Life Coaches: Does Your Self Introduction Connect with Dream Clients?

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Each time she had to make her self introduction on a Zoom networking call, Stefi felt unprepared and, to be honest, a bit stressed. She always dreaded these moments. Can you relate? I sure can!

Yet, she procrastinated on getting clear about explaining her business and describing her clients in the precious two (gut-wrenching) minutes we’re all given to make our self introductions.

When she thought back over her various attempts to make a polished, succinct self intro, it wasn’t pretty.

Problem was, zero potential clients in these Zooms asked Stefi followup questions. Sucky, right!?

That meant she was stuck in what felt like swatting at a piñata, while blindfolded, when it came to connecting with dream clients on virtual networking calls.

You see, she crossed her fingers that a bland, hastily-thought-up elevator speech would magically connect with clients she wanted to serve who happened to be on the call that day.

Finally, Stefi realized that coming up with a different (but not specific) self introduction each time, in the moment, wasn’t a business strategy that served her any longer.

She grudgingly admitted to herself, “I’m tired of this. It’s time to *become intentional* about showing up and sharing who I am and what I do for clients, in a way that feels authentic to me.”

Here’s the thing: it was the exact way new coaching clients said to her…

“I’m done with being frustrated. I want to get serious and solve this years-long problem. I want a plan. I need your expertise.”

In a flash of inspiration, Stefi decided to treat herself like she treated coaching clients. She got scrappy and tackled her new introduction with baby steps.

Have you ever considered following your own coaching steps?

• Stefi chose to become intentional about how she introduced herself.
• She popped into Google docs, and opened a fresh copy of her very own client new-habit worksheets from her coaching program.
• Yes, the very documents she’d created with expertise, care, and love for her clients!

Amazing, am I right?!

• The checklists that kept her clients on the path as they worked through resistance.
• The tools that helped her coaching clients develop new habits and skills.
• Stefi’s path to becoming intentional about using her introductions to better connect with specific, ideal clients started when she followed her own expert advice.

You won’t be surprised, she re-committed to not just reciting a spur-of-the-moment intro, but to creating an authentic elevator pitch.

Stefi worked / reworked her words, so that the precious 2-minute introduction would speak directly to the folks who were a good fit to become her dream coaching clients.

She worked on inspiring them to ask a followup question. Crafting a unique self introduction became a labor of love.

She began to enjoy sharing an elevator pitch to engage the coaching clients she most wanted.

Steadily, Stefi’s client list grew as a result of her renewed commitment to crafting, practicing, and delivering her refined introduction.

How can you become intentional with your self introduction?

Let me ask you, how can you become more intentional about inspiring your dream clients with your introduction?

How often do you think about your self introduction–before it’s your turn to make an impression with your elevator pitch on a virtual networking call?

Here’s the thing, as a life coach, health coach, freelancer, business owner, or consultant you want to make the most of your networking time so you can connect with a new prospective client, right?

Let’s be real, even if virtual networking saves you travel time, it’s still taking time away from other actions required to build a sustainable business:

• • • Coaching clients one-on-one
    • Leading coaching groups
    • Creating content clients are interested in
    • Designing coaching packages to grow your business
    • Writing website content that aligns with your clients’ desires
    • Showing up on social media to engage with clients you want to serve
    • Being *consistent* with all of the above

In short, you have a ton of hats to wear as a solopreneur, so let’s get this whole self introduction deal clarified for you, shall we?

First off, what is your self introduction?

Some might say it’s a quick snapshot of who you are, what your business does, and a tidbit to make yourself memorable. And here’s the rub, too many coaches and solopreneurs stop at the *who you are and what your business does*.

They don’t plan their self intro in advance. Then, when it’s their turn to introduce themselves to a sea of 30-plus networking  attendees, they say something generic  like “Hi, I’m Wonder Woman and I’m a life coach based in Ohio.”

As soon as their turn has passed, it hits them–their introduction was a feeble attempt. Especially when the next tiny face on the screen uses an intro like,

Hi I’m Janet! I help working moms see their toes again when they’ve tried every eating plan known to humankind, and nothing’s worked. I’m a weight loss coach for women over 40.

The problem is, many coaches feel like they don’t know how to polish their pitch, or make their self introduction stand out and be memorable.

They don’t become intentional about crafting a self introduction that they’ll be excited to share.

If you’ve been in their *Zoom seats*, you’re not alone! I’ve been there. We all have!

5 Action Steps to Craft Your Self Introduction

If you freeze up when it’s time to succinctly describe what your business does, to a group (virtual or in real life) these tidy 5 action steps are just for you! Let’s dive into how to make your self-intro feel authentic to you and make that all-important positive first impression with your potential clients.

Step 1: What do you want to accomplish with your self introduction?

You won’t be surprised, Step #1 is to become intentional about what kind of impression you want to make with your self-intro. Think of it as part of your marketing strategy.

Some goals you might consider are…

• You want to engage with and make connections with right fit or good fit clients for your business.
• You want to inspire potential clients to sit up and take notice because you’re tapping into their exact pain.
• You want anyone amongst the networking attendees who is your perfect client to say, “Tell me more!”
• You want a self-intro that’s piled with words your clients use to describe their problems.

