Podcast Intro
Welcome to our sixth episode of the Coaching Hive Blueprint series here on the Coaching Hive Podcast. The Coaching Hive Blueprint is all about how to build your profitable business through the blueprint and making micro decisions every single day. You have to follow through on your intentions so that you can see what’s working, see what’s not working, and make adjustments. This is how you build a profitable business.
It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not going to happen with the first thing you try, unless you are incredibly lucky. So if you find lots of four-leaf clovers, maybe luck is on your side. But for most of us, 99.9% of us, it’s all about making micro decisions every single day to move our business forward.
Throughout this blueprint series, we have been talking about the path to follow as you build your business. We started with episode 66, talking about your vision for your business. Episode 67 was all about creating a rhythm to your day so that you actually have time to work on your business, make those micro decisions and implement them. Then in episode 68, we talked about mentoring and peer communities and the importance of those. Finally, in last week’s episode, we talked about products and services. This brings us to today; the one-liner.
Before we hop into this, I want you to stop and think. When someone asks, “What do you do?” How do you respond? Do you pause? Do you realize that you still haven’t figured out how to explain what you do? Or do you confidently share in just a few seconds, two sentences or less, what you do, who you help, and what’s happening? What transformation is happening?
Where do you fall on the continuum? Because it is a continuum. You may not have any idea and you say, oh, I’m just getting started. Maybe you share a little, but ramble on. Or maybe you succinctly share exactly what you do.
Where do you fall in that process? What does it look like? For instance, when people ask me what I do, I say, well, most health coaches are so overwhelmed by the amount of business building resources available online, that they struggle to implement anything. At the Coaching Hive, you get a proven blueprint and mentoring community so that you can focus on the right things to grow a profitable coaching business.
Now I didn’t get there overnight and it’s certainly not always easy, but you can also explain very simply what you do. If you think about what I just shared with you, I’m really talking about the fact that there’s a lot of resources out there, but I’ll make it simple. I curate things for you and I’m helping you use a proven blueprint to build your business so that you don’t have to worry about all of the other stuff that’s out there. You can stay focused, you can make progress and you can build the business that you want. That’s where I want you to be with your business.
Having a one-liner that is simple.
If you are ready to get started, grab that notebook, grab your tablet, whatever you’re taking notes on today, grab a cup of water, a snack, whatever you need to stay focused. And if you’re ready with our theme of simplicity, clarity, and vision for 2022 in mind, let’s jump in.
One-Liner: Your Business in One (or Two) Sentence(s)
We all know what it’s like to be around people who don’t really know us, or don’t really know what we do. And that dreaded question comes up. What do you do? And then there’s that awkward pause. We all know what that looks like. We’ve all felt it, we’ve all been there.
And if you haven’t, you have observed it. I guarantee it.
Someone says, what do you do? And you think, I’m not really sure what to say. I mean, I know, but how do I explain it? And you’ve got this voice running in your head and you get stuck in the moment with a one-liner.
Although what we’re talking about is no more than two sentences, what we’re really talking about is this ability to share with the person, with whom you’re conversing, what you do, but in a way that gets attention. You could say:
- I’m a health coach.
- I’m a business owner.
- I’m an entrepreneur.
- I have a membership.
- I’m a personal trainer.
- I help people get healthy.
You can say all of these things, but it doesn’t tell the person you’re talking with what actually happens. If you can grab their attention by sharing what problem you solve right off the bat, you have a more engaged listener. This is going to make you different. Everyone for the most part goes out there, and when someone says, what do you do? It’s the, “I am a” response.
What would happen if you started with a slightly different lead in, such as what you solve or what transformation happens? If you listen to Donald Miller of Building a StoryBrand or you listen to Stu McLaren with The Membership Experience, they will always tell you to think about the problem you solve and the transformation that is happening. That’s what you want to lead with.
Let me give you the example from the Coaching Hive one more time so that you can hear it and hear how I don’t say that I’m a health coach mentor, even though that’s what I do. I’m a coach mentor. I help with marketing and messaging for coaches who are building business.
I also help membership site owners clarify their marketing and messaging. But I don’t say any of that.
Here’s one version of a one-liner depending on the group that I’m speaking with.
“Most health coaches are so overwhelmed by the amount of business, building resources available online, that they struggled to implement anything at the Coaching Hive. You’ll get a proven blueprint and mentoring community so that you can focus on the right things to grow a profitable coaching business.”
Now, obviously this one is focused more toward health coaches, but you get the idea. I’ve told you up front that I’m going to help you weed through all of the stuff that you find online so that you don’t get stuck in it. You can actually implement something, but nowhere did I say that I helped with marketing and messaging, that I’m a StoryBrand Certified Guide, or that I’m a health coach mentor. I didn’t tell you about my experience with higher education. I didn’t tell you that I was a health coach instructor. I didn’t tell you any of those things.
Now I want you to think about what you say when you introduce yourself, when someone asks you that question, “what do you do?”
Do you lead with your title or do you lead with the problem that you solve or the transformation that our clients, members, coaching clients, or whoever you are working with get.
What are you leading with?
My guess is that right now? Unless you’ve been in my world for a little while, especially inside the Coaching Hive you probably lead with, “I am a”,
What would happen if you shifted just a little bit?
What happens if you shift that perspective and make it more about the person that you’re helping so that you’re not in the spotlight. If you’ve done any reading on Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller you’ll know that he talks a lot about the fact that in a story there’s no room for two heroes.
