OTs Gone Rogue

EPISODE 62 | Building a Sustainable Client Growth Engine

July 11, 2024 Melissa LaPointe Episode 62
EPISODE 62 | Building a Sustainable Client Growth Engine
OTs Gone Rogue
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OTs Gone Rogue
EPISODE 62 | Building a Sustainable Client Growth Engine
Jul 11, 2024 Episode 62
Melissa LaPointe

Welcome to the fifth episode in our six-part Clinician to Coach Series! 

In this podcast series, I'm sharing resources and strategies to help you start and grow your coaching business to consistent $5K and even $10K months without overwhelm or burnout.

If you've ever felt the pressure of inconsistent client sign-ups or the burnout from juggling marketing, sales, and client delivery without a clear system, this episode is for you.

In today's episode, you're going to hear me talk about some of the many benefits of working 1:1 with coaching clients, including: 

We'll be discussing the importance of having a well-oiled client growth engine, which integrates both marketing and sales strategies. I'll also share my insights on setting actionable 90-day goals and the significance of a quarterly strategic planning session to keep your business on track. 

You'll learn how to streamline your client acquisition and retention process with clear, measurable goals and why slow and steady progress is the key to long-term success.

And remember, it's my mission to get this series into the ears of as many OTs as possible! Meaning if you enjoyed today's episode, please tell a therapy friend and help me to spread the word.

If you want to connect with me directly, you can reach out via DM on Instagram @otsgonerogue or by email (simply hit reply to one of our weekly email newsletters).

You can also connect with me by going to our contact form, https://www.otsgonerogue.com/podcast-contact.

For the latest show notes and full episodes, make sure you head over to otsgonerogue.com/podcast

If you don't want to miss any future episodes including the upcoming episodes in the series, make sure you're subscribed to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever else you listen to podcasts. And thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of the OTs Gone Rogue podcast! 

Show Notes Transcript

Welcome to the fifth episode in our six-part Clinician to Coach Series! 

In this podcast series, I'm sharing resources and strategies to help you start and grow your coaching business to consistent $5K and even $10K months without overwhelm or burnout.

If you've ever felt the pressure of inconsistent client sign-ups or the burnout from juggling marketing, sales, and client delivery without a clear system, this episode is for you.

In today's episode, you're going to hear me talk about some of the many benefits of working 1:1 with coaching clients, including: 

We'll be discussing the importance of having a well-oiled client growth engine, which integrates both marketing and sales strategies. I'll also share my insights on setting actionable 90-day goals and the significance of a quarterly strategic planning session to keep your business on track. 

You'll learn how to streamline your client acquisition and retention process with clear, measurable goals and why slow and steady progress is the key to long-term success.

And remember, it's my mission to get this series into the ears of as many OTs as possible! Meaning if you enjoyed today's episode, please tell a therapy friend and help me to spread the word.

If you want to connect with me directly, you can reach out via DM on Instagram @otsgonerogue or by email (simply hit reply to one of our weekly email newsletters).

You can also connect with me by going to our contact form, https://www.otsgonerogue.com/podcast-contact.

For the latest show notes and full episodes, make sure you head over to otsgonerogue.com/podcast

If you don't want to miss any future episodes including the upcoming episodes in the series, make sure you're subscribed to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever else you listen to podcasts. And thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of the OTs Gone Rogue podcast! 

Melissa LaPointe [00:00:06]:
You're listening to the OTs on Rogue podcast where we inspire therapists to think outside the box and do things differently. I'm your host, Melissa Lapointe. My passion is in helping OT entrepreneurs have a bigger impact on the world while building a life they love and doing transformative work that lights them up. On each episode of the show, I'm gonna share tools and tricks to help you flex your entrepreneurial muscles and grow your business from the inside out. I wanna see more OTs step up as visionary leaders, change makers, and influential CEOs. So let's get started. Welcome back, everyone, to the clinician to coach series. This is the 6 part series where I am sharing my best strategies to help you start your coaching business and grow it to consistent 5 k and 10 ks months without overwhelm or burnout.

