And I thank you for your supportin helping me to work this out.
And I've got a, I've got atoolbox and I'm ready to help
you to, to address these thingsand help you with your, the
transformation that you want.
Right.
And a lot of coaches areselling, you know, hours or
they're selling, you know, I'llwrite a resume and you have to
decide, do I want to be seen?
And we're speaking to careercoaches here, just as the
(09:34):
example, having just a writtenresume, anybody can go and find
that.
That's not hard to find.
People don't pay, you know, apremium price to have a resume
written.
What they pay a premium pricefor is, is finding their dream
job Right.
So you've got to learn to selltransformation, not sell hours,
not sell a resume.
Right.
That's that's not really whatthey want.
They think they want that.
(09:54):
But what they really need isthey want a better job and they
want it sooner rather thanlater.
Building that in and being ableto price it in a way that is
accessible to people, but alsonot cheap.
Right.
And I'm not suggesting that yougo high ticket.
That's also some people won't beable to reach that plateau.
But being able to speak to whatthey want and if they want that
transformation.
And again, it's not about aresume.
(10:15):
resume it's about what they wantultimately what is the outcome
of the outcome what if they hada great resume what would that
do for them so we help ourclients actually uncover all of
those kind of points you knowwhat is having this phase and
this step in your call it aprogram and we help our clients
actually develop their signaturesolution is what we call it and
so this step will provide youwith this right so every step
(10:35):
has several steps beneath it andeach of those steps that are
aligned with all of that what isthe outcome that the client can
expect to get from that
SPEAKER_03 (10:42):
how do you recommend when doing the market research
how do you recommend aapproaching to someone you
don't, basically you startconnecting with them on LinkedIn
and then you send them amessage.
How do you recommend themessaging?
It should be short andauthentic.
How do you recommend that?
SPEAKER_01 (10:54):
We teach a process called the WIO formula stands
for warm, engage, educate,offer, offer to meet, not offer
to sell.
So you have to warm people upbefore they're willing to give
you their time and energy to doa market research call, but it
should be very brief.
It should be very tight.
As far as the call itself, nomore than 15 minutes.
Like, you know, people are,they're doing you a favor,
right?
You're asking for a favor forthem.
(11:15):
to meet with you.
But how you get to that messageis you warm them up.
You know, you notice somethingabout their profile that speaks
to you and you comment on that,right?
So it doesn't feel like it's anautomated, like so many, so many
coaches out there are hittingpeople with these automated
messages.
I get them myself.
So I know how it feels, youknow, Hey, come by my program.
It's a total turnoff.
But if you say to me, you know,Hey, I was on your profile and I
(11:35):
noticed that you turned yourvirtual assistant business into
a successful coaching career.
You kind of approached me inthat way, you know, and so I'm
here I am, right?
There's something that waspersonal that you were able to
experience.
extrapolate from my profile thatreally had me go yeah i'm
interested in talking to you thekind of feeling that you want to
bring across is thatauthenticity it's not you're
just a number you're just youknow 50 000 people in my
(11:56):
automation process you knowthere are automated tools to
speed this up but you've got toconnect on a human level
SPEAKER_03 (12:01):
i see because obviously it's not to their
benefit coming to the call likeit's just not they don't get any
value yeah it is tough butyou've seen that it works really
well which is important
SPEAKER_01 (12:11):
yeah i see it works for us very well and i and we
teach it to our clients we teachour whole process I mean, I'm
just giving you kind of the tipof the iceberg, but we teach our
entire process.
We give templates and scriptsand how-tos and what to do in
this scenario.
And like I said, it works.
And that wasn't even theintention.
We were experimenting and peoplewere going, well, what are you
offering?
I'd love to know more.
(12:31):
And that is a natural result.
So for us, it's okay.
We have this market researchcall.
We find out.
We're validating if what weactually have.
First of all, for us, and Iwould say in this whole
scenario, we're validating whatwe have, but we also are trying
to uncover, do they need ourhelp?
Could they potentially be aprospect.
