Wendy McCallum (00:39)
Hey coach, just a quick heads up before we dive into today's episode. If you've been considering joining my business building bootcamp, or if you've been feeling stuck in your coaching business and you're ready for a breakthrough, come hang out with me at my upcoming coaches open house. This is a super relaxed, zero pressure virtual event where you'll get to meet me and hear from real BBB members about what it's like inside the program. On the call, you can ask me anything you want about growing your business, making more money, your next right step.
nailing your next offer or anything else that's keeping you up at night. No pushy sales pitch, I promise. That's not how I roll. Just real talk, real support and a behind the scenes look at how the BBB works. and as a thank you for just registering, you'll get access to a super juicy bonus and it's a big one, I promise. Our next open house is coming up May 22nd at noon Eastern. Save your seat now at wendymcallum.com forward slash BBB. I'll see you there.
Wendy McCallum (01:34)
Hey there, coach. Welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I'm Wendy McCallum, business coach for Solo Printer Coaches and the creator of the business building Bootcamp. Today's episode is part pep talk, part reality check and part strategy session. We're talking about something that's being referred to as the trust recession, which is unfortunately aligning quite closely with an economic recession. And those two things are really changing the way that coaching businesses grow. And
If you're feeling like many people are feeling right now, which is more hesitant to invest and slower to sign up and just more skeptical in general, you're not wrong. And if that's shaken your confidence a little bit as a business owner, again, that's not surprising. But here's the thing, the coaches who are adapting to this new climate, the ones who are leaning in, getting real and really focusing on connection over performance and willing
to get thoughtful and intentional and creative about how they respond to this new ⁓ normal are the ones who are going to build the businesses that last. So we're gonna talk about it. We're gonna talk about what the trust recession actually is, why it's especially important for coaches to understand it, and how you can market and sell with more integrity, but not with...
like more salesy tactics or just by selling harder or with more urgency or scarcity, but with more integrity. ⁓ And what I am doing personally to respond to this shift in my own business, I'm going to give you three areas where I have made some shifts since it became clear that people are buying from a different place and people's lenses and mindsets have shifted and people are less trusting.
and less ⁓ likely to buy spontaneously than they maybe were a year or two ago. So let's get into it. First off, let's start with what is the trust recession? I think we're all familiar now with the financial challenges that are there in the current economy. There's inflation, we've got cautious spending, tighter margins, ⁓ but the trust recession is something different. It's separate from that financial challenge that people are feeling.
It's the growing hesitation people have around where they spend their attention, their money, and their emotional investment, especially in the online world. So people have been burned. People have signed up for higher ticket things. We've now been in, you know, like at least a half a decade to a decade of an online focus since the pandemic, so much more.
⁓ has become available online for people. Coaches are coaching online one-on-one. Programming and courses are now just inundating the internet. And so almost everybody has at some point purchased something where they have been over-promised and where the product has been under-delivered. So the promise has not been met.
⁓ A lot of people have signed up for high ticket things that they have never completed. I know that I fall into that category. I have been disappointed by some of the investments that I have made and then never even completed them. And there are lots of us out there who have followed coaches, who promised ease and flow, and then just ended up delivering a bunch of fluff or a bunch of things we already knew. And so people are wary. And I think
our clients are wary as well. this just isn't, you know, can think of how this applies to you as a business owner and a coach and how you are in a trust recession. And then just assume that your avatar, your dream clients are also in that place because they've been trying to solve problems in their lives too. They have also been using online resources for that. They too have probably purchased things that they haven't completed or that have under delivered. And so they're feeling less.
Now, I also think the political climate has been contributing to this. I think all of the talk about fake news and just the overwhelm, all of the automation on the internet, the bots, you don't even know if you're talking to anybody ⁓ real anymore half of the time. Like all of these things are contributing to this decreased level of trust or this trust recession. And what this means is that the old sort of just get yourself out there, ⁓ throw spaghetti at the wall.
talk about your offer, make sure you're making the offer, advice, it's just not enough anymore. We really have to shift things up. So how people buy has changed.