Melissa LaPointe [00:01:05]:
Because this is a series, I like to start the episode off with a recap of what we've already covered. So we kick things off with our first episode where we pulled back the curtain on the dark side of coaching. We talked about the trends and opportunities in the coaching industry, the concerns around industry regulation, and some of the potential issues with coaching certification programs. In the second episode, we took the conversation a little deeper. We looked at what coaching is and what coaching is not. More specifically, we unpackaged how coaching is different from therapy and how consulting is different from coaching. In the 3rd episode of the series, we leaned into the business side of things, or more specifically, we talked about navigating the startup phase of a coaching business. In the 4th episode, we talked about the benefits of working with clients 1 on 1 as a coach.

Melissa LaPointe [00:02:08]:
So hopefully by now you are super pumped and motivated to get out there and build and grow that coaching business. On today's episode, I want to talk more about the long term game when it comes to a coaching business. More specifically, I want to talk about more coaching clients and we're going to dive all into sales and marketing. Now when I was prepping for this episode, full disclosure, I started to have this sense of deja vu. And after doing a little bit of digging, I realized that I'd actually recorded an episode 3 years ago on this exact topic. So episode 26 of the podcast is called 5 steps to more 1 on 1 coaching clients. And it was really interesting to go back and listen to that episode because what I know now is very, very different as compared to what I knew back then. Don't get me wrong.

Melissa LaPointe [00:03:14]:
I think there's a lot of really valuable information shared in that episode. It is 100% worth a listen. It's a shorter episode where I take you through 5 steps. So step 1, setting your goals for both monthly revenue and how many clients you want. Step 2, mapping out the life cycle of your potential coaching clients ending with payment collection. So this is a 30, 000 foot view of the different steps you're taking people through, and it really can help you to identify gaps in your systems. Step 3 is all about the discovery call, including how to schedule it and what metrics to be tracking. Step 4 is taking that 30, 000 foot view and breaking it down into bite sized chunks.

Melissa LaPointe [00:04:05]:
Step 5 is all about doing the work. Doesn't happen overnight, and what you need to do in terms of putting yourself out there, testing things out, being okay with failure, and doing the work. Now that episode really just skimmed the surface. And, honestly, that was the intention of that episode 3 years ago was to get the conversation going and skimming the surface. So today, I know more. I am more confident in this material, and I wanna go quite a bit deeper in terms of what's needed to build out a sustainable coaching business. I'm gonna introduce you to the client growth engine, and I'm going to touch briefly on my own secret weapon for long term growth and sustainability, the 90 day high performance roadmap. Alright.

Melissa LaPointe [00:05:09]:
So let's talk for a moment in episode 26 of 5 steps to more 1 on 1 coaching clients. The first step, as I had already mentioned, so the first thing I introduced you to was goal setting. More specifically, I walked you through setting a revenue goal for your coaching business and how to reverse engineer that goal into a coaching offer and into coaching clients. These are important pieces of the puzzle, but what I've discovered after supporting 100 of health professionals and business owners over the years is that while we understand the importance of setting goals in our business, we really suck at following through on said goals, mainly because we set way too many goals, Or worse, we set way too many goals in January when there's all this hype around New Year's resolutions and goal setting. And then by the end of February, everything goes to shit. The approach that I've been leaning heavily on in my own business so for the last 5 years, I've been doing this, and I have been taking my clients through this. So it's been 4 years that I've been taking my clients through this, and that is building out a 90 day strategic plan with very clear, concise goals, where every 90 days, like clockwork, we revisit our plan, we make adjustments as necessary, We break down each of our goals into milestones and into weekly action steps. Now in the last year, I've further refined my 90 day planning process where I've incorporated more of my knowledge in women's health, in performance coaching, in habit formation, and in long term sustainability as a business owner.