Reality is, you want every one of your potential perfect clients sitting in the sea of faces to think, “Wow, she’s talking my language. I gotta connect with her!”

Your 3 golden self introductions

1. You’ll craft your first elevator speech so that it engages your ideal client on Zooms (or real world meetings).
2. Your second introduction is designed to connect with potential partners when you’re in groups of peers and non-clients.
3. Next, we all know how huge social media is when you’re building an audience. After all, you want to engage and connect with prospective customers, potential new clients, past clients, and/or future students.

That means, you’ll want a version of your self-intro including a bit more of your story, specifically to use when you interact on social media to support your business. Don’t forget, you can engage with future clients online in places like Facebook groups. This social media group elevator pitch may be a bit longer.

To be the boss that you are, you’ll want a pre-written version of your self-intro, ready to paste into the next Facebook group you join.

Step 2: Choose a format that’s authentic to you

At the end of the day, you want to connect on both a business and a personal level when making your self introduction.

As you select an elevator speech format, consider how you can most easily be relatable and make a personal connection with a potential coaching client.

Here’s a post with more format examples…

How to Polish Your Elevator Pitch and Connect with Ideal Clients

Step 3: Explore becoming more memorable

One way to become more memorable with your introductory elevator speech, is to describe the pain points you help clients resolve.

Think about your private practice or freelance business and what you’re working to accomplish. Next, craft a deeper, more specific, and more compelling introduction.

To be more compelling, you want to draw from your marketing efforts, one-on-one work with clients, or work you do for them as a freelancer. The key is to mention what’s important to the new customer you want to serve.

One idea, briefly describe your clients’ pain and highlight how you help them solve it.

Specific pain point elevator speech example

Template: You know how [specific pain point]? Well, I [state benefit from your work].

You know how brand new life coaches struggle with creating a social media presence so they can engage the perfect client? Well, I use my 8 years of social media marketing experience to help coaches like you eliminate the overwhelm and create a month’s worth of content in a 1 hour session.

Step 4: Repel non-ideal clients

When marketing your coaching packages, freelance services, or aiming to win your first paid clients, it’s about more than appealing to your ideal customers. As a savvy business owner, you want to also gently repel clients who aren’t a good fit for your services.

Let’s say you’re a web designer specializing in Shopify ecommerce sites for entrepreneurs selling high-end products. By stating in your introduction who you serve, you can save everyone time when they hear your elevator pitch.

Specific ideal client example

Template: I [the service you provide] for [qualifier for who you specifically serve}

I design custom, high-converting Shopify websites for growth-minded ecommerce entrepreneurs.

Pro tip: Don’t worry that you may lose out on clients if you’re too specific about who you serve. Don’t ever forget, you’re the boss. You’ll attract some clients who may not 100% fit your dream client profile, no worries. As the boss, you decide who you wish to take on as a client.

Step 5: Test. Revise. Refine.

Here’s the beauty of your self introduction, it’s totally yours. It’s your call on how you craft it. You make the rules and you can change them up so it best serves your relationship building and revenue growth goals.  So cool, right?!

Before you revise your self-intro, here are some ways to determine if you’re hitting the right notes.

Listen for how potential clients react to your self intro, and adjust.

Here are the happy-dance kind of responses you’re going for. Remember, it’s a reply indicating that potential clients want to continue the conversation:

“Interesting, tell me more!”

“How do you actually do that?”

“What kinds of creative solopreneurs do you work with?”

“What kinds of results do your students usually get?”

And the best response of all….“I’m going to private message you!” 

What happens if you hear crickets?

To start with, don’t be concerned because this happens to all of us. If no one you’re introducing yourself to makes a comment or asks a question or how they can follow-up, no worries.

One thing you can do for sure, try out your new introductions with friends. Even if they’re not your perfect clients, you’ll get reactions and questions. Then, you can use that feedback to tweak, refine, and revise your elevator pitch.

As we’ve said, you’re the boss! You can figure out why and decide what action you want to take.

However, if you’re not getting engagement with your elevator pitch it could be one of 4 reasons:

1) It’s time to tweak! You may need to revise your self-intro to make it more memorable, specific, catchy, or to better share your personality.

2) Think about how you can stand out more. Consider what you’re sharing? Can you add in a tidbit describing what’s unique about your business? Can you include exactly how you help customers? For example,

“I coach creative solopreneurs so they can write their monthly social media posts in one hour!”

3) The truth is, it takes many clients 7 to 10 marketing touches before they reach out to find out more about your services.

4) The hard truth: within this particular networking group, they’re simply not ‘your people’. Whew! Now, you can move on and try out other groups.

Final thoughts on your self introduction

If, like Stefi, you often feel unprepared and a bit stressed when it’s your turn to tell a networking group who-you-are and what-you-do. Or, to make a self introduction in a new online group, like on Facebook.

Stop dreading these moments! Instead, follow the above 5 steps so you can craft a self introduction that results in follow ups, calls, inquiries, and all that good stuff.

Remember, you’re the boss. You can make your elevator speech in whatever format makes you the most comfortable.

Now, you’ll be ready with a nicely polished elevator pitch to test out on your next virtual (or real life) networking event that has your dream clients saying, “Wow, tell me more!”.

~Cynthia

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