Those are the people weultimately want to get on a
call, market research orotherwise, right?
So I will always dig throughtheir profile and find areas
(12:53):
that they might be missing forthemselves.
And for career coaches oranybody in your audience, that
makes sense.
You go and find out what theymight be doing wrong.
You don't point that out tothem.
That's not what it's about, butit's that inherent knowing.
And so when you're on that call,you can kind of probe a little
bit.
I noticed this on your profile.
Tell me a little bit about whyyou do that or what does that do
for you and kind of turn itaround that they're coming to
(13:14):
the call as a favor to you.
but really you're uncovering, dothey need your help?
So for us, we will invite themto our five-day workshop.
There's no cost to it.
They can come and they can findout what we offer without it
feeling like a pressure saleskind of a thing.
It's an actual workshop.
It's hands-on.
You're going to come away with alot of insights that you can
take on your own or you can workwith us and we'll help you to
(13:34):
really tighten things up.
So that's kind of how thatstrategy works for us is that
they show up in the workshopbecause I built in enough
curiosity through that 15-minutecall that they go, I want to
know more about her.
It seems like she knows whatshe's doing.
I should maybe go find out more.
I should go to her workshop.
And so it works really, reallywell.
And again, it's not like a baitand switch.
You know, it really islegitimate market research.
And we use a lot of what we findout in those calls in some of
(13:57):
the other marketing that we do.
And like you, you know, our goalis to put out some kind of white
paper or report because we askfor their permission.
May we quote you in what we'redoing?
And then they reach out and go,when is your report going to be
ready?
I'd love to see myself in yourreport.
I'm sure you get that too.
SPEAKER_03 (14:11):
I like that.
And thank you for sharing.
It's a really fresh perspectivethat we haven't seen a the
podcast, I feel like it's goingto be very helpful to many
coaches who are listening tobeing creatively in that sense.
And right now, when thinkingabout your coaching business,
how are you seeing the futurefor the next one to three years?
Do you have any specific goalsthat you are working towards?
SPEAKER_01 (14:29):
Goals for myself and goals for our business?
Yeah, we'd like to help morecoaches there for all these
years up until this pastJanuary.
Actually, we could only serve ahandful of people.
We were high ticket, we were,you know, charging a lot, we
were giving a lot of one to onesupport.
So we really could limitourselves to maybe five coaches
at a time one those only alimited number of people could
afford the high price tag rightnow what we see for ourselves
(14:52):
and being able to help morepeople is just to open this up
we've made our price point a lotmore accessible that any coach
should be able to jump in andget the support that they need
now that we've gone through with40 clients in that one-to-one
setting and we still keep itone-to-one at some level but we
can open this up to more peopleso our goal is to fill more
workshops and have more clientsthat really want our
SPEAKER_03 (15:12):
help so basically you have more space and you want
to grow Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (15:15):
we don't want to limit it.
We want to feel like anybody canaccess what the training is that
we have, what our knowledge is,you know, this comes from our
own experience of building abusiness, there is no magic
wand, everybody out therelooking for like, oh, just
sprinkle, oh, this person tellsme on Facebook, if I just buy
it, download their$37, you know,download cheat sheet that I'll
have everything I need.
And they believe that and it'skind of sad, you know, so we're
(15:36):
really trying to kind of flipthe whole coaching industry on
side and saying, you know, weknow what it's like, we've
bought the cheat programs, we'vedone all the downloads, we've
tried all kinds of things.
And it was through building myvirtual assistant business that
really has informed my ownjourney to inform the journey
that we've created for ourclients.
A lot of the feedback that weget from people is that you guys
have the whole picture.
You're not just giving one pieceof the puzzle, you know, where
(15:58):
it's everything.
And it starts with who are youserving?
People really don't think aboutthat.
They think I just want anybodywho will pay me.
That's not a marketing strategyat all.
So we really start with thatclarity piece.
First of all, let's go evenfurther back.
What do you want for your life?
What do you want for your life?