Melissa LaPointe [00:07:10]:
So the end result is this 90 day high performance road map that I am working with, that I am taking my clients through, and it has become a powerful tool in terms of profitability, in terms of performance, in terms of efficiency, and in terms of long term sustainability. So I'm gonna do a deeper dive on the inner workings of our 90 day high performance road map in another episode. Part of what the road map takes you through, however, is the client growth engine. So the client growth engine, introducing you to all kinds of terms that are now part of my regular vocabulary. So with the client growth engine, this is where we really hone in on a sales system, on a marketing system, and a delivery system for each and every offer in your business. Now this is in part why I am often working with business owners to simplify their offerings. I used to think that more offers meant more revenue when I first started in business. I remember my very first business coach, how big her eyes got when I spit out the 12 different offers that I was working on.

Melissa LaPointe [00:08:35]:
So I'm going to repeat that. Each and every offer in your business needs a sales system, a marketing system, and a delivery system. You have to have this mapped out if you are going to grow, if you are going to scale. So less is more. Alright. Before I go any further, this is where I do want to hit pause and give some credit where credit is due in terms of intellectual property. So vocabulary, part of this terminology that I'm using, so the client growth engine, this is part of a more advanced training certification that I've been working on this year with my business mentor, Rachel Cook. So Rachel Cook is fabulous.

Melissa LaPointe [00:09:24]:
Huge shout out to Rachel. And she's been certifying me to teach her growth framework to the business owners in my circle. It's been an awesome learning opportunity. So not only have I been able to apply this knowledge to my own business. So earlier this year, that's what I was working on, was really applying this to my own stuff. And now I get to do what I love, which is teach and mentor and consult and coach other female business owners so that they can take this work and build businesses that will have a bigger impact with long term sustainability in mind. Alright. So now that we've gotten that out of the way and I'm giving my credit where credit is due, I wanna keep going.

Melissa LaPointe [00:10:16]:
Let's you know, this this concept of long term sustainability, I wanna talk more about it. But for this episode, we're really going to hone in on getting more coaching clients and what we do with those coaching clients once we get them. So based on my experience, I've been working with a lot of coaches, helping them to build out their coaching business. I've worked with a lot of service based business owners, so consultants, coaches, therapists, mentors. Sometimes they have a coaching business. Sometimes it's, I will say, a service based business where coaching is 1 of the offers that they have. And based on my experience, there are 2 different scenarios that stand out as being the most common when talking about the challenges of getting more coaching clients. So scenario number 1, people who are in the early stages of building their coaching business.

Melissa LaPointe [00:11:20]:
So a lot of you listening to this right now, you may not yet be signing up coaching clients consistently. So this is where business owners may have a coaching offer, but they're just not making enough sales. They're not generating enough revenue with this offer, and they feel like they're throwing spaghetti against the wall with their with their marketing. They're trying different ways to get in front of people, but nothing seems to be sticking. It's discouraging, and they're questioning what to do next, or in some cases, if they should drop the offer or throw in the towel or pivot. So that's scenario number 1. I think a lot of you may resonate with that. The second common scenario that I see people going through in terms of struggles is when they're signing up coaching clients.

Melissa LaPointe [00:12:16]:
So they're starting to sign up more clients. They feel like they're building momentum. They're having these break throughs. They're getting good feedback, and then 1 day it hits them. They are working really hard. They are doing all the things. They're coaching clients. They're building out client resources.

Melissa LaPointe [00:12:34]:
They're writing newsletters. They're writing blog posts. They're doing posts on social media. They have Instagram and their free Facebook group, and then they're writing ebooks as lead magnets. They're finally making money, but they're spending money too. Their expenses are climbing. There is more to manage in terms of the business and these business owners are tired. So what do both of these scenarios have in common? There is no clear rinse and repeat system in place for sales, for marketing, or for delivery, which means that there are a lot of balls being juggled.

Melissa LaPointe [00:13:17]:
And when we're juggling a lot of balls as business owners, a lot of things are getting dropped. Things are getting dropped in sales. Things are getting dropped in marketing. Things are getting dropped in client delivery, and this is when we find ourselves in that feast or famine cycle. So we are stretched too thin. We're questioning if we have the right resources in place. That could be time, that could be energy, that could be a team, that could be money. We're questioning if we have what it takes to make it to the next level in business.

