3 Ways to Build Credibility (Even if You Don’t Have Testimonials Yet)

One of the biggest struggles new coaches face is the chicken-and-egg problem: How do I charge for coaching when I don’t have testimonials yet?

 And how do I get testimonials if I haven’t charged anyone?

In this episode of Make It Visible, I’m breaking down 3 ways to prove your credibility and authority even if you don’t have a single client success story yet. Because yes — you can confidently charge $5K without a wall of testimonials to back you up.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

1. Why your “I help” statement is more than just an elevator pitch).

2. How to use your story, background, or industry data to build authority before your first client.

3. How showing a clear framework instantly builds trust and confidence in your offer.

Links & Resources:

 👉 Save your spot in the free masterclass: Your First $5K Month: How to Market, Get Clients, and Build an Online Coaching Biz (Even if You’re New) → https://coachwithclients.com/5kmasterclass

If you found this episode helpful, share it with a coach who needs to hear it. And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a visibility tip that helps you get seen, get clients, and grow your coaching business.

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:

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Episode Transcript

Michelle (00:00):
Today we are going to tackle one of the chicken and
egg problem of coaching.
Now I hear this a lot how can Icharge a high ticket when I
don't have any testimonials yet?
And on the other hand, some ofyou may be asking how do I get
testimonials if I haven'tcharged anybody?

(00:20):
So you see the dilemma you'recharging, you don't have any
client, you don't charge.
And you're charging, you don'thave any client, you don't
charge and you are stuck with nopaying client, so you could
never get to a testimonial.
So if you ever thought, who amI to ask for that high ticket
without any testimonial or anyproof, then, my friend, today
you are at the right place.
I'm going to break down threeways that you can prove your

(00:43):
credibility and authority evenif you don't have a wall of
testimonial yet.
And, yes, you can totally showyour worth even before you had a
single client who says shechanged my life.
Hey coach, welcome to Make itVisible podcast.
I'm Michelle Kuei, yourvisibility marketing coach, and

(01:05):
I help female life coaches toget seen in all the right places
, attract happy paying clientsand build a coaching business
that actually feel good to run,even if you are still trying to
figure things out.
Each week I'm giving youvisibility tips, simple
marketing strategies and showingyou how to create the kind of
content that connects with youraudience, so that you can stand

(01:28):
out, build your authority andattract clients.
Who's already feeling like ayes before they jump onto your
discovery call?
So grab a notebook, pouryourself a favorite drink and
let's make your coachingbusiness visible.
Make your coaching businessvisible.

(01:49):
So the first way that you canprove your credibility and
authority is having clarity.
Now hear me out before youthrow tomatoes at me.
So it's not so much of yourclarity.
I'm pretty sure you're clearwhat you want to do in your
coaching business and who youwant to help and what do you
help them with.
If you don't have that clear,you need to come and join me
inside my upcoming masterclass,because a lot of what we're

(02:10):
talking about in the masterclassis about giving you the clarity
.
So way number one to prove itis you need to have clarity Now.
Clarity is for your clients,your potential clients, to know
exactly what kind of lifethey're going to have as a
result of working with you.
So let me repeat that again youneed to have clarity, but that

(02:33):
clarity is for your potentialclient to see and to understand
that, hey, when I signed up withthis coach, this is exactly
what I'm going to get, and thisis exactly why I need to sign up
.
When they look at your profile,your social media, your website
, will whatever that you put out, your marketing material can

(02:53):
they tell what they're going tobe able to do now?
If they cannot tell, then youneed to have that clarity.
How do you get that clarity?
You come to Michelle's masterclass.
No, I'm just kidding, but that'sessentially why you need to
have the clarity from yourselfand so that when you articulate
your message out there, yourclient, your potential client,

(03:14):
would also have the clarity interms of when I signed up with
you, what is the result that I'mgoing to expect and what is
essentially what your I helpstatement is really the reason
for right.
A lot of us think that the Ihelp statement is just a way for
me to do an elevated pitch.
It looks nice on my social, I'mgoing to update it so people

(03:36):
will come across.
But what you don't know is thatyour I help statement is also a
positioning statement.
Your I help statement is also apositioning statement.
It helps you to positionyourself in the market, of why
your clients need to hire you.
And this is why you need tohave a niche, right?
Not because it's for you,because when you have a niche,

(03:56):
your statement is really to bethere to help your audience to
know exactly what's in it forthem, without having to scrawl
through all your social mediaposts or this post is about this
and that post is about yourprogram right?
People are too busy.
We only have three seconds tocapture their attention.
So if I don't have thatinformation within that three

(04:19):
seconds, then I'm just going tocheck out the next coach or I'm
going to sc you by and I have noidea.
I still have no idea of what isit that you do and how you can
help me with.
So you want to have the clarityin your message to make people
feel that it is safe to investtheir life with you.
So that's way number one is howyou have that credibility and

(04:42):
authority.
You need to have the clarity,but your clarity also lies
within the fact that you arebasically telling your audience
when you signed up with me, thisis what you get, and most
coaches a lot of like coaches.
I know you're not having that.
You don't have that, peoplecome across your profile.
They don't get that sense ofwhy I need to have this.

(05:03):
So that's way number one.
Way number one to prove yourcredibility and authority,
especially authority when youhave that position statement,
right, and that would help evenif you don't have any
testimonial yet.
And that's basically where youstart.
You start to get paying clientsthat you serve and they'll be
able to give you a goodtestimonial.