Clients are no longer getting hoodwinked by hype. The whole hype thing, it's passed. I think we're all wise to it. And what we're really looking for is relatability, reliability, and real results. Like we really need to have a reason to purchase. We need to have a reason to believe that the value is going to be there for us. We are not just going to assume that anymore.
Our clients want to work with coaches who practice what they preach, who show up consistently, who deliver value consistently, and who own that messy middle, not just the wins, like who get vulnerable and who actually share. So the question becomes, how do you market in a way that builds trust and not resistance? Let me say that again. How do you market in a way that delivers trust and not resistance?
How do you stand out without selling out? Because this is never gonna be about getting salesier. If you listen to this podcast, if you've worked with me, if you're a member of my BBB, you know that I hate salesy sales. And I believe that actually salesy sales for most of us don't work very well. And there's a much better way to sell, which is from a place of integrity, from a place of value, from a place of confidence.
So how do we market in a way that builds trust and not resistance? And how do we stand out without selling out? Let me tell you a few things that I'm doing in my own business. And I'm hoping that these examples are gonna help you start to do a little bit of an audit as to what's working right now in your business, what you've got in place, what you don't have in place and where you might be able to get creative and really start addressing this trust recession issue head on. I'm recording this episode.
in the beginning of May, I don't think it's gonna air until later in the summer. So by the time this episode airs, my guess is this issue is going to be even bigger. It is just starting to become the thing we're talking about now in the spring of 2025. And I think it's just gonna get bigger. ⁓ And so I hope that you are listening carefully to this episode wherever you are listening. ⁓
I am changing the way that I show up in my business. I'm not just talking about this topic today, theoretically, this is something that is actually practically impacting the way that I am making decisions as a small business owner and creating content and offers as a small business owner. The way that we used to build businesses online is evolving. And I mean, I've been hinting at this in podcast episodes since the beginning of the Coaching Edge. I've talked a lot about how
free content can no longer be sort of flimsy, uncreative, non-unique content. Like nobody is going to exchange their email address for that anymore. We've just gotten much more sophisticated. We're much more buyer beware as consumers. So I've been talking about this, but I think it's becoming even more important as a result of the current political and economic climate and also the further we...
get into this automated ⁓ world where we are overwhelmed with information and content all the time. We're just getting pickier and choosier. So here's what I'm doing. I'm getting much more transparent intentionally. Like I am consciously and intentionally focusing on incorporating more vulnerable, more transparent content and transparency into everything that I create. Now I've always been a bit of a truth teller.
People who know me always say that, you know, that's one of my strengths is that I am very, very honest. I do that in a kind way. So kind honesty is kind of my brand. ⁓ And I've always been happy to share the places in my life and my business where things are not going well, because I really believe in the power of shared story and community and vulnerability. But I am now working to incorporate that in a much more intentional way. I'm actually thinking about it in all the content that I create.
where's the story, where am I sharing a challenge or a weakness instead of just the upside or the win in a story? So each week in my newsletter, and I'm really trying to mirror this in social media, I'm starting to share both a win and a business challenge or disappointment. And if you're on my newsletter list, you've probably seen this. talking about the rose and the thorn and the bud every week. So the part of my business work life that has been...
really wonderful and really rewarding that I'm very grateful for this week, the part of my work week that was incredibly disappointing, challenging, frustrating, ⁓ and the part of my work week that feels really hopeful and optimistic and that I'm excited about. So the thing that's growing for me. I'm trying to share those things more often ⁓ because I don't want to just teach sustainable.
business growth, I really wanna model it. That's been key in all of the work that I've done in supporting coaches. And that's key in this podcast is actually talking about how the things that I teach, I am applying in my own life. One of my mantras as a coach always, whether you're talking about the personal coaching that I have done in the area of burnout or helping people change their relationship with alcohol or helping people make big life transitions, it's always been based on this idea of I never share or teach any kind of tool, tactic or strategy.