Melissa LaPointe [00:13:54]:
I wanna reiterate that there is no right way to market your coaching services. So if you started listening to this episode thinking I was going to tell you exactly the right way that you need to market and sell your coaching services in order to get more clients. Sorry if you're disappointed. I'm gonna give you a lot of ideas, but I want to encourage you. I wanna remind you that there are thousands of ways to market your coaching services, and there are thousands of ways to sell your products, your programs, your coaching services, but not everything is going to be the right fit for every business owner. So you are going to have to find what works for you. That's the beauty of owning your own business, is this autonomy of building something that works for you, that works for how you want to be in business. So if you go charging into your coaching business, you know, you're determined to get more clients.

Melissa LaPointe [00:15:01]:
You're determined to throw everything at it in terms of marketing and sales. You're going to find yourself getting really tired. You're going to find yourself burning out and you're going to find yourself unable to consistently replicate results. And if you can't consistently replicate results, I'm sorry to say this, but you can't sustain your business. You can't sustainably scale your business. So that's why the focus of today's episode is going to be all about encouraging you to slow down and be more strategic with your efforts when it comes to sales and marketing. So we're gonna break this down. I wanna see my clients build something that's sustainable.

Melissa LaPointe [00:15:55]:
I sound like a broken record, but that is so important to me. I see so many people in this industry not lasting. A lot of people that got started when I got started 10 years ago are no longer in business. They have thrown in the towel. I wanna see my clients build assets. I wanna see them build this infrastructure that they can grow from in the long term. When we have these assets, when we have these systems that are rinse and repeat, that's when it's easier to spot what's going wrong. That's when it's easier to correct these issues.

Melissa LaPointe [00:16:36]:
And then as you get a system in place, that's when you get to build out your team because your team, when you have a system in place, is there, and they can help you run that system. So, ultimately, our goal is to build a business that is more efficient and more profitable, because you have a strategy and a system that other people can implement with you and for you, and that is when you are in a position to scale. Okay. Let's start to break this down into some bite sized chunks, some things that you can really chew on. So first things first, before we go any further into systems, you have to get clear on your marketing. And this is where we talk about your 6 p's. So your 6 p's, these are things that influence a potential client to become a paying client. So your 6 p's now some people will say your 5 p's.

Melissa LaPointe [00:17:44]:
My I have a training on your 7 p's. So there there are a lot of p's. Okay? So these are some fundamentals in marketing. So for each and every offer, you wanna have these things in place. Then we're gonna follow-up the 6 p's. We are gonna follow-up with a strategy. But for right now, 6 p's, each and every offer. So each program product or or service.

Melissa LaPointe [00:18:13]:
So if it's a 1 on 1 coaching program, it's 1 on 1 package. If it is a 6 month group coaching program or if it is an online course with the bonus offer of coaching or maybe you have a signature coaching offer. For each of these, you are going to get your 6 p's clearly established. So the first p is going to be your people. So your niche. Who are the people that you are going to be targeting with this offer? Your second p is the product. So really getting clear on that product, that program, that service, really getting clear on the promise. So what is the promise that you know, what results are you promising them through this program, this product, this offer? So get clear on that.

Melissa LaPointe [00:19:10]:
Right? So we have your people, we have your product, then we have your process. So how are you going to get people? So we talked about the promise, the results, but how are you gonna get them? Point a to point b, What's the process that you're gonna take them through? The 4th p is the position. So you're positioning. What helps this offer stand out? The 5th p is our pricing strategy, and then the 6th p is the promotional strategy. So this is where we're gonna start building out our systems. So up until now, you know the people, you know your product, you know your process, your position, your pricing, and your promotional strategy, which we're gonna build out a little bit more with this system. So this is where we're going to start layering in some systems to create that framework. So we're going to be talking about a marketing system, a sales system, and a delivery system.

Melissa LaPointe [00:20:15]:
So these are the 3 systems that are going to make up your client growth engine. So marketing system, sales system, and delivery system. Let's talk about your marketing system first. So part of what Rachel and I love how Rachel Cook simplifies things. She just makes my life easier. Our marketing system can be broken down into 3 areas, attract, engage, and nurture. Our sales system is going to be invite, and then we have our delivery system, which is delight. So there are 5 parts to the client growth engine, marketing system, which is attract, engage, nurture, then we have our sales system, which is invite, and we have our delivery system, which is delight.

