Working as a career coach can be a gratifying and rewarding career path. You get to use your expertise to help people live more fulfilling lives. But so many career coaches (both new and seasoned) get stuck on how to find clients.
Fortunately, there are methods to fill your client roster, and in this post, I’ll share the most effective tactics to help you do just that.
Different Tactics Will Work for Different Coaches
Before going into the different techniques for finding clients, it’s important to note that while there are endless ways to build a thriving client roster, there’s no one-size-fits-all.
Your unique approach should ultimately come down to your strengths and interests.
For example, if you love to schmooze, your best bet might be to go to workshops and dinner parties to network. If you are more introverted and creative, then you might do better finding clients by writing online.
At the end of the day, it’s a game of trial and error. Try out different tactics from the list below. And if something starts giving you traction, double down!
1. Become Masterful
This step is really a prerequisite to all the others: focus on the quality of your coaching service.
Think about it—if you bought a new box of cereal, and it tasted like mushy cardboard with stale marshmallows, you’d never buy it again. And you certainly wouldn’t recommend it to a friend.
Don’t be a mushy cardboard coach. The better your coaching skills are, the longer you’ll retain each client and the more natural referrals you’ll get.
Not to mention, if you continually develop your skills, you’ll feel far more confident as a coach. And exuding confidence will make you far more attractive to potential coaching clients.
Fortunately, research suggests that just about anyone can become an expert at their craft if they practice deliberately.
Action Step: If you haven’t already, try signing up for coaching training to build your skill set.
The top training I’d recommend is the Senior Professional Career Coach Training from the International Association of Career Coaches.
2. Clarify Your Ideal Client
Another wise starting point is to narrow down who you want to work with.
The idea of “niche-ing down” can be a source of endless anxiety for many coaches.
It’s common for coaches (especially newer ones) to think something like: “I just want to help people with their careers! I don’t really care about their line of work, stage of career, gender, or race. I just want to help people!”
For these coaches, the idea of choosing a coaching niche is painful, because they feel like they are cutting off a part of their passion and limiting who they can help.
But in most cases, the more narrow and clear you are about your ideal client, the more people will want to work with you.
Think of it this way: imagine you are a mother, and your kids just went off to college. You gave up your career to be a parent, and now you want to get back into work but feel totally lost.
Then you come across two career coaches.
Coach 1’s website says: “I help people with their careers.”
Coach 2’s website says, “I work with mothers whose kids just went off to college; I help these women find their purpose, and ultimately themselves, by reinventing their careers.”
Who would you rather work with?
Probably the second person!
As a coach, the more specific you are in who you want to serve, the more your target client will feel seen and understood by you.
But don’t put too much pressure on yourself to perfect your niche right away; it often takes time and experience. For many coaches it requires working with dozens of people and reflecting on what types of clients were most enjoyable. As the saying goes, “You discover your niche, you don’t choose it.”
So, if you feel anxious about narrowing into a coaching niche, just know that it’s not final and it won’t forever define you. It’s just an experiment that you can change at any time.
Action Step: To help figure out your niche, jot down answers to the following questions:
What stage of career are your ideal coaching clients?
What are the top 3 paint points you want to help clients with? (e.g., burnout, career stagnation, lack of purpose, etc.)
What type of goals do you want to help clients achieve? (e.g., work-life balance, leadership skills, career advancement, etc)
Is there a particular industry you want your clients to work in (or transition into)?
Do you feel called to work with a clientele of a particular age, race, gender, or other identity?
What topics feel natural?
3. Talk About Your Coaching Practice
Finding clients ultimately comes down to making yourself visible as a career coach.
The most basic place to practice visibility is in conversations with people. When people inevitably ask you, “So what do you do?” It’s a good idea to have an answer ready.
Lots of newer career coaches might feel bashful answering this question, especially if they don’t yet feel successful as a coach or feel awkward due to societal stigmas surrounding coaching.
But here’s the thing: you never know who might need help with their career. At any given social event you attend, some number of those people might be looking for a career coach. Or might have a friend who is.