that I haven't tried myself and that has not worked for me and or worked for many of my clients, I do exactly the same thing on the business coaching side. If I am proposing, offering up some kind of a strategy or an approach that I think is beneficial, you can be guaranteed it's something that I have tried and am using in my own business. So I wanted to make sure that I was doing this in my own business too when it comes to actively taking steps to... ⁓
to do what's necessary to fill in the gap in trust right now that exists. So the things that I'm sharing include moments when my launch has underperformed, when a client says, no, I don't make the sale or something goes wrong in a client relationship or when I start to question my own strategy. In fact,
You know, at the time of recording this podcast, I have had a week, you know, to the point where I had this moment that happens for me once every few months where I just lose all my confidence. And it's so interesting because when I look at what I've built, I've been doing this for 15 years now, I've very objectively successful practice. My my revenue is fantastic. My expenses are, you know, exactly where I want them to be. I make great profit every year. It's very reliable for me.
great client base, I get to do all the work that I love to do. I build creative programs that I love offering and hosting. So, you know, objectively, everything is lined up for me. And I suspect that many newer coaches would look at the model I've created and say, that's what I want. Why is she unhappy? Why is she doubting herself? But I think it's just part of being a small business owner. And I've learned that over the last 15 years, there are cycles in this and ups and downs and peaks and dips. And last week, I found myself in a dip.
And I started thinking like, what would I need to do to retire early? You know, these types of questions. What if I just like picked up everything and moved to France? Or what if I took a job at like Starbucks or the bookstore, you know? And I think that's really typical and it's important to share that. I mean, I have learned from my experience over the years that it is a bad idea to take any action from that place because it doesn't last. It always passes. I always feel great the next day. I've also built my confidence in my ability to problem solve.
when there are challenges happening in my business that don't feel good to me and that ⁓ I know need to get solved. I now know that I will solve them. have solved every challenge that I have come up against as a business owner. So I weather those dips in a different way than I used to, but I think it's important to share that because chances are if you're listening to this podcast, you've had those dips. You've had days.
And this happens a lot in the early years of building a business where you just think to yourself, is this worth it? It's so much work. When am I gonna start getting paying clients? How am I possibly gonna make a go of this? It's hard. And frankly, you know, that's why 82 % of coaching businesses fail in the first couple of years because it's really hard work. So I am building in that kind of transparency into my business model and into all of my communications and content because transparency like that builds connection.
and connection builds trust. So if you go away with nothing else from this podcast episode, I want you to take away this phrase, connection builds trust. And in order to create connection, you have to get a little bit vulnerable. So you've got to start sharing, share the parts of your story. I always say share from your scars, not from your wounds. So don't share things that are fresh and still feel like they haven't healed. Share from wounds, sorry, from scars. Share from places where it feels like.
It's healed over and you can talk about it, but share. It's really, really important to build that connection. And again, that connection is what builds trust. The other thing that I'm doing that's a little different, and I really wanna encourage you to start thinking about this, is I am working on creating low ticket offers right now. So I historically have been the person who has a lot of free stuff. I have so many free resources. And if you haven't accessed those yet, go to wendymcallum.com, click on the business coaching.
link and you'll see all of the free things that I offer and they're really high value amazing things from master classes to you know the discovery called cheat sheets to a launch checklist to you know just so many ⁓ valuable things that I give away for free there ⁓ and then obviously I have my one year membership in the BBB which is a higher ticket offer. ⁓
also incredibly value priced, but because it is a one year membership that includes live support from me on a weekly basis, as well as a massive content library and monthly master classes with experts and all of that, it's not a low ticket. It's not a low ticket price, it's an investment. And so what I have not done historically is offered a lot of lower ticket stuff. So I got a lot of free stuff, I've got a lot of stuff that is a little higher price, but what I don't have is a lot of low ticket stuff on the business coaching side of things. I am starting to
create low ticket, high value offers. So these are really high value things for a low ticket. You know, the types of things that I could sell for a much higher price and the value would be there, but I'm consciously choosing to price them lower. Why? Because I want more coaches, not just the ones with big budgets, not just the ones who already like love me and frankly know that anything that I put out there is gonna be incredibly high value. I want all of the coaches to be able to experience what it's like.
work with me. So I'm launching a series of accessible lower cost workshops this fall. It's very, very deliberate. These workshops are short, they're actionable, but they're packed with value. I mean, they're going to lead to the creation of something by the end of it. You're going to walk away from these things with a whole new skill or set of skills or a whole new product ⁓ that you can use in your coaching business to actually make more money. So they're incredibly high value.
