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October 21, 2025 15 mins

Still passing out business cards like it’s 1995?

If you’re a new coach trying to get clients, here’s the hard truth: business cards aren’t the tool that’ll build your business. 

But there is something better—and it starts with how you talk about what you do.

In this episode, I’ll walk you through:

  • Why business cards aren’t helping you get clients
  • What to do instead to create real connection
  • A better way to start conversations that lead to paying clients

🎁 BONUS: Grab my free 7-Step Checklist to Build a Coaching Biz That Gets Clients

💬 Want my 1:1 eyes on your coaching biz?
Apply to work together: https://coachwithclients.com/privatecoaching

Drop me a line and share your thoughts!

Support the show

Meet Your Host:

Hey, I’m Michelle — The coaches’ coach.

I'm a visibility marketing strategist who helps female coaches simplify their message, stand out, and scale their business without the hustle.

I believe your coaching business should feel beautiful and profitable — without sacrificing your sanity, your weekends, or your personality.

Through magnetic messaging, simple marketing systems, and smart visibility strategies, I help you build a brand that clients can’t help but say, “OMG, that’s who I need!”

More clarity, more clients, more champagne moments. 🥂

Because building your dream business shouldn’t be a nightmare — it should feel like coming home.


🐦 SOCIAL STUFF:

Instagram ➔ / elevatelifecoach
Facebook ➔ / coachmichellekuei
Linkedin ➔ / michellekuei
Website ➔ http://elevatelifecoaching.org


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michelle Kuei (00:00):
Are you still carrying your stack of business
card like it's 2008?
In this episode, I'm going tobreak down why handling out your
card is not the best way as youthink it is, and what to do
instead to make meaningfulconnections that will actually
lead you to your paying client.
And we're talking aboutvisibility, real conversation,
and how to leave lastingimpression that goes way beyond

(00:24):
just a piece of paper thatprobably gets tossed by the end
of the event.
Whether you're networking inperson or online, you're going
to leave this episode with threesmarter, simpler ways to get
remembered and also to befollowed up with.
Alright, coaches, you know thatawkward moment when someone
hands you their business cardand you immediately shuffle into

(00:47):
your bag, never get seen again,or you go home and toss it
right into the trash.
Now, what if someone does thatto your business card?
The one that you spend hundredsof dollars to print it, and not
to mention hours of precioustime on Canva just to try to

(01:07):
design it.
And all that is gone withinsplit second and still no paying
clients.
If that's what you've beendoing to make connections in
your coaching business, we needto talk.
Hey coach, welcome to Make ItVisible Podcast.
I'm Michelle Kwei, yourvisibility marketing coach, and
I help female life coaches toget seen in all the right

(01:30):
places, attract happy payingclients, and build a coaching
business that actually feelsgood to run.
Even if you are still trying tofigure things out.
Each week I'm giving youvisibility tips, simple
marketing strategies, andshowing you how to create the
kind of content that connectswith your audience so that you
can stand out, build yourauthority, and attract clients

(01:53):
who's already feeling like a yesbefore they jump onto your
discovery call.
So grab a notebook, pouryourself a favorite drink, and
that's make your coachingbusiness visible.
So I recently had the pleasureof keynote speaking for the
American Business WomenAssociation.
And as a life coach who hadbuilt her coaching business

(02:15):
entirely remotely, I gotta say Iwas surprised by how many
business cards I have collected.
If you are a life coach andyou're attending networking
events, hoping to make someconnection that we either get
you client before you leave theevent or have a referral, this
episode is for you.
Here are the top four reasonswhy your paper business cards

(02:47):
don't actually work.
Reason number one is a verypassive.
If you think about the way thatwe're handling these business
cards, you go and attend anevent and you can like hold on
to them, and probably by thetime you get home, you're
exhausted, you're tired.
So you're unlikely to actuallygo through your business card,
even though some of you might befiling them and maybe you're

(03:09):
reaching out to them, but youcan't possibly reach out to
every single person who handsyou a business card, and that
takes a lot of time to sit downand process them, and your time
is precious.
That's a passive activity thatwe did back in the days where
technology wasn't the way thatwe see today.
You're in the modern days now,there's a better way of doing

(03:31):
this.
And reason number two that'swhy they don't work is because
people forget who you are.
Now, how many of us have abusiness card that doesn't have
a picture on there and itdoesn't really say anything
special about where did I meetthis person?
Now, if you're a pro, you mightturn that person's business car
around and you might writemaybe a note like where do we

(03:53):
meet or what conversation wehad.
That's a pro level of how youhandle these business cards.
The majority of the coachesthat I work with, they are
beginner, they're intermediate,and they have no idea of what to
do with these business cardsbesides just the fact that maybe
I need to send an email tothem.
So people forget who you are,and which is why they don't even