Because only then can you designa business that's going to meet
you where you want to be rightso it's about what are your
(16:20):
financial goals i'll ask peopleall the time what's your goal
what do you want to make let'ssay in a year financially
speaking and they'll give me anumber and i'll ask them well
what are you charging and a lotof times i'm charging this by
the hour right or they're sayyou know i'm charging let's say
five hundred dollars but theirfinancial goal is way beyond
that which is fine everybodywants to make a lot of money but
a lot of times i'll take mylittle calculator and i'll work
(16:41):
it out with them and i'll gowell let's see you want to make
this amount at the end of theyear you're charging this.
So how many clients would youneed?
And I'll show them thecalculator.
And sometimes it's in thehundreds.
You need this many clients.
You can't possibly serve thatmany clients.
And if you think about it, youactually have to attract
multiples of that in order toget those clients.
You want to spend all day longconsulting with a hundred people
here and there, right?
(17:02):
We really try to help them getthat clarity on what they really
want and then try to help themwith, it could be helping them
reframe their pricing, maybecreating a package rather than
hours, creating a package or aprogram or a signature solution
or a road map, as we like tocall it, versus I'm going to
give you a resume and I'm goingto give you some coaching.
SPEAKER_03 (17:19):
Wanted to ask you also from your business
perspective and with yourbusiness, actually, what have
been some investments thatyou've done over time that you
feel very good about?
Either you learned a lot or gota good return from and what have
been some investments that youdon't feel so good about or you
feel like you didn't get thatmuch of a return from?
SPEAKER_01 (17:36):
Sure.
My partner and I are alwaysinvesting in working with
coaches ourselves.
We hire coaches.
Sometimes we have one, sometimeswe have two, sometimes we have
three.
It depends.
It It's for special reasons,right?
It could be for maybe we'redoing Facebook ads.
Maybe we're, you know, we'redeveloping a funnel.
So we need coaches for differentreasons.
Those have been worthwhileinvestments.
The other worthwhile investmentthat I've made in my business is
(17:56):
hiring a team.
As a virtual assistant and as acoach for virtual assistants
over the years, that is soimportant.
You can't possibly build abusiness by yourself.
You also can't build a businesswithout capital.
You've got to have money tobuild a business.
It's just like any otherbusiness.
People think I just need alaptop and I'm fine.
And that's not true.
Investments we've made thatwe've were not solid.
So we've hired people to doFacebook ads, for example, and
(18:19):
we had better ideas than some ofthe people that we were paying
to do it for us.
Retargeting, they weren'tretargeting, even though we
suggested that they do.
So we've spent a lot of money onFacebook ads that, you know,
some lately they've beenworking, they've been filling up
our workshops, but that'sbecause we're doing it ourselves
now.
We know what was missing fromthe companies that we have
hired.
And on a side note, like when Ispeak to people, I get caught
(18:41):
when I speak to prospects, Ihear all the time, I paid a
company to do LinkedIn leadgeneration for me and it didn't
work and I wasted a lot of moneyand I hear them.
I used to do lead generation aswell.
What I push back on them a lotof times is, and it could be the
fault of the lead generationcompany, but sometimes I'll say
to them in all honesty, becauseI know I used to do it for
clients, it might not be theirfault.
(19:01):
If you don't have the clarity onexactly who you serve and what
you want to say in your messageand you're relying on this
company to write your messagesfor you and to, you know, to do
all that, they're going to dojust the basics.
And so it's really not theirfault.
fault.
And it kills me to say thatbecause I know people spend a
lot of money on lead generation.
And I also know that thepitfalls of that, if you're not
(19:22):
speaking to people in anauthentic way and you're just
pushing yourself on people,they're going to be turned off
and it's going to hurt yourbusiness.
So that would be just as a sidenote, I've never paid for lead
generation.
I do it myself and I know how todo it effectively.
That's why I know it's not thefault usually of the company
that you've paid.
Unless that company is doingspecific, you know, we know how
to market effectively for youand we're going to do it the
(19:43):
right way, which is BillBuilding relationships, it's
never about just going andselling.
