Aug. 12, 2025

Your Client Said Yes. Now what? (Mastering Client Transformation)

Send us a text Ever landed that dream client only to freeze with the sudden realization that now you have to deliver? That moment of "what do I do now" anxiety hits almost every coach at some point in their journey. But there's a powerful framework for moving beyond that fear to create transformative results for your clients. The cornerstone of exceptional coaching isn't complicated—it's about beginning with the end in mind. When someone becomes your client, they do so because they believe y...

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Send us a text

Ever landed that dream client only to freeze with the sudden realization that now you have to deliver? That moment of "what do I do now" anxiety hits almost every coach at some point in their journey. But there's a powerful framework for moving beyond that fear to create transformative results for your clients.

The cornerstone of exceptional coaching isn't complicated—it's about beginning with the end in mind. When someone becomes your client, they do so because they believe you can help solve their problem. Your first responsibility is gaining absolute clarity on what they truly want to achieve. This isn't just for your benefit; it helps them mentally commit to the destination, making the journey more focused and meaningful. Without this clarity, how will either of you recognize success when it arrives?

Many coaches struggle because they make coaching about themselves rather than their clients. The self-doubt whispers that you're not qualified enough or lack sufficient expertise are actually your brain's protective mechanisms trying to keep you safe from potential discomfort. The solution? Shift your focus entirely to where your client stands in their journey. Meeting clients where they are—not where you are—creates the foundation for genuine transformation. If they're on step one while you're discussing step nine, you're not serving them effectively.

Perhaps the most powerful insight for coaches is understanding the difference between technical and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges require information, steps, or how-to guidance. Adaptive challenges, however, demand perspective shifts and mindset changes. Most clients believe they have technical problems when they're actually facing adaptive ones. Recognizing which type of challenge your client is truly experiencing allows you to provide the right support at the right time, dramatically improving your effectiveness.

Ready to transform your coaching approach? Start by creating psychologically safe environments where clients feel they belong, then balance technical teaching with addressing the adaptive challenges that truly drive lasting change. Your clients will not only achieve better results—they'll become your most enthusiastic advocates.

Want a personalized strategy session for free? Book a free call with Marc or Teresa: https://www.modernleadership.us/apply

Whether you're going through a challenge, or working on a powerful goal, join Marc or Teresa for a 20-minute strategy session and leave the call with a plan to make it happen!


Chapters

00:00 - New Client Anxiety

01:40 - Begin With The End In Mind

03:02 - Preparing For Client Transformation

05:00 - Don't Make It About You

06:30 - Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges

08:11 - Creating Safe Learning Environments

Transcript
WEBVTT

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What do you do if you've signed that client?

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And maybe it's somebody who's like, quote, unquote, out of your league, and you're like, I want to make sure that I can help this client get to the next level.

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And maybe you're struggling with, like, not only when it comes to the confidence, but the skills like what do I do now that I have them?

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How do I actually help them create great results so that more people can come to me and I can help them out?

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And that's what we're doing today, guys.

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We are going to break down a really powerful strategy to be able to attack this in a way where you're going to be able to help your clients get incredible results.

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They're going to be talking about you and they're going to keep coming back time and time again along with their friends.

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So, guys, welcome to Modern Leadership.

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I am Mark and this is Teresa.

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There we go.

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We help coaches develop the confidence and skills they need to make more impact and income than ever.

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So you can have a new problem, and that new problem is being fully booked and trying to figure out what do I got to do next, which is probably start a group program.

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But, guys, what we're doing today is we're doing some behind the scenes.

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We just started a new certification.

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We know that whenever somebody just gets started in something, it could be like a little nerve wracking, and being able to like have a process or have something to go through really does like make those nerves kind of like calm down, because the truth is is you have something to offer someone, especially if you've had a conversation with them and they've decided to take that next step.

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But it's just a matter of like being able to really help guide them through this and not make it about you, but really make it about them.

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So that moment hits you when you're like okay, it's happening, I have a client now.

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So my question is that, once someone joins, like what's your mindset as a coach when someone says yes and the real work begins?

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Yeah, I was gonna say that that's when the work begins, right?

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So many people think it's the time beforehand, right?

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One of the philosophies that I always focus on is beginning with the end in mind.

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Right?

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One of the philosophies that I always focus on is beginning with the end in mind.

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I mean, that is literally what we do as coaches is to be able to begin with the end in mind, right?

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So here's what I mean.

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When somebody signs up for a program, somebody signs up for a one-on-one, right.

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Somebody signs up for something.

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There is something that they want to get or achieve out of signing up with you.

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They didn't usually do it out of pity.

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They didn't usually do it because you weren't necessarily the hype person.

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They did it because they know that you can help them solve a problem, right?

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And so your job as a coach is to figure out what is it that your client actually wants.

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What does your client want, right?

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Because, as a coach, what I see a lot of people do and it doesn't really work really well is they just jump into fixing and helping mode and not actually slowing down and going okay, you just signed up, you just became a client of mine.

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I want to be so clear on what you want, not only for me, but also so that you can actually go there in your brain so we can figure out how to create that.