Melissa LaPointe [00:21:13]:
So the client growth engine, attract, engage, nurture, invite, delight. When we talk about attract so the attract, this is all about getting in front of new people. So part of being in business means building your audience, getting in front of new people. So when we're talking about an attract strategy, it could be search engine optimization. A common attract strategy for a lot of people in my circle are getting in front of other people's audiences. So this could be writing guest blog posts. It could be pitching yourself to be a guest on someone else's podcast. It could be a referral system.

Melissa LaPointe [00:22:08]:
It could be asking for introductions. So what are you doing to get in front of other people's audiences? You have to get in front of new people. It could be a discovery engine, so Pinterest or TikTok. For some people, it could be cold outreach, so direct mail. Some people are still doing cold outreach on LinkedIn. And then, of course, we have paid advertising. Now there are certain things you wanna get in place before you lean into paid advertising. It's not the 1 I would start with, but, of course, it is an attract strategy.

Melissa LaPointe [00:22:47]:
So these are all different strategies, but what I encourage people to do is to choose 1 core attract strategy for the next 6 months before layering another attract strategy on top of it. So every 90 days, I get my clients to identify 1 core attract strategy. We then break it down into a clear, actionable, measurable goal. They then take that goal, and we do what's called the sticky note breakdown, and they then take that They're sticky notes. So I take it through this post it note planning, and they build it out into their 90 day plan. 1 core attract strategy. Just 1. K.

Melissa LaPointe [00:23:43]:
So hopefully you know, again, we're doing a much deeper dive, but for the sake of time, I'm also going quickly through this. So you would choose 1 core attract strategy. The second strategy is engage. So we had attract, engage, and nurture for your marketing system. So once a new potential client discovers you, so you've gone out, you've done your track strategy, you've gotten in front of a new audience, you've gotten in front of new people, and a potential client discovers you. Good job. This is where we are leaning into engaging. So engaged marketing is what helps you to exchange contact information with this potential client so you can continue the conversation.

Melissa LaPointe [00:24:35]:
So examples of engaged marketing, it could be having a PDF or a free training series as a lead magnet. So they sign up for the lead magnet, they give you their email address, and you can continue the conversation. It could be at a business event where you're introduced to someone and you actually exchange business cards. It could be you have the opportunity, you know, they hear about you, they know more about you, and then you have a sign up for a newsletter, and they give you their email address to get this newsletter. So essentially, they are raising their hand and saying, hey. I'm interested in what you're doing. I want to join your ecosystem. It could be they follow you on social media.

Melissa LaPointe [00:25:31]:
So these are different ways that, again, someone is raising their hand. Now social media is not the best in that the algorithm's always changing, so it can be a little bit tricky to get in front of them consistently. Not impossible. But in the ideal world, we want their email. Alright. So, again, picking 1. What is 1 engaged strategy? Flush it out, stick with it until you have it fully built out as a rinse and repeat system. So we have attract, we have engage, then we have nurture.

Melissa LaPointe [00:26:09]:
So you've officially got a list of potential clients. Now it's time to start nurturing them. You can nurture your clients with connection or with content. So you can be reaching out to them 1 on 1, you could be checking in, you could be nurturing them with content. So this podcast, for example, it could be a newsletter. It could be what you're posting on social media. So anyone who's following you on social media, they're already in your ecosystem. They're already following you.

Melissa LaPointe [00:26:45]:
So you're posting content on social media is a form of nurturing them. So, again, you wanna choose 1 core nurture strategy, and you wanna be doing this consistently for 3 to 6 months before adding in more nurture strategies. So we have our marketing system that's broken down into attract, engage, and nurture. Are you still with me? Hopefully, I'm getting the wheels turning here. Remember, you wanna go further into this. This is what I do. Alright. So how we are attracting new coaching clients, we've talked about different ways to engage with new coaching clients, and then we've talked about different ways to nurture new coaching clients.

