In last week's blog post, you discovered why it's important to start Visioning now for 2015 and the 3 different ways to increase your impact and income.

But many coaches and holistic practitioners stop there, because they have no idea HOW to achieve their Vision to either raise their rates, attract more clients or have clients stay with them longer.

In today’s article, we’ll focus on the middle strategy of attracting more clients.  You're going to discover the 3 vehicles you can use to get more clients...and how to decide which one is best for you to focus on.

This article can help you easily create your marketing plan so you can achieve your business Vision in 2015.

Here is a question I am always asked when I am interviewed on how to get joint venture partners to promote you: "What is the most important question you should ask yourself before you approach any potential JV Partners?"

The answer to this question will not only support you in being successful with JV's; it will also support you to get clear about what to focus on.

(Coincidentally, we’re leading our annual JV Retreat right now, where over 100 industry leaders, many who were once our clients and are now rocking their own communities, come together to connect, mastermind and support each other.  If you want to follow this event and see photos of some of your favorite mentors hanging out together, look for the photos on our Facebook page.)

My simple answer is: Get clear on your strategic objective.

Ack! Did that just sound like someone with an MBA?

I know, it sounds a little intimidating, but let's go deeper into this...

By your "strategic objective," I mean that one action you want someone to take that will give them the opportunity to say YES to working with you.

Another way of asking yourself this question is, "What is the ONE action I want someone to take… whenever I have a conversation, get interviewed, speak to a group, etc.?"

In a recent video, I shared the 3 points of conversion, which are the 3 different vehicles where a potential client might say yes to you.

As a coach or holistic practitioner, people will say yes to you during one of these 3 vehicles:

1. Free (or paid) consultation

2. Free teleseminar/webinar

3. Free (or paid) live event, speaking gig or workshop.

When you understand that you need to choose one of these vehicles as your main one, then you just need to consider how to get more people to join you in this vehicle you've chosen.

But how do you choose which one will be your main vehicle where people say YES to you?

We have a simple process for choosing your vehicle.  You need to consider these three levels of impact before you decide:

1. The Impact on Your Potential Client

When considering which of these vehicles to focus on, think about the experience your potential client has with you where they get the most transformation.

Where do you feel confident that they will have a turning point moment, where they will mark this moment as a before and after in their life? Where do you feel confident you can shift their paradigm, so they go from believing they can't have what they want, to believing they can?

This is the first step in their healing and empowerment and it should happen while they’re with you during this vehicle you're choosing.

For example, we know that when people attend our Client Attraction Summit, they have a huge shift in believing they can have the success they want in their business.

Some of this paradigm shift comes from the skills they learn during the Summit. And much of it comes from the life-changing experiential exercises.

So we focus on offering the Client Attraction Summit in all of our marketing, because we know this is where that turning point moment happens for so many of our clients.

The vehicle most coaches and holistic practitioners choose is the free consultation. Because they are able to provide massive value, and offer their potential clients an opportunity to have that turning point moment, where they say YES to themselves in a big way.

Now it’s your turn: Which of these is where you have the opportunity to create that turning point moment for your potential clients?  Choose one.

1. Free (or paid) consultation

2. Free teleseminar/webinar

3. Free (or paid) live event, speaking gig or workshop.

Now let’s look at the second thing to consider when choosing your vehicle…

2. Impact on You

The second thing to consider when deciding which of these vehicles is to choose the vehicle that has the most impact on you.  You want to make sure that the vehicle you choose fits into your personality, your lifestyle and is exciting to you.

You can ask yourself these questions:

What do I love doing the most? 

What excites me and lights me up?

Where am I most fulfilled in my interactions with clients?

When you answer these questions, you can look at each of the 3 vehicles and see which one fits most into your answers.

For example, Jesse and I LOVE to dance. We love to be in community. We love speaking, teaching and mentoring. And we love developing transformational exercises that people never forget. It is because of these things we love to do that our vehicle is a live event.

For many coaches and holistic practitioners, they LOVE connecting deeply with one person at a time, so they might choose the vehicle of the free consultation.  Others love being in front of groups, so they choose speaking or workshops.  And some others prefer to stay at home in their yoga pants, and choose teleseminars or webinars.

Now it’s your turn.  Which of the 3 vehicles fit into what you most love to do.

3. Impact on your bank account

The next thing to consider when choosing your vehicle is which one will have the most positive impact on your bank account.

So you want to consider where you are most effective (or can learn how to become highly effective) when it comes to having potential clients saying YES to working with you and are ready to invest and pay you money.

Is this most likely to happen in a one-on-one consultation? A teleseminar or webinar? Or a live event where you're speaking?

We know that for many coaches and holistic practitioners, the idea of asking someone to start working with you is uncomfortable.  

Can we offer a paradigm shift here?

It may be surprising for you to know that people actually LIKE to say Yes and LIKE to invest in themselves!

It’s true. At a recent Client Attraction Summit, one of our new members said that signing up for Thrive Academy Platinum was the biggest act of self-love she has ever done as she was smiling from ear to ear.  

This is how it feels to people when they commit to go on the journey with you!  

So where is this big act of self-love your new clients make (that has a positive impact on your bank account) most likely to happen?

During a consultation with you? A teleseminar or webinar? Or some type of in-person speaking event?

For most coaches and holistic practitioners, it's during the free (or paid) consultation that they will have a huge transformation and say YES to themselves (and to you.)

Many of our $10,000 Month Club Members focus on getting free consultations and offer a package of high-end coaching sessions during the consultations.

After going through these three different levels of impact, it’s probably pretty obvious which of the 3 vehicles is going to be best for you and your business.  

Stay tuned for next week’s blog post from Jesse where you’ll discover “How to Make the Internal Shifts Necessary to Achieve Your Vision.”