But if that's what they'redoing, it's going to fail every
time.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_03 (19:51):
investing in lead generation, especially if you're
just beginning and you don'treally know your ideal client
profile is not actually the bestway.
So you might be investing, butor at least you cannot complain
about it.
Let's say you are just trying tofigure out what that ideal
client profile is.
So you're getting many differenttypes of clients until you
figure out who you want to workwith.
But relying on an agency to findthat for you is difficult.
(20:14):
cold.
And that's where businesscoaches come in.
SPEAKER_01 (20:16):
That's right.
So it's about being able to seeyour blind spots.
Best investment you can make inyour business is to hire a
coach.
Work with people like Mark andmyself, you know, where we know
we've been down the path.
You know, we didn't wake up oneday and say, oh, we know how to
wave the magic wand and we canhelp people with that.
No, we had to go through our owncrap to get to where we are.
And so we know that we know whatdoesn't work and we know what
(20:37):
does work.
So that would be the bestinvestment I would suggest for
people is if you are a coach andyou think you're going to DIY
your way to success, you'll bestruggling for many years.
I hate to say it, but I came tomy business when I was a virtual
assistant and I had lost my joband I'll frame this up.
I lost my job.
My husband lost his job the sameweek I did.
We had a four-year-old son wewere facing and we ended up
(20:57):
short selling our home andfiling for bankruptcy.
I had to file for bankruptcy.
I had no money.
I had an unemployment check.
That's all I had, but I knew Idon't know how to build a
business.
I've never done that before.
I have no idea how to do that.
I know how to do the work forclients, but I don't know how to
market myself.
So I came to my business with,I've got a credit cards sitting
in my drawer in my desk thatI've never used.
(21:17):
But this coach that I know willhelp me to get to the other
side, I'm going to invest inthat coach.
And I did that several timesover.
First time was$15,000.
Next time was another$15,000.
But both times, I made my moneyback because I did the work and
I put in the sweat equity and Idid exactly what the coaches
told me to do.
And it always brought me areturn.
I am always surprised whencoaches really need the help,
(21:38):
but they stay stuck in, I don'thave the money.
I think people can get thesupport.
I have a business, but there areways to get that capital and it
might be uncomfortable.
But if you believe it's not anexpense, but an investment,
it'll be a good thing.
You'll get the ROI for sure.
SPEAKER_03 (21:53):
And you brought a good point earlier.
When I think about starting thebusiness, you have to think
about having capital, maybeinitially if you didn't have, or
thinking about creative ways youcan get it, but you're
definitely going to investmoney.
There's not going to be thatjust that one laptop and I'm
going to figure it out.
So there's always investments,even like in the smaller level,
like in order to do your job,you got to have tools.
(22:14):
Like there's no way
SPEAKER_01 (22:20):
you can do this on zero dollars.
Yeah.
(22:44):
Thank you so much.
(23:14):
I just need a certification andI'm going to be successful.
And actually, Mark and I kind ofbelieve that, and it's not the
case every time, but I would saycertification can actually harm
your business in a way.
I don't want to scare anybody insaying that, but it can
commoditize you in a way.
So if somebody says, I'mcertified in DISC, just for
example, I have a certificationin DISC.
Well, that's great.
But if you look on LinkedIn,there's probably 30,000 plus of
(23:37):
other DISC certified coaches.
So then they're just basingtheir decision to work with you
on your price, right?
So it's always, they're going togo with the lower price option
every time so that's howcertification can actually be
even though everybody wants tosay i'm going to put that on my
profile that's great don't relyon that to become to become
successful
SPEAKER_03 (23:54):
and we found that from our research as well so we
did our research paper last yearand one of the investments that
had the lowest return wasactually investing in
certifications and they're notcheap either so it's not like
there's like significant amountof money you're putting in to
get the certification but ifyou're thinking that the
certification is going to helpyou in any way marketing wise
that's not happening you mightget some knowledge, but people,
(24:16):
especially for coaches, peopledon't really care if you are a
CPC, MCC, PCC certified coachfrom ICF.