Melissa LaPointe [00:27:41]:
So you can nurture them with email content, with a newsletter, with a blog, with a podcast, with social media, with 1 on 1 check ins. We're gonna stay consistent every 90 days, and we're going to set a specific nurture goal. We're gonna break it down. Then we have our sales system. So this is where we invite. We invite people to work with us. Now if I were teaching this to you in a workshop, I would have a variety of visuals to help convey this information. And I want you to understand that this isn't necessarily a linear process, meaning you can invite someone to work with you as soon as you meet them.

Melissa LaPointe [00:28:33]:
You can invite someone to work with you before ever nurturing them with any content. You can invite them to work with you the first time you meet them. But for many people, we may need to build a relationship. We may need to engage. We may need to nurture. So it's not necessarily a linear process. This is where, for many people, it makes sense. They can visualize if it's a linear process, but I just wanna reiterate that it is a process, and this is where we are layering in different strategies and making sure it's on our plan.

Melissa LaPointe [00:29:21]:
Now let's talk a little bit more about the invite or the sales system because without a strong invitation, potential clients don't know how to work with you. So this is where we really want to work on mapping out the full sales process. You have to start somewhere. So I am not saying you need each and every piece in place in order to sell. Sales pages are helpful. Are they required? Are they mandatory? Absolutely not. I've sold all kinds I've sold 100 of 1, 000 of dollars without a sales page. Is it helpful? Yes.

Melissa LaPointe [00:30:05]:
Of course. Sales emails. You could have promotional posts on social media related to sales. For some people, they're they're running sales ads. You may have an application process or a sales call. You may have a checkout page. You could have a sales process or a proposal. You could have a referral program.

Melissa LaPointe [00:30:33]:
There are different pieces to a sales process, and I don't want you to wait until you get all of the pieces in place in order to try selling. This happens over time, but this is something that you can continue working on. So every 90 days, you can create a goal around the invite stage of your client growth engine. So in the next 90 days, I am going to build out a sales page for my offer. In the next 90 days, I am going to create and build out a referral program. In the next 90 days, I am going to build out an application process that includes a discovery call and sales emails. Alright? So we've talked about our marketing system, attract, engage, nurture. We've talked about our sales system, invite, and now we're gonna touch on the delivery system.

Melissa LaPointe [00:31:44]:
So once clients are officially signed on, having a clear customer experience to deliver is key to a smooth process. So the delivery system, how you're delivering on your offer, this is the baseline for delight. So you can layer on more elements to delight your clients because it takes significantly less resources to keep the same clients than it does to sign up new clients. So we wanna delight our clients. We wanna delight them for retention. We wanna delight them for results, for rave reviews, but also for referrals and for repeat business. Alright. So what are some things we wanna think about in terms of delight? Well, it could be onboarding.

Melissa LaPointe [00:32:40]:
So do you have an onboarding system in place? So I have an episode on building out the ultimate onboarding experience. I will link it in the show notes. It could be with a new client. You have a get started checklist in place that you are taking them through. It could be that you are rolling out a kickoff call for new clients or that you are going to start sending out a welcome gift for new clients. It could be building out a delivery checklist. So are you maybe offering regular check ins or you're building out a communication plan for your offer? It could be you're finding ways to celebrate progress with your clients. Part of your delight system is also about offboarding or the wrap up process.

Melissa LaPointe [00:33:39]:
So after someone finishes working with you, what are the next steps? Are you gathering testimonials? Are you asking them for referrals? Are you sending them an off boarding or a wrap up gift? Are you taking them through an off boarding session? So these are all things to consider. So your onboarding, your delivery itself, and your offboarding. These are all parts of the delight system. So these are all parts of your delivery. So every 90 days, can you set a goal? 1 goal where you are building this out. I cannot emphasize this enough. We are talking about the long game at this point. Slow and steady wins the race.

Melissa LaPointe [00:34:31]:
Alright. So those are the 5 areas that we focus on when building out a client growth engine. So for some of my clients, I am actively building this out, so we are doing a done with you service. For some of my clients, I am coaching them through this process. So I'm giving them regular feedback. I am taking them through this 90 day planning process. Every 90 days we are revisiting our goals. We are revisiting our action steps.