⁓ But they're also pretty insular one off workshops. Now, ⁓ these are going to be a way for me to earn trust through delivery. Right? So you hear me talking on this podcast, and you get a lot of obviously great valuable content, I hope through this podcast itself. This is an example of one of my high value freebies. But what many of you haven't yet had the opportunity to do is actually get in a room with me and work with me. So
I am trying to create that because that's a way for me to showcase my expertise, showcase my skills as a coach, showcase my ability to support you in a really customized personal way, and also showcase my personality and my style and kind of my special sauce, which is how I'm gonna build that trust. So those workshops that I am creating are gonna give coaches a chance to make a small investment, get a really big win.
and then decide for themselves if they wanna go deeper into something like the business bootcamp, for example, in the BBB. So that is something that I'm doing. And I really want to encourage you to ask yourself, what is my low ticket, high value offer? Like, what do I have that feels accessible to my people, even those who don't maybe trust me yet or who are in this trust recession?
and also maybe don't have as much money to spend right now or being much more careful with how they spend their money. What do I have that is a lower cost but very, very high value option that is going to provide a vehicle for me to build that trust with them? Again, a downloadable PDF isn't gonna do that. What do you have in your offer suite? And if you don't have something, now's the time to start brainstorming and creating that.
So if you want the details on some of those workshops, by the time this podcast airs, you should be able to go grab those off of my website and I will put the link in the show notes to the page where all the information on those workshops is available. I would love to meet you there. I love meeting new coaches. I promise you that these are priced in a very, very affordable way. And I promise you that you will get incredible value from it and you will leave feeling so grateful that you participated in the workshop, because that's how I roll. I am an over.
deliverer and an under promiser. So the details on those workshops will be in the the show notes. The other thing that I'm doing, and this is another thing that you can start actively practicing right now is I'm working on making my outreach more personal. Because I think part of this trust recession is the fact that everything is automated right now. There is so much automation in our world. We are talking to AI bots half of the time, we don't even know if we're talking to a real person. One of my, my
pet peeves. I how many times have I been on a phone call trying to get in touch with somebody and I'm repeating over and over, talk to a real person, talk to a real person in the hopes that the bot will put me through to somebody real. You know, I think also there was this rise in the use of platforms like ManyChat to do automated conversations in the DMs and Instagram and all of us are wise to that now. We know we're talking to a bot in there. So it's just generally a lack of personal and direct
outreach and communication. And this is your superpower. This is such an easy place for you as a small business owner to actually connect and build trust. And you can totally do it because chances are you're like me, you don't have an enormous, know, hundreds of thousands, millions of followers audience. And so you can do this direct outreach to people.
Personal connection is standing out now more than it ever has. And I have a conscious plan and an intentional plan that I work every single week to engage in at least 10 direct points of contact. And let me tell you what that looks like. This is like human first outreach. So I use little tools like Loom, which is a place where you can record short videos and...
personalize them and send them direct to people. So I use Loom to create personalized videos. I also use voice notes on Instagram all the time. So instead of an automated response, you will sometimes, if you send me a DM, get a voice note from me where I'll say, or if you follow me, I might say, hey, I just noticed you started following me. That's so great. I went and checked out your profile page. I'd love to know a little bit more about your business. If you have a second, let me know like,
who you help and what you help them do. Because I love to broaden ⁓ my base of coaches and you never know when I might have somebody who's a good referral for you. ⁓ So I will do direct outreach like that in the DMs. takes 10 seconds of my time, but it goes such a long way. I can think of examples over the last year when I have purchased very high ticket programs as a result of somebody who I didn't expect to reaching out to me personally.
and a conversation starting from that. So direct points of contact, get your face or your voice in front of people more. That's what this is, in a very personal way. Hi, Susan, I saw that you followed me recently on Instagram, like personalize it. The other thing you can do is you can send thank you notes to your clients, like actual thank you notes with, know the mail, it still exists, but you can do it. And it's really special, it's gonna stand out because nobody does that anymore, right?