Most people are just not awareof it, that there are
certifications like that.
Only companies, certaincompanies, I guess, do require
you to have a certaincertification, but that is the
only case where you might get.
SPEAKER_01 (24:33):
That's what we say.
If a company is requiring you tohave it, that's the value in
that.
But the certification companies,and it's no fault of theirs,
that's not what they're designedto do.
They're designed to teach youthe technical skills of
coaching.
That's great.
I always said, if you'veinvested or you're planning to
invest in that, fine.
But like you said, it's notgoing to guarantee you business.
So those certification companiesare not teaching people how to
build a business.
(24:53):
And that's been thedisappointment I've heard over
and over and over again.
So that's fine.
Get your certification if that'swhat you choose to invest your
money in.
And you're right.
It's a lot of money.
I would actually suggest topeople, work with coaches like
us.
Let us help you to get marketed.
And then if you feel like youneed that certification and you
need those letters by your nameon LinkedIn, then do that.
But you're going to need moneyto come in the door.
So to be able to pay for thatcertification In your
SPEAKER_03 (25:15):
case, right now, think about your business and
think about growth in thefuture.
What are the challenges thatyou're facing in further growing
your business?
Where do you typically findchallenges for yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (25:25):
The mindset that we were just talking about is that,
I guess I'll call it a scarcitymindset, or maybe it's the
belief in themselves.
I'm not sure, but where peopleare held back by the financial
investment of getting thesupport that they need.
And that breaks my heart becauseI have a lot of coaches that
I'll consult with and, orthey'll do our workshop and then
they'll go away and go, well, Igot these two pieces and they
(25:46):
just what I needed.
I'm going to go off and figurethis out.
The rest of it on my own, notgoing to invest into your
program or getting the supportthat I need.
And ultimately they end up backin our program.
I tried this for a year.
I tried it for two years.
I'm still struggling andspinning my wheels.
I thought I had what I needed.
I really do need the support.
And we were actually just on aLinkedIn live today with one of
our clients.
(26:06):
And he was talking about thatexact thing.
Like, and he came to us withthat exact story.
So it was funny.
This just came up today.
He's like, you guys invited meto your work.
I came I did it I thought Icould figure this out on my own
and a year later I came back andsaid I should have done it
sooner and I'm really glad I'mhere now and I and he was
talking about all the returnshe's gotten since he's worked
with us and we didn't even askhim to we're like we're just
interviewing him for anotherreason but he went on and on I'm
(26:28):
gonna have to clip a whole bunchof testimonials out of that
that's been our bottleneck isthat we give this workshop it's
fabulous we've improved it youknow every time we do it and I'm
like it's to the point now whereit's just rinse and repeat we
could just do this every monthand ultimately we bump up
against people And even thoughit's what I would consider quite
affordable, like I said, it usedto be high ticket.
Now we've made it so it'saccessible for anybody.
(26:51):
I just want to say, if you can'tinvest this amount into your
business, then maybe you mightwant to get a job.
Like maybe this isn't the thingfor you.
You've got to be willing toinvest in your business to get
support.
That's the first place.
And yet there's other things.
There's software, there's team.
You shouldn't be doing all thework yourself.
You should be hiring a virtualassistant, but don't do that
yet.
Don't think you're going to hirepeople to do things for you.
(27:11):
And we're talking maybe the leadgeneration as an example until
you know what to do, becausethen you'll be wasting your
money.
If you don't know what to do tomarket your business, there's a
difference between outtaskingand outsourcing.
Outsourcing is to somebody whoknows what they're doing.
But again, you have to have yourauthentic voice.
Nobody can replicate that foryou.
So we teach our clients, we usedto do lead gen for the clients.
And now it's like, we're goingto teach you how to fish because
(27:33):
you need to know how to do thatfor yourself.
You need to do the outreach.
You need to have your messagingaligned.