(04:16):
care that they met you at thisevent.
Life just got too busy and theymove on.
Reason number three is they gettossed, they get lost, and they
get forgotten.
Once you toss it into your bag,chances are it's gonna take you
months or maybe even years torealize, oh, I there's a
business car in here.
I wonder who this is from.
And then you have to go back tothe internet, you have to look

(04:38):
up that person.
You kind of vaguely remember,oh yeah, I met this person at a
networking event.
And by then, if that person'sbusiness still exists, then you
might have the luck of findingthat business.
Otherwise, that connection waslost and people probably don't
even remember who you are.
Reason number four of why thesepaper business cards don't work
is they don't spark any realconversation.

(05:01):
It's kind of like a digitalflyer that you pass it out and
just hoping that people willremember.
But reality is the conversationis going to spark memory.
Something that's memorable,something that you said that
stood out for them, that isgoing to get remembered, not the
business card that you pass itout during an event.

(05:22):
You're sitting there and you'rewondering, okay, Michelle,
these four things that don'twork, and maybe business card is
no longer the things that Ineed to do in networking event,
and God forbid, I just printedanother hundred or two hundred
of them.
What do I do?
Here are the things that Iwould suggest, and that they
would actually work better basedon my experience of attending

(05:46):
conferences, networking events,and building my own life
coaching business.
One is you want to have asimple one-line introduction
about who you are, who you help,how people will remember, and
also have a picture on yourbusiness card.
That's a pro level.
You need to have a picture onyour business card, not your

(06:09):
logo.
Nobody cares about the logo.
We want to know who thisbusiness card belongs to, and
maybe a lot of us will rememberthe faces rather than the name.
So put a picture on your paperbusiness card and that includes
a one-liner introduction.
Now, if you need help puttingthat one-liner, I help who doing

(06:30):
what so they can have theresults.
Let me know.
Comment down below.
I'll reach out to you and wecan set up a call or I can share
some exercise with you to helpyou to narrow that down.
The second thing that's goingto work is you want to lead it
with a connection and not somuch your credential.
Maybe it's a question, anempowering question, or maybe

(06:52):
it's a quote, maybe it's a shortstory, maybe it's a one-line
thing that really stands youapart from all these other
cards.
Think of a creative way of howpeople can remember.
Uh, whether it's visualstorytelling or it's through the
words, through the quotes.
I remember one of my versionsof my business card, I actually

(07:14):
had my own quote behind thebusiness card because it
actually came out from my book,perfectly normal.
So I took out a quote and I putit on the back of my business
card.
Also, in the front, I have apicture of myself, and next to
it, I have my title, I help whowith what so that they can have

(07:34):
this type of outcome.
So those are the two thingsthat's going to work.
And these have to do withpretty much the basics, right?
How you design your businesscard if you choose to hand them
out.
Now, the third way of that workis to reach out to that person
and just say, Hey, I would loveto send you a quick resource

(07:58):
that could help you toaccomplish X, Y, and Z, right?
This has nothing to do withhanding out your business card.
You might have a card, youmight have a QR code that has
maybe it's a resource that youhave put together and you're
handling that out instead, whichmeans that you're offering a

(08:18):
value and a follow-up.
What you say would be somethinglike, I love to send you, let's
say you had a conversation withsomeone at the networking
event, and you can say somethingaround the fact that I love to
send you a quick reference thatwould help you to stay more
organized, for example.
And that person during yourconversation, that person might

(08:40):
say, Well, yeah, sure, I know Ilove to take a look at it.
So you send that person thatlink, or just get that person to
jump onto your email rightaway.
It's much better way of makingthat connection, possibly a
referral in the future, or thatperson might just be your ideal
client, and that is yourhandshake right there when

(09:02):
you're networking.
All right.
So we talked about the threethings that would make it
better.
You need to have a one-lineintroduction about who you are,
what you help, right?
And you want to lead it withconnection.
So ask great questions.
When you're out there andyou're networking with people,
ask great questions.
What do you do?
What are some of the challengesthat you're seeing, you're here

(09:23):
from your experience, from yourfield, and share your story,
like how you got inspired intothe field that you choose, into
the niche that you choose, orwhy you became a coach.
And the last thing you wantedto talk about is once you
understand what that person isseeing, or the challenges that
person is experiencing, you wantto kind of offer a value of,

(09:45):
hey, love to send you a quickresource that might be able to
help you moving forward.
And those are just the threesimple steps that you can do
during a networking event or anyconferences that you attend and
meeting strangers who mightpotentially be your ideal
client.
So, what to do instead ofhandling out your car?