What are the ways that you can create that direct, personal, human first outreach? Start doing that, start looking for those spots. It's not as hard as you think. It's really not. mean, one little exercise that's great is to go and look at your clients who you used to work with, your list of past clients, and send every one of those people a direct note, ⁓ a personalized email, or even better, a little loom video or a voice note, and let them know that you're thinking about them.
They crossed your mind, you're wondering how they're doing, you'd love to get an update from them and ask them to send you a quick note back and let you know how they're doing. And from there, you may or may not begin an actual sales conversation, who knows? The point of this is just to build trust, it's not to make a sale, it's to start the conversation. So making your outreach more personal is something that you can all do. You can also use apps like WhatsApp or Vox or to have conversations with people. Obviously there's so many different platforms that you can use now. This takes time.
but it also builds more trust, more referrals and more aligned clients. And that leads to the type of growth that I am focused on myself. And I suspect that's the type of growth that you want to because that's the type of growth that actually leads to real business growth. That leads to increased revenue. It leads to better testimonials. It leads to a higher value for your clients and it leads to more referrals.
Okay, so what can you take from this? What can you do as a coach? You don't need to, you know, get on every single platform. You don't need to pretend that you're further along than you are in your business. And you don't need to sell harder right now. That's definitely not what you need to do. ⁓ And you definitely don't need to sound like every other coach out there and be mimicking and mirroring what everyone else is doing. In fact, that's...
I think a very bad strategy right now because it is not going to help you stand up and it stand out and it's not going to help you build that that like no trust. What you need to do is you need to be consistent. You need to speak specifically to real struggles. People are struggling right now. I think a question that I pose to my BBB coaches all the time, that's a good one to throw out there into the pod sphere for you to think about is,
What is the thing that is keeping my client up at night right now? What is the thing that consumes the most of their head space? What's the issue that they didn't think was gonna be an issue that's suddenly an issue for them? Start thinking like your client. Chances are for most of us, our avatar clients, our dream clients are some version of us. So this isn't too much of a stretch to put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself this question. then ask yourself, how can I create content that is responsive to that?
that helps them with that. How can I bridge that gap, solve that problem for them? Now you're not always gonna be creating a paid offer to solve the problem. It could just be the free valuable content that you put out there. In fact, that's a really great place to start. But you want to be addressing a struggle, a challenge, a thought, a thing that keeps them up at night that's real for them. Because that's the type of content that's gonna resonate and that's the type of content that's gonna start to build that connection and establish that trust. You want to make sure you are showing your face and using your own voice whenever possible.
So creating ⁓ reels using some AI tool where there's a voice overlay and it's a bunch of stock B-roll footage, not very helpful, not very effective to build trust. Get yourself out there, get vulnerable. Put your face out there, record video content, do lives, start a podcast, make a mini course that's audio content or video content that you offer people, set up some live workshops or presentations that you invite people to.
Get on other people's podcasts. These are the ways that you actually build that trust is by you getting out there and actually putting your face and your voice out there. That's how we build trust. ⁓ You really wanna make your audience feel seen. And again, if you're thinking about what's keeping them up at night, what they're struggling with, if you're listening to the clients that you're currently working with, you're paying attention to the words that you're using to describe their problems and their challenges and how they're feeling right now, you can mirror that.
You can mirror that in your content. You can mirror that when you're speaking to them. That's going to help to make them feel seen. You can also share your own experience with that thing, just like I'm doing right now in this podcast episode, which will help to build that trust. And also focus on direct human outreach, on getting those direct points of contact into your week every week. Challenge yourself, make a little list of all of the people that you haven't talked to for forever that you could reconnect with.
or your people who have recently come into your world, people who have joined your newsletter list, people who have started following you on social media, how can you reach out and connect with them? Or clients that you're currently working with, is it time to do a check-in, is it time to get some feedback, is it time to see how they're feeling? ⁓ How can you connect directly, again, using your voice, using your face, using your handwritten signature so that it feels personal to them?
It's really, really important right now in this trust recession.