Think about that for a minute. Think about the movies you’ve watched. Think about the TV shows and the books that grabbed your attention. Are there two heroes? No. So Miller talks about this concept that you are the guide and your client is the hero. We have to make sure right from moment one, that we are in that guide spot, not the hero spot.
As you think about your one-liner this week, I want you to take time to begin the iterative process of developing a one-liner. Like everything else that we’ve been talking about, I want you to take time to think about what problem you solve or what transformation you offer.
I recognize that you might be thinking, but Moira, I don’t solve a problem. I don’t offer a transformation. My clients do the hard work. Yeah, I know. I agree. But we want to paint a picture that invites your potential clients in. And so I do want you to think about the problem that’s being solved by working with you or the transformation that’s happening because they choose you as their guide.
Then when you have that right lead in for your one liner, start practicing it out loud in your bathroom, as you get ready in the morning in the car, at the red light. Start speaking, out loud, the problem you solve or the transformation that happens. See how it sounds. And then talk a little bit about what the solution is.
If we go back to the example I gave you about the Coaching Hive. I’m telling you at the Coaching Hive, you get a proven blueprint and a mentoring community so that you can focus on the right things to grow a profitable coaching business. So I told you the problem was that they’re overwhelmed with all of the resources available and it’s hard to implement anything because you’re in that overwhelm, but here I’m dialing it down for you. I’m giving you a blueprint and a mentoring community, and that allows you to focus and get things done.
Action Item for the Week
Think about your one-liner this week. Your action item is to first explore what problem you solve or what transformation you offer. I know you’re in the guide role and you aren’t actually solving any problems. That’s the client’s job, but you are walking along that path with them.
So this week, what problem do you solve? What transformation do you offer as a client works with you? And then I want you to talk about how you do that. What do you offer? Let’s start giving that a try. Another way to think about it is what problem are you helping the client solve with your expertise?
There are so many different versions of one liners. Stu McLaren calls his a positioning statement, which has a slightly different format in The Membership Experience. So you can do a little bit of Google searching, but promise me, you’ll set a timer and not get sucked in to searching. You can also look up Donald Miller looking up StoryBrand and his approach to building your one-liner.
You can reach out to me as a StoryBrand Certified Guide and I can help you with your one-liner. If that’s something that sounds intriguing, sounds a whole lot simpler than doing it on your own, send me a DM on Instagram at www.instagram.com/coachinghive or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/coachinghivelife and we can talk.
Here’s today’s key point. The point is that I want you to be able to confidently share what you do in a succinct manner.
As a reminder, your action item is to think about the problem you solve or the transformation you offer through your services and how you do it. Two sentences. No more than that. If you find yourself writing a book, it’s too much. No one’s going to listen for that long. We have a teeny tiny attention span. And when you’re out meeting people, there isn’t that much time to convey what it is you do.
Hopefully, you have a little bit of clarity about where you’re headed this week. One more time, action item this week, you’re going to think about the problem you solve, the transformation you offer, and then how you do it. Put that together. You might start with a paragraph or two, whittle it down, get concise, no extra words, smooth it out, practice it out loud.
See what works, see what doesn’t, because it needs to be memorable. You need to be able to memorize it and it needs to be memorable for the person who’s listening
How are you feeling at this point in the blueprint? We have talked a little bit about vision, rhythm, mentoring, and peers, products and services, and the one-liner. Can you feel like your business is starting to grow? You’re starting to get some of those key foundational elements in place so that you can be profitable. I hope so. That’s my intent.
If you are ready for more, if you’re thinking this is great, but I need more depth. I’ve got you covered. As you know, in the Coaching Hive, I am focused on helping you use this blueprint and providing a mentoring community so that you can stay focused and take action. Right now I have applications open to join the Coaching Hive. So if you are interested in applying for the Coaching Hive, getting that blueprint opportunity, that opportunity to have a mentoring community, all you have to do is send me a DM on Instagram at www.instagram.com/coachinghive or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/coachinghivelife. Just send me a DM that says “application”, and I will get everything to you that you need in order to apply and get that process started. And of course, if you are interested in clarifying your message and your marketing materials, as a StoryBrand Certified Guide, I am happy to sit down with you and work through that process. I know for me, it was so much easier when I got one-on-one help to clarify that information versus spending months and months trying to figure it out on my own. So if you’re ready to take action, reach out on Instagram or Facebook, that’s all I have for you today.
Now I do have one last quick ask. If you got something out of this podcast episode, would you do me a favor? Would you rate the podcast and leave a review for me? I do read those and it helps us as we get more ratings and reviews to reach more people. It also helps me know what’s helping you the most so that I can provide more podcast episodes that fit your needs, because that is certainly my intent with the Coaching Hive Podcast.
One last thing. (I know, I just said that, didn’t I?) Just one more “one last thing”, share this with your friends, share this with someone who needs to hear it or has been struggling. As a community, it is important to support one another. And if you know that a friend of yours, a colleague, appears to be struggling with sharing what they do, send them this episode. Let them know they’re not alone and there is information out there that can help them streamline this process. Okay? Just snap a picture of the episode. You can post it in your Instagram stories or Facebook stories. You can tag me. I’ll be sure to help get this information to as many people as possible, because we want to make sure that we are working together. We are better together than we are in isolation.
That’s all for now! I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful coaching business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
~ Dr. Moira
