How to Leverage Opportunities and Build a Strong Business in Today’s World – In Just 7 Minutes with Melinda Cohan

Resources/Links:

• Check out Melinda’s Business Readiness Quiz: http://www.coachesconsole.com/business-readiness-quiz/

Summary

Are you stuck in the sporadic revenue and plateau? Are you overwhelmed with your business? Are you’re struggling to look for a system that would work for your business?

Melinda Cohan is a systems expert, helping coaches and consultants get over the task of running their business and focusing on the actual business of what they all love to do, which is to work with clients.

She’s the creator of The Coaching Business System, the absolutely world-class coach’s console software, and a team bundle coaching with training and technology to help you create a strong business.

In this episode, Melinda shares her insights on how having the right business system and making small adjustments can lead to your business growth and can help you overcome that sporadic revenue or the revenue plateau. She also talks about recognizing the gaps in your business and the phase you are in and how it can contribute to the growth and development of your business.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:38 – Melinda’s ideal client: “The start-up coaches and consultants, service-based practitioners that really want to have a strong business and make a big impact on this world and do what they love while making a great living doing it.”
• 03:13 – Problem Melinda helps solve: “Yeah, being overwhelmed in their business because they’re dabbling here. They’re skipping around, they’re jumping from this business model to that business model. They’re hoping something will eventually work.”
• 04:06 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Melinda: “The symptom is sporadic revenue, it’s like that roller coaster revenue. They’re going to have sporadic clients or they’re going to hit a plateau. They’re going to reach working with a certain amount of clients making a certain amount of money.”
• 05:09 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Melinda’s solution: “There are four distinct phases that every business goes through. I don’t care how big you grow to if you want 50,000, or six figures or seven figures. And what will a big mistake is a newer coach will look to a mentor or somebody that they admire. And, they try to duplicate what that person is doing.”
• 06:41 – Melinda’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Well, the easiest thing you’ve got to assess where you are, like on any adventure, any journey that you’re going on. So many people they’ve got the end result figured out, they know where they want to go, “I want to be I want to make six figures. I want to go to seven figures. I want to make this. I want this”, but they forget to assess where they are and so that is- do not overestimate that is to take an assessment with, what systems do you have in place?”
• 07:26 – Melinda’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Melinda’s Business Readiness Quiz: http://www.coachesconsole.com/business-readiness-quiz/
• 08:24 – Q: What’s another mistake that new coaches often make? A: Be intentional. A lot of times, you come from the place of being the coach, being the consultant.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“It is important to put on the hat of the business owner, you may not feel confident in that role, but over time, you'll become both the coach and the business owner and do that simultaneously.” -Melinda Cohan Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone. A very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Melinda Cohan. Melinda, good day. A very warm welcome. Where are you hanging out?

Melinda Cohan 00:20
Well hello, it is so great to be here. I’m in Virginia in the United States.

Tom Poland 00:24
On the Eastern, how’s COVID where you are right now?

Melinda Cohan 00:27
Well, we’ve actually been laying low for several months, but in the last week, it’s starting to surge up so we’re just staying in our little bubble and staying safe.

Tom Poland 00:36
Dang. Come on, vaccine.

Melinda Cohan 00:37
Yes.

Tom Poland 00:39
So, Melinda, and I have tried to have this interview before and one of us, both of us at various times, has dropped the ball. So, I’m really delighted that you’re here. They say there’s no person for insurance like the man from insurance, but I think you get gold medal right up there on top of the dice as well, Melinda. We made it. good for us.

Melinda Cohan 00:58
We did make it.

Tom Poland 00:58
The reason I’m so keen to get Melinda on the show is that the core of what she delivers is this robust, predictable, controlled, relentless business growth IP. That’s the way I described it. It’s this well thought out system. And most people don’t have a, you know, a growth problem, they have a growth system problem. So, Melinda is the person that solves that.

So, let me go through her bio because I think there’s some important content in there to add to what I’ve just said. She’s a systems expert, helping coaches and consultants get over the task of running their business and focusing on the actual business of what we all love to do, which is to work with our clients. She’s worked with literally thousands of coaches. I read somewhere something like 20,000 or 30,000 coaches over the last 16 years, sharing the value of strong business systems and processes that create that relentless, consistent revenue that we’re all after, steady flows of clients, and also making a significant impact on the world of those clients.

Now, she’s creator of The Coaching Business System, the absolutely world-class Coaches Console software, and a team bundle coaching with training and technology to help you create a strong business. Which leads us nicely to the title, Melinda, “How to Leverage Opportunities and Build a Strong Business in Today’s World.” We’re going to tell you how to do that, folks, in just seven minutes. Melinda, our time starts now. Question number one, who is your ideal client?

Melinda Cohan 01:38
The start-up coaches and consultants, service-based practitioners that really want to have a strong business and make a big impact on this world and do what they love while making a great living doing it.

Tom Poland 02:47
Right. And the whole DNA of what you do is there’s nothing random about this, folks, I just want to underline that because so many start-ups run around so many different directions like chickens with their head cut off before they realize that they need a system, any predictable framework, which you’re the pioneer in that. So, question number two, hopefully having solved your thunder there, but six and a half minutes left, what’s the problem you solve for your new clients? How do you define that?

Melinda Cohan 03:13
Yeah, being overwhelmed in their business, because they’re dabbling here. They’re skipping around, they’re jumping from this business model to that business model. They’re hoping something will eventually work. And it’s very intentional about you’ve got to take off your hat of the work you love doing for a bit, put on your head of the business owner, create systems that get you that structure that leads to the freedom of doing what you love to do, they have to go hand in hand.