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Because if you get to the end of six months or a year and you haven't done this with someone, how are they going to know whether you've helped them or whether this has been successful or not?

00:02:47.181 --> 00:02:58.742
Yeah Right, for me it's always step one, step one I mean we did in the certification, right, we have a clarity call that we actually take them through a process of identifying what they want personal and professional based goals, because that's how we roll.

00:02:58.742 --> 00:03:02.106
But you have to get clear what those people want.

00:03:02.770 --> 00:03:09.186
Why do you think so many coaches still feel uncertain after they've landed a client?

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They make the coaching be about them, not about their clients.

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But this is how your brain works Like if you're a part of our programs, you know that your brain is wired to keep you safe and if it can convince you that you're not good enough, you haven't gone through enough training, etc.

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Then you don't have to do it and you don't have to get uncomfortable right.

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If you are going to think about yourself, you can think about it in terms of like what have I learned?

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What have I grown through?

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What have I overcome?

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How has coaching helped me?

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Now, how do I take this and help my client do it in their way?

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Now you do need to have some skills and some structure, but making sure that you're not making about you, you're making about your client is step number one.

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I love that.

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Yeah, okay, all right.

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So once we actually start to do the work with our clients, how do you prepare to create real transformation in a session?

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Finding out what they really want, helping them come up with a plan and then being there to guide them along the way to number one.

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First off, keep them out of the whirlwind.

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Okay, what the whirlwind is is just the normal everyday activities, right your work, your kids, exercising those things that could very easily kind of like pull you out of doing the things that you want to do right or achieving the goals you want to achieve.

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And being able to do that with for your client is huge.

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But also making pivots along the way, leaning into what's working, doing it more like, adjusting what's not working right, and basically being able to take them through like this flow right, and so when you go through a flow like that, you can kind of see like what are the direction changes that you can go and really like help meet them where they're at.

00:04:40.423 --> 00:04:43.851
You're not meeting your clients where you're at.

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Where they're at, you're trying to meet them where you're at.

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So instead of me meeting a client where they're at, I'm talking the language I'm sharing.

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Hey, I think you should do this with your business.

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I think you should, and all of that is not helpful to your client because your client isn't where you are.

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So thinking about, like, how do I meet my clients where they're at?

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If they're on step one and I'm on step 10, I shouldn't be talking about step nine with them?

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You have to actually meet them where they're at and, of course, having conversations with them, coaching right, being able to guide them through this.

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That's how you identify oh, this is where they're at and this is what that next step could look like.

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What helped you trust your coaching more and stop like over prepping or doubting yourself.

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I'm not a proponent on practicing with people who pay you money.

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No-transcript.

00:05:59.290 --> 00:06:02.560
So how do you support your clients without trying to fix them?

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You understand the two types of challenges that people can go through.

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I see that a lot of people go into coaching either assuming what their clients challenges are or just coaching one part of the challenge, because that's the only thing or only tool that they have and that's the only path that they know to go down right.

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And so when you can understand those challenges now, you can actually know what to do to help them right.

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So the first type of challenge is a technical challenge.

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This is somebody who just needs more information, needs more steps, needs more a meal plan, needs like the workouts to do, needs the how to start up a Facebook ad, needs the script, those kind of things.

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Now what most people think is they think they have a technical challenge but they don't.

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They actually have an adaptive challenge, which means they have to adapt, they have to think about it differently, they have to change their perspective.

00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:56.997
They have to get into here, find out what's keeping them stuck from actually doing those things.

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What type of challenge is your client going through?

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Do they have a technical challenge where they need like some of the steps, or do they have an adaptive challenge where they need to like be coached and figure out the right mindset and perspective to be able to tap into it.

00:07:10.190 --> 00:07:18.161
So if you do have a client and they're maybe not getting the results they want, I want you to challenge yourself and go have I been trying to deal with the wrong challenge?

00:07:18.161 --> 00:07:28.954
And so one of the things like when I start this certification, it's not just hey, let me give you the details right, even though that's an important part of the process.

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It's the adaptive challenges that I know that they're going to be facing.

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Getting on the first call, everybody's like oh, let me, I want to learn how to coach and they join our certification because they think it's because of the technical challenges and there are some technical challenges they're going to deal with.

00:07:39.237 --> 00:07:42.038
But really I think about as the coach leading the group.

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I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to give them all the tools for the technical, but I also need to manage the adaptive challenges that are going to be facing them.

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On call one, I want to start some great conversations.

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I want them to know that they belong here.

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I want them to feel like maybe it doesn't feel like it's the right room, but it's that exactly what makes it the right room.

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I want to acknowledge and appreciate them for when they raise their hand, when they reach out, when they unmute, when they share.

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I want to set up the environment so that it's a quote unquote psychologically safe environment where they feel like they can lean in, they can have conversations.

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That's what, for me, when I start a group program, that's my goal is, yes, do I want to teach?

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Absolutely, I like teaching, but at the same time, I want to create an environment that makes people feel like this is for me.

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I'm in the right place.

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Let me just keep leaning in and then I can teach them all the technical stuff.

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So the adaptive challenges are things that can get in your client's way.