And from there, and another kindof pitfall, like I said, is, and
it's aligned with that is maybethey don't have belief in
themselves if you know you havesomething to transform people's
lives you need to step into thatand be proud of that and be bold
about it so it's that's theother kind of thing that we bump
(27:53):
up against just maybe they don'tbelieve in themselves so they
can
SPEAKER_03 (27:56):
do this so it's mostly a mindset issue that kind
of like affects deconversion onthe workshop you would say that
is kind of like the mainbottleneck right now cool and
that makes sense and i feel likeit is the case with most people
who are running workshops is forthe people who they get on the
workshop not all of them areready or they might get ready
later on you mentioned that theyjust come back later and join
(28:19):
your program could also betiming most of the time and
appreciate thank you for sharingthat right now when thinking
about the coaches like yourselfwho want to scale their impact
and there's a lot of coaches whoare listening who also want to
scale their impact is there anyadvice you'd give to these
coaches
SPEAKER_01 (28:33):
well i think i've given a lot of that as far as
you know listen you've got to bebuilding your network that's
another thing i see a lot soi'll give you that kind of tip
but there's a lot of coaches outthere who are been told they've
been sold a of goods.
It says, oh, just post more postcontent and people will be the
path to your door again, usingthat term.
And then I'll look at how manypeople they're connected to.
And sometimes it's about 150,maybe it's 300 people on
(28:55):
LinkedIn.
I have 30,000 connections onLinkedIn.
I've had to remove some peopleso I could make room for more,
right?
If you're not growing yournetwork, nobody's seeing your
posts.
Those 150 people that you'reconnected to aren't even online
most of the time.
So who is seeing your posts?
So you have to think about thattoo.
So spending your time postingand not growing your network is
not going to help.
So that would be another kind ofpiece of advice that I would
(29:15):
give.
So it's all about, and it allpoints right back to what we
talked about in the beginning.
You've got to be buildingrelationships, authentic,
meaningful relationships, notjust go buy my program.
That is not building arelationship.
And so the market research isreally valuable, but be careful.
I hear a lot of people that aredoing inauthentic way.
And that's why I said we, I'mteasing it.
That's something that we teachand it works.
(29:36):
I know that because like I said,we get clients who tell us and
starting in phase two, when westart to go into the market
research, they're alreadystarting to sign clients.
And They're shocked and we'vebeen shocked.
Like that wasn't always theintention.
It's like, well, we'll help youto build relationships and maybe
one day they'll become a clientin the way that we're teaching
the way to do market research.
People are going, well, I wantthat.
How can I get that?
Well, that's not the purpose ofthis call, but I'd love to talk
(29:57):
to you about that.
So for us, it's to the workshop,but for others, it might be,
well, why don't we book anothercall and I'll walk you through
how we can do that together.
SPEAKER_03 (30:04):
Thank you for sharing.
That was actually one of myfavorite parts of this podcast
is we talked about that as astrategy.
So thank you so much for sharingthat.
And for anyone who is listeningto this and wants to connect
with you or find you, they cango into LinkedIn and look up
Jamie and basically search forJamie.
And they'll be able to find yourprofile.
SPEAKER_01 (30:24):
Yep.
My first name that was spelledJ-A-I-M-I-E, which is different
than a lot of Jamie.
Make sure you look for that.
If people want to join into ourworkshop, we have it open right
now for registration.
It's upscaleyourbusiness.com.
That's our website.
So if you can't find me onLinkedIn, go to the website,
upscaleyourbusiness.com slashfive, the number five dash day
So we call it the MAP workshop,which is Monetize, Accelerate,
(30:48):
Prosper.
And then when we get into theworkshop, we actually transition
that MAP into another acronym.
But I'll save that as a surprisefor when they join in.
Oh,
SPEAKER_03 (30:57):
thank you.
We'll make sure to put UpscaleYour Business, that link also in
the description of this podcastso people can find it.
Thank you so much, Jamie.
It was lovely to have you on the
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
show.
It was great to be here.
Thank you.
I appreciate the invite.
SPEAKER_02 (31:10):
That's it for this episode of Career Coaching
Secrets.
If you enjoyed thisconversation, Thank you.
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