(05:26):
Okay, way number two that youcan build your credibility and
authority is you can borrowproof.
Now, what do I mean by that?
It means that you wanted tolean into, maybe, your own story
.
Maybe you had a journey of howyou became a coach and what
coaching means to you or whatcoaching had done for you.
Right, your own story might beyour own testimonial, your

(05:48):
background, your experience,your training and even some of
the industry data that can backyou, back up your offer.
So how do you do this Example?
Let's say, in my corporatecareer, I help teams to go from
burnout to balance.
Now I do the same for womenleaders through coaching.

(06:09):
So if your audience happen tobe female leaders or women
leaders, and regardless whatindustry they're in, if you're
helping them from burnout tobalance, then that could be
potentially how you borrow theproof, because, from your past
experience in my corporatecareer or as a former corporate
career person right, hr leadersI help teams to go from burnout

(06:34):
to balance.
So you're using your ownexperience, your own training
and background to provide thetestimonial that, hey, this is
not something new, it's not myfirst rodeo and you can trust
the fact that I know what I'mtalking about.
I know what I do.
So the other scenario would beleveraging the industry data.
Right, you could leveragesomething like research shows

(06:57):
that 70% of people who stuck inthe job that they hate and
that's why I created a frameworkto help you make a change in
the next 90 days and you couldhave a three-month program that
you help people who feel stuckin their career to do exactly
that.
But you leverage some of theindustry data.

(07:17):
So what is that?
Data from your own industry orthe industry that you want to
serve?
You can also borrow that asyour testimonial, as your proof,
so you don't need a testimonialyet.
You can actually just stand onyour own stories, your expertise
or even some of the universaltruth that can prove that you

(07:38):
know your stuff.
Now the third way that you canprove your credibility and
authority is proof in theprocess.
Now, this is pretty easybecause you probably have lived
an incredible life right beforeyou became a coach.
So your credibility lives inyour process.
If you can walk through asimple framework of how you help

(08:01):
others, either yourself or thepeople around you, to go from
stuck to result, whatever thatresult may be, then your
audience instantaneously willtrust you a little more, because
essentially people don't buycoaching, they buy certainty.
When you can clearly explainhere's the process, or here are

(08:23):
the steps, or here's theframework that it had helped me,
or what have worked, then thatautomatically builds credibility
.
You can even use combining theproof in the process with the
borrowed proof, like thepreviously that we talked about.
Research shows that 70% of thepeople, you can combine a couple

(08:44):
of them to really prove thatthis process will work.
So essentially your testimonial.
Once you start doing this let'ssay you have no paying client,
you don't have a whole lot oftestimonial to showcase, right
to prove that your processworked or your coaching skills
worked then you can leverage oneof the three ways that we just

(09:05):
talked about.
But at the end of the threeways that we just talked about.
But at the end of the day, thegoal is for you to get some
paying clients so that thetestimonial will come.
And this is how you do it.
First of all, you think aboutthe clarity right Is my
statement, is my iHealthstatement, giving my audience a
clarity in terms of what I helpthem with?
And secondly, you can borrowsome of the industry proof or

(09:29):
maybe it's your own story of howyou have lived that experience.
And then three is if you havelived that experience, what are
the steps that have worked andthat could be your great
testimonial in itself.
So here's the takeaway fromtoday is that your credibility
it's not just about the clientresults, it's also about the way

(09:51):
that you position yourself.
Remember, your I help statementdoes more than just look pretty
or just sound nice.
When you go to a networkingevent or when you're introducing
yourself, it actually helps youto position even without saying
anything else or anything.
Following your audience wouldbe already having their eyes

(10:11):
open and they're like waiting,tell me more, tell me more.
And I recently had a clientthat we work on her I help
statement and she was sharingthat when she goes to networking
event there.
People are coming up to her andsay tell me more event.
People are coming up to her andsay tell me more, and so that's
what that statement is meant todo.
So we talked about gettingclear on who you help and how

(10:34):
right.
That's the positioningstatement.
And the other way that you canbuild your credibility and
authority is to borrow prooffrom your story, your training
or the research and you can showoff your process like it's your
best case study.
Do that and, yes, you canconfidently charge higher ticket

(10:55):
even before your testimonialrolls in, because your process
and the proof that you'reborrowing it's probably a lot of
people have already done it andused it.
So think about what you canleverage to prove and show that
testimonial even without anypaying client.
Now, if this resonates and ithits home for you, I am having a

(11:17):
free masterclass coming up veryshortly and it's called your
First 5K Month how to Market,get Clients and Build an Online
Coaching Business, even IfYou're New 5k month how to
market, get clients and build anonline coaching business.
Even if you're new, because alot of newbie coaches out there
you are struggling, first of all, to get a niche and now there's
no testimonial right, becauseyou probably haven't been able

(11:38):
to get any clients yet.
So you're sitting there, yourconfidence start to fade away
and your skills start gettingrusty.
So if this is something thatyou find value, please come and
join me inside the masterclass.
Inside, I'm going to divedeeper all the mistakes that new
coaches are making and tryingto get paying clients.
Plus, I'm going to talk abouthow you package all this genius

(12:02):
into offer that people areactually would be happy to pay
for.
So there's a link down in theepisode description.
Go ahead and save yourself aseat.
And hey, if you found thishelpful and that another coach
is working on exactly this andthey need to hear this, share
that link with them, becausewe're in this together and let's

(12:24):
invite them and make sure thatthey don't miss it.
And until then, I will see youin the next episode.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Thank you for listening to Make it Visible
podcast.
If you love this episode andwant deeper support for your
coaching business, head over toelevatelifecoachingorg 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 ever,without wasted time and money,

(12:55):
filling the gaps in yourmarketing strategies, creating a
simple and easy to followsystem so you can accelerate on
the path of coaching businessthat you love to wake up to.
Head over to elevatelifeelifecoachingorg and grab a
free strategy audit today.