Tom Poland 03:37
Right, and that’s a big part of the problem you solve is that once we’ve run around like chickens with their head cut off for a couple of years, we go, “Can you sell something more?” and “I need some structure around this”, “I need a business model”, “I need something that’s proven”. So let’s talk about the period of time before someone becomes a client of yours, what sort of symptoms that they’re going to be experiencing that they’re going to have them waking up in the morning going, ‘God, I need to talk with Melinda or I need to talk to somebody.” Five and a half minutes left. What are the symptoms?

Melinda Cohan 04:06
The symptom is sporadic revenue, it’s like that roller coaster revenue. They’re going to have sporadic clients or they’re going to hit a plateau. They’re going to reach working with a certain amount of clients making a certain amount of money. And then no matter what they do, they can’t seem to get to that next level and they’re always trying to get to that next level. And they’re in reactionary mode. I call it the “Oh crap. Now, what do I do? “And then they figure it out and hope something works. So, they’re really in that hoping, but not really seeing results from all the work that they’re doing.

Tom Poland 04:35
So, it sounds like, it sounds like you’ve got some people who join you in their field of sealing. So that might be predictable that that is sealing and you’ve got others that still haven’t got to that point of predictable revenue, which we call roller coaster revenues. Great description. So, question number four, and we got four and a half minutes left. You work with smart people. And these people are going to realize they’ve got a problem because they’ve experienced those symptoms. They got to try things before they find your solution. Tell us about what some of the common mistakes that people make before they find your solution.

Melinda Cohan 05:09
Oh, a big mistake. This is a great question. Thank you for asking it. There are four distinct phases that every business goes through. I don’t care how big you grow to if you want 50,000, or six figures or seven figures. And what will a big mistake is a newer coach will look to a mentor or somebody that they admire. And, they try to duplicate what that person is doing. Meanwhile, that person is in business phases three or four and they’re still in business phase one. And so, they’re trying to put together stuff that’s not necessary for their business way too complex for the needs that they have. And so, they spin their wheels. It’s way too complicated for them to use. They’re not getting the results because it doesn’t match their needs for where they are. So really stay focused on what business phase in my end, what are my current needs now and what will grow with me as I evolve?

Tom Poland 06:03
Right. So, they’re kind of getting ahead of themselves and doing a whole lot of stuff and spending a lot of money and probably wasting a lot of time. There’s just, it’s premature.

Melinda Cohan 06:11
Yeah, it’s not necessary. Right. But they’re like, “Well, they’re doing it so I should do it” and that’s a big trap. Don’t fall into that trap. You’ll eventually do it, but not right now.

Tom Poland 06:21
Right. So, it’s what got that coach or mentor to that high level, but not where your new clients and what they need right now. Thank you for that. Three minutes left. Question number five, give folks a valuable free action they could take that’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it takes them a step in the right direction. That’s question five, just under three minutes left.

Melinda Cohan 06:41
Well, the easiest thing you’ve got to assess where you are, like on any adventure, any journey that you’re going on. So many people they’ve got the end result figured out, they know where they want to go, “I want to be I want to make six figures. I want to go to seven figures. I want to make this. I want this”, but they forget to assess where they are and so that is- do not overestimate that is to take an assessment with, what systems do you have in place? What is missing? Where are your gaps? Because it usually just takes small adjustments to make a significant difference in your time and your bottom line.

Tom Poland 07:13
Perfect. Thank you. So, figure out your starting point, which brings us nicely to question number six, which is two minutes left. Where can we point people? Where’s a valuable resource people could go to get started on this?

Melinda Cohan 07:26
It actually does point very nicely to it. We’ve got a business, we call it our Business Readiness Quiz. And we’ve got the seven structures, the seven success systems that you need. And it’s just a little checklist. “Do you have this?” It’s easy, yes or no? Like, it won’t take you any time. Because you’ll know, “Do I have it?” It’s not like, “I kind of have it.” No, that’s a no, you don’t have it, or you do have it. And so just take that readiness quiz and it’ll give you a score. And then it’ll give you insight and we share the business building blueprint with you so that you begin to see what adjustments can you make depending on the success structure. areas that need a little help or

Tom Poland 08:04
Branding, list building, converting and rolling, and so on, supporting and so on, folks. So that is that coaches console, c-o-n-s-o-l-e, coachesconsole.com/business-readiness-quiz, you’ll see it below the video if you’re watching the video. If you’re listening to this on the podcast, coachesconsole.com/business-readiness-quiz, go get it. It’ll take you almost three minutes to complete then it’ll provide you with a very valuable benchmark starting point. Question number seven, a whopping 45 seconds left, Melinda, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t’?

Melinda Cohan 08:42
Oh, that’s always a good question. The question that you should have asked me is, what’s another mistake that new coaches often make? Ask me another one of that.

Tom Poland 08:53
45 seconds. What’s another mistake most coaches make?

Melinda Cohan 08:57
They- oh my gosh, I just had so many answers just popped in my head, they all collided at the same time. Be intentional. A lot of times, you come from the place of being the coach, being the consultant. It is important to put on the hat of the business owner, you may not feel confident in that role, but over time, you’ll become both the coach and the business owner and do that simultaneously. Because there are decisions that you have to make in your business that will allow you to do more of the work you love as a coach, as a consultant, as a practitioner. So, make sure that you’re putting on the hat of the business owner and really creating a structure that leads to the freedom of what you want.

Tom Poland 09:36
Mike, that was an intentional mental decision, a mental commitment. Melinda Cohan, thanks so much for your time.

Melinda Cohan 09:42
Awesome. Two seconds left! Woohoo.

Tom Poland: 09:48
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.