That is what is going to lead to both sales right now and also ⁓ to continued sales down the line. It's not about pushy sales tactics anymore. It hasn't been for a long time. It really never has been for me. That never felt right. ⁓ Or like big flashy launches, I don't think. I think this is much more intentional and much more personal now.
This is a huge focus inside the Business Building Bootcamp. We are talking about this all the time, how to market your coaching business with integrity in a way that feels sustainable and actually works in today's climate. I teach real world strategies in there to my coaches that are adaptable and grounded and human and really personalized and customized. I get to know all of my coaches. know who they serve. I know what their strengths are. I know what their challenges are. I know what their special sauce is and I help them.
to really ⁓ maximize that, celebrate that and use that, all of that information to build a really resonant business model. I coach my clients through everything from content overwhelmed to pricing fears to lead magnet and low ticket offered creation, all with a goal of helping my coaches build a business that fits them. And that's what I wanna do for you. I wanna help you through this podcast.
through the BBB, if you choose to join us there through this series of workshops that I'm offering this fall to, you know, build a business that actually fits you, that works for you, that meets your personal goals. Because frankly, most of the coaches that I work with have no real desire or goal to build like a multi-million dollar business. That's not what they're trying to do. They're trying to build a business that feels like success to them.
that allows them to do the work that they love, create some flexibility and have some balance in their lives and make enough money that it feels like a success, pay their bills and take home profit so that they can actually create a really lovely life for themselves. And that is what I am in the business of helping people do. And because this trust thing goes two ways, here's one other thing you can do right now if you're not already doing it in this trust recession. Offer a money back guarantee.
I have always offered a seven day money back guarantee on the BBB. It's there now. If you decide to join us in that program through an open house or because you get on a call with me or because it's the right time for you to join or because you've been a lurker for a long time and you've been thinking about it and the fall feels like the right time for you to start. ⁓ You always have the opportunity to check it out for seven days. You can come to a live office hours call. If there's a master class in that week, you can attend that or a copy call, whatever the live calls that are that are happening in that seven day period, you can attend those.
You can check out the content library, it's enormous. You can go through the vault of master classes and see what's in there. And if it's not a good fit for you and you don't believe the values there, you can absolutely leave. And I have a money back guarantee on that. And I think that that's an important thing and even more important right now in this trust recession. Go back to your big offers and look to see if you have included very clearly a statement around a guarantee. Is there an opportunity for people to check this out?
before they fully commit. And if you don't have that, think about it, ask yourself why. My guess is there's a fear there. I'm here to tell you that guarantees like that are going to lead to increased revenue for you, not decreased revenue. And if you're afraid that people are not gonna see the value in your product, then the real question is why?
and how do you create that value? I'm not afraid of that. I know that the value is there in the programming that I create. So have a think about that. Is there room for you to be including a money back guarantee? There is a seven day money back guarantee on my BBB and there always has been. If it's not for you, there's no hard feelings and I will happily refund you. We don't have to get into a big conversation about why it's not the right thing for you I'm not gonna try to convince you to stay. I want people in that program for whom it is a perfect fit and...
⁓ who are going to be really active, productive members of that program. So you can learn more about the BBB through the link in the show notes as well. I'm always happy to chat and help you figure out if it's the right fit for you. ⁓ So just to summarize today's episode, we're talking about depth right now in terms of how you show up vulnerability and depth and value.
instead of like drama and pushy tactics. Connection is key here over anything else. Trust over tactics. Just be thinking about creating connection and remember that connection is what creates the trust. When it comes to creating connection, you need to get a little vulnerable. So it's like vulnerability, which leads to connection, which leads to trust. How can you incorporate more of that in your
your content and your model and your offers and everything. You don't need to sell harder. You just need to show up more honestly. You really do. And a little bit more personally. I hope that today's episode gave you a bit of clarity and some ideas for how you can go into this next quarter, hopefully with a little more peace of mind and focus around what you're doing. You have got what it takes. I promise you, you can do this. You can build the business that reflects
who you are and your dreams and goals as a small business owner. I will see you next time on The Coaching Edge.