(10:06):
So we talked about the three uhkind of like conversational
starter.
So, what are some of the thingsthat you can do instead of
handling out your car?
One is that you can take outyour phone and just simply say,
that's connect on LinkedIn, orlet me follow you on Instagram
right now, right?
And so you make that connectionright there on the spot.
Or you can have something Itypically do is I said, I got a

(10:30):
free guide that might help you.
Do you want me to text it overto you, or would you like me to
email that to you?
So right there on the spot,you're making that instant
connection that you're not goingto lose that connection
whatsoever, right?
It's not going to the trash.
Now, once you get them ontoyour email list or you get them
onto your social, you wanted toremember to send them a message,

(10:54):
right?
To follow up with theintention.
You can send a voicemail, uhreference, or a calendar to say,
hey, you know, I would love toinvite you to a coffee date with
me so that you can continuethis conversation further.
So, in other words, before youwalked into a networking event,
just with your hundreds ofbusiness cards, you want to have

(11:15):
an intention of what do I wantto walk away from this event?
Do I want to make more businessconnections?
Do I want to actually get aclient?
Do I have a resource?
Do I want to build my emaillist?
What is it that you want to getand walk away from this event?
After the event, you want tofollow it up with intentions.
So sending a voice note orsending an email to thank

(11:39):
everybody for making thatconnection with you, right?
You gotta be intentional interms of your follow-up.
Now, one of my favorite thingsto do is to download this
digital app on my mobile phone.
So instead of handing out paperbusiness card, I carry a
digital app on my phone before Igo to the event.

(12:00):
So I will make sure to updateall my links, all my email, my
contact.
And this way, by the time youget to the event, you can simply
take out your phone and you canshare the digital version of it
directly to the person's phoneand become a contact.
Once that you become a contact,you can actually take it a step

(12:22):
further on that digital app.
You can take a quick note ofhow did I meet this person, what
conversation I had, and what ismy intention and what do I want
to do in terms of the nextstep.
Maybe their ideal client, maybetheir possible referral
partner.
You can simply make a noteright there on your app when you

(12:44):
sit down.
One of my personal favoritedigital apps is something called
Blink B L I N Q, and you canfind it on most of your mobile
device in the App Store.
You can download it.
There's a free version andthere's a pay version.
So it's called Blink B L I N Q.
Now, most coaches struggle toget paying clients, not because

(13:07):
they don't have every intentionto make that connection.
A lot of you are going outthere and you're making yourself
visible.
But these are the kind ofthings that no one ever told
you, right?
When you're so busy gettingtrained for clients.
So before you spend hundreds ofdollars printing out business
cards and passing them out likewater, hoping that one of these

(13:30):
business cards will actually getyou clients.
I gotta tell you, my friend,there's a better way of doing
this and putting yourself outthere.
I know you're working hard toput yourself out there, but this
is not a great way of gettingyou the paying clients and
having that referral partner.
And the thing is, you don'tneed another business card.

(13:51):
What you need is a plan, a planthat you can put it together,
walking with the intention, showup purposely so that you can
get more paying clients andconsistent paying clients coming
into your business.
And that is the reason why Icreated the seven-step checklist
to build a coaching businessthat gets client.

(14:12):
It's a very simple seven-steproadmap.
And this is my framework when Iwork one-on-one with my
clients.
It is a very simple roadmapthat shows you exactly what
every profitable coachingbusiness needs and where you
might be missing the mark.
So it takes you through theexercises, not just a checklist.
They actually have exerciseswhere you can reflect on to see

(14:35):
exactly where you are on thispath of getting paying clients,
whether you're just trained forclients or you're actually ready
for clients.
And it's also going to show youwhat to fix first because a lot
of time we're sitting there,we're feeling so overwhelmed
because there's so much thing todo.
So you're not even quite sure,like something's broken, but I
don't know what.
So you'll know exactly what tofix first and finally get clear

(14:59):
on having the direction of howto attract your client.
There's a link in thedescription down below to grab
your copy.
It's totally free and it'sgoing to save you months of
confusion.
So go get a coach.
Your client is out there, andthat's help them find you.
Thank you for listening to MakeIt Visible Podcast.

(15:21):
If you love this episode andwant deeper support for your
coaching business, head over toelevate lifecoaching.org and see
how we can partner together toturn your passion into a
profitable business.
I help female coaches launchand scale their coaching
business faster than everwithout wasting time and money,
filling the gaps in yourmarketing strategies, creating a

(15:43):
simple and easy to followsystem so you can accelerate on
the path of coaching businessthat you love to wake up to.
Head over toelevatelifecoaching.org and grab
a free strategy out of today.
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