Tell us what you think

Many coaches and holistic practitioners wait until the last two weeks of the year to start planning for the next year.  We recommend you don’t wait… and start your visioning and planning NOW. 

So over the next four weeks, you’ll get a mini-course on how to prepare for the New Year so you can start off with a bang!

Here is what we’re going to cover over the next four weeks:

Today: How to Get Clear on Your Vision for Income and Impact

Dec 11: How to Get Clear on the Vehicle(s) You’ll Use to Achieve Your Vision

Dec 18:  How to Make the Internal Shifts Necessary to Achieve Your Vision

Dec 23: (Tuesday instead of our usual Thursday) How to Make the External Shifts Necessary to Achieve Your Vision

Even though Jesse and I aren’t so good at planning (our team complains about this), we’ve made many millions serving awesome people like you.

How do we do it?

We’re ALWAYS visioning into our future about how we can have more impact in the world!  And in the last month of every year, this visioning is intensified because we’re looking into a new year.

There are four important areas to look at when visioning into the next year.  You’ll get the first today and the rest in the remaining weeks of 2014.

The First: How you’re going to increase your income and impact.  And we like to think of income and impact as two sides of the same coin.

If you’re having a greater impact in the world, you’ll make a greater income.  And if your income increases, it’s a sign you’re having great impact. So you can actually measure your impact by measuring your income.  

Now we can keep it simple and look at how to increase your income in 2015, so you can start planning for the shifts you’ll need to make. 

When you boil it down, there are only three ways to increase your income.

1. Raise Your Rates

2. Get More Clients

3. Have Clients Stay with You Longer

If you want to increase your income and impact, you’ll need to choose which one of these you’ll focus on for 2015.  (And you may even want to multiply your increase by working on two or three at a time!)

1.  Raise Your Rates

When we recommend raising your rates during our Client Attraction Summit, many of the coaches and holistic practitioners attending look visibly confronted. Many are already having a hard time getting people to say yes at their current rates.

But what they don’t realize is that when you raise your rates, you also have to raise the value you’re offering.  And you’ll attract better clients. 

Cinder Ernst, Member of the $10,000 per Month Club

Through Thrive Academy Platinum, Cinder realized she could specialize in helping plus-size women heal their knee pain. So she created a home study course.  When she offers her VIP Heal Your Knee Coaching Program, she includes the home study course.  This is just one of many ways she has added value to what she offers. Her clients gladly pay her $5,000 for a 6-month coaching program.  

2. Get More Clients

We could talk about this one for days, right? Isn’t this the first thing most coaches and holistic practitioners think of when they think about increasing their income?

If you’re struggling with how to attract more clients, there really are just a few ways that are effective to get more clients.  When you master at least one of these ways, you are guaranteed success.

In a recent video, I talked about the three “Points of Conversion.” If you remember, the point of conversion is that moment when a potential client says YES. 

There are three different places people say YES:

A. 1-on-1 Heartselling™ Conversations

B. Group Teleseminars

C. Group Speaking

You’ve got to get crystal clear about the point of conversion you want to focus on.  In other words, you need to get clear about how you attract potential clients and how they will turn into paying clients.  Once you get clear, then you can get laser focused on getting more people to your point of conversion.

In our next blog post, you’ll discover HOW to get crystal clear on the best point of conversion for YOUR business. 

And once you’re clear about your best point of conversion (it’s got to be fun—as you’ll read in next week’s article), you’ll want to gain mastery at it.

Let’s say, for example, you decide your best point of conversion is through 1-on-1 Heartselling™ conversations.  If right now, 1 out of 10 potential clients says YES to working with you, your conversion is low. But imagine if you had the skills to turn that number into 9 out of 10!  How would your impact and income increase?

Do the math and you’ll get excited.

3.  Have Clients Stay with You Longer

The last way to increase your income is to increase client retention and have people stay with you longer. 

A big Aha for many coaches and holistic practitioners who attend the Client Attraction Summit happens when we suggest that you never offer just one session to a potential client.  Instead, we recommend you give people the opportunity to only work with you 1-on-1 through a package of sessions.

Packages give people the opportunity to work with you more deeply, so they get more transformation, and you get more fulfillment and income.

Here’s an example of how this works:

Sandy Zeldes, Member of the $10,000 per Month Club

When Sandy Zeldes first attended the Client Attraction Summit, she could hardly get anyone to say yes to working with her at $60/hour.  She says she couldn’t even pay people to work with her.

Yet as she felt more confident with Heartselling™, and she started offering packages, instead of just one session at a time, more people starting saying yes.  Every time her practice got full, she raised her prices again.  And this kept happening again and again.

Last time we spoke, she was charging $4,500 for 12 sessions and her ideal clients are happy to pay her full rates. 

Which one of these ways will you use to increase your income in 2015?  Or maybe you’ll be bold and go for all 3. We’ve seen many of our members go from struggling to $10,000 per month after they got clear on how they were going to increase their income and impact.

In next week’s blog post, you’ll discover how to get clear on which point of conversion is best for you and your business.

Tell us what you think

Last week, we invited you to create a crystal clear vision for your business.

The question you might have now is: “Is my business vision too big or too small?”

In this week’s video, you’ll learn how to know when your business vision is “just right.” 

Even when you’re Vision is “just right,” you can expect your Gremlins™ to start piping up and saying awful things about you.
(The Gremlin™ concept comes from Rick Carlson’s book, “Taming Your Gremlins™.” We think about your Gremlin™ as the voice in your head that tells you you’re not good enough (or other horrible insults) so you can keep from growing.

In the video, I (Sharla) share a 3-step process for neutralizing your Gremlins™.

Watch the video and tell us what you think.

And, in the meantime, tell us what you think in the comments below.