Melissa LaPointe [00:35:05]:
We are making tweaks. We are getting clear on the next steps. Attract, engage, nurture, the 3 parts of your marketing system. We have invite, your sales system. We have delight, your delivery system. And together, these systems make up your client growth engine. So what happens if you don't have a client growth engine in place? Well, I'm sure many of you listening to this don't yet have 1, and what that means is you're probably recreating the wheel. So every single month, every single quarter, you're most likely starting from scratch and you have a lot of balls in the air.

Melissa LaPointe [00:35:55]:
So that's why a lot of people have this start stop energy in their business. They're working really hard. They're marketing. They're hosting discovery calls, and then they sign up a bunch of clients. And when they get clients in the door, they focus on delivery, which is great, but the sales and marketing falls off their plates. And then when that round of clients wraps up, because they always do at some point, you either have to create a new offer for these clients to grow into, or you have to start from scratch all over again with your sales and marketing because you dropped the ball. So all of a sudden, you're not sure what's working. It's very inefficient, and it becomes very expensive because it's this start and stop.

Melissa LaPointe [00:36:49]:
There are a lot of gaps. There are a lot of holes in your buckets. You're not sure what's working. You're not sure what's not working, and you're struggling to get results. So this is where, again, we get stuck in this feast or famine cycle, and it's not what we want. What we are going for is a steady business that is predictable and that is sustainable. So we want a clear 90 day action plan. So every 90 days, you guys, we are reviewing this.

Melissa LaPointe [00:37:25]:
We are setting goals like clockwork. We have a system for 90 day planning, and once you get in that role so anyone who starts 90 day planning with me, the first time I take them through, so we do it over a 4 hour period, where my goal is to get them 70%. So 70 percent. We do it in December. We do it in March. We do it in June, and we do it in September. So in those months, we do this 4 hour planning session where my goal is to get them to 70% completion, and then in the next 2 weeks, they keep working on their plan, they submit it for feedback, and they have these clear 90 day goals around attract, engage, nurture, invite, and delight. They have very clear action steps.

Melissa LaPointe [00:38:21]:
Every week, they have 2 to 3 focus items, and my clients are figuring out which strategy works for them. And I hear this again and again the first time we go through this planning process. It can feel a bit overwhelming, but it gets easier because it's a rinse and repeat system. So this is what I'm wanting for each and every 1 of you. I am wanting you to find a strategy that works best for you, that works best for your business, that works best for where you are, what stage of life you're in. Then once you have this strategy, I want you to stick with it for 3 to 6 months before layering on another strategy. Before, you know, these dopamine bombs that we keep setting off around our business because we're chasing new things. My clients hear me say this all the time when we're working on our 90 day high performance roadmap.

Melissa LaPointe [00:39:25]:
Keep it simple. Less is more. Stay consistent. Stick to the plan. And as we start to see results, we're going to lean into these systems. We're going to rinse and we're going to repeat. Remember my friends, a sustainable business doesn't have to be a complicated business. A profitable business does not have to be a complicated business.

Melissa LaPointe [00:39:56]:
Alright. That is it for today. We covered a lot of stuff. So, again, this is what I go through in my workshops. This is what I go through in my coaching programs, and I'm hoping that you were able to have some moments in terms of next steps and what you can do to build out your coaching business, what you can do to find more clients, to sign up those clients, and ultimately retain those clients. So join me next week for the final episode of our clinician to coach series, where I'm gonna take you through the steps for building out your signature program. In the meantime, if you enjoyed this episode, it would be awesome. I would be very, very grateful if you would go to Apple or Spotify and click follow.

Melissa LaPointe [00:40:57]:
Better yet, if you want to be 1 of my favorite people, I would love for you to leave us a review By clicking follow or leaving us a 5 star review, it's really helping us to get in front of more thought leaders and visionary OTs who need to hear this information and know they're not alone on this journey of going broke. Alright. That is it for today, my friends. Take care, and we'll see you back here in a couple of weeks.