And if you keep your work a secret, you’ll be blocking yourself off from potential customers.
Now, this isn’t to say that you should force your occupation into every conversation or try to sell everyone you meet.
But when the topic of work comes up, see if you can practice speaking about your coaching practice with confidence and passion.
It’s also worth noting that if you struggle to own your path as a career coach and talk about it freely, getting professionally certified can give you a huge confidence boost.
Create an elevator pitch
Just making yourself visible as a career coach is a huge first step. Usually, if people are interested, they’ll ask more questions and allow you to elaborate. Though, to take it one step further, it can help to have an elevator pitch.
When someone asks you what you do for work, one simple way to respond is by saying, “I am a [job title]. I help [this type of person] with [this problem] achieve [this outcome].”
For example: “I’m a career coach; I work with millennials who are mid-career and feel super burnt out, and I help them find work that feels more aligned and meaningful.”
A good rule of thumb is that if your ideal client were listening to you introduce your work, their ears would perk right up.
Action Step: Practice a sample answer to the question “What do you do?” and challenge yourself to use it the next time you meet someone new.
4. Go to Networking Events
Networking events are a mecca for professional connections and are a great option for extroverted coaches to meet potential customers.
While it’s true that each person you meet could be a potential client, it’s best practice to go to networking events with the goal of creating genuine connections, not with the goal of finding clients.
This might seem counterintuitive. But if you go to events seeking clients, you’ll probably come off as needy and like you have an ulterior motive.
But if you go to meet new, interesting people, then through these genuine connections, opportunities may spring.
Here are a few ideas for networking events you can attend:
Career fairs
Alumni meetups for your college
Panel discussions in the industry you want to service
Professional development workshops
Action Step: Pick a professional networking event over the next few weeks and attend! It might be helpful to create business cards beforehand and to practice that elevator pitch.
5. Run a Workshop
If you’re a community builder, this could be a great option for you.
The key to using this approach is to view your workshop not just as a means to an end but also as an end in itself.
In other words, try to create a group experience that is as powerful, connecting, and valuable for participants as possible. Don’t just create a group event that’s mediocre, where it feels like you have an agenda of upselling them. If you don’t show them that you can add value to them in a group setting, they’ll be unlikely to assume you’ll provide value in a more expensive 1-on-1 context.
At the end of your killer workshop, it’s a good time to mention that if any participants do want to go deeper, you also offer 1-on-1 career coaching.
When designing your workshop activities, consider choosing a specific theme.
Just to spark your inspiration, some themes could be:
How to figure out what you want in your career
Building a personal brand
Doing better in interviews
Building leadership skills
Work-life balance boost
You can lead your workshop online over Zoom or in person.
If you feel like you don’t have a big enough network to fill a workshop, fear not. You have a few options:
You could lead a session at an event center that hosts other workshops (often coworking spaces offer workshops) and tap into their existing clientele
You could collaborate with another facilitator and share networks
You could host your event on Meetup
Whichever route you take, it’ll also help to post your event on Eventbrite, Facebook Events, or LinkedIn events to find more takers.
It can also be helpful to make your workshop a recurring event, instead of a one-off. If it’s recurring, participants will come back. And then you can start to build momentum and develop a community.
Action Step: Start with this question: if you could lead any workshop to help people with their careers, and you knew it’d be a huge success, what topic feels most exciting to you?
6. Ask for Referrals
Referrals and word of mouth are the most common way that clients find coaches.
Referrals work well because they borrow trust. If someone recommends you, their friend will already see you as credible.
The best people to ask for referrals are current clients or family/friends.
Lots of coaches don’t ask clients for referrals, because they assume that their satisfied clients will set up referrals on their own.
That definitely can happen. But not always. Even a client who loved your work might not think to talk about you to their friends, or they may think you have a full roster, or they might not know the power of the referral.
That’s why it’s essential to ask your happy clients for referrals.
There are two great times to ask a client for a referral:
Right after they got a win. If they texted you about an amazing breakthrough, then after celebrating with them, ask if they know anyone who might benefit from your work, because they’ll already be singing your praises
As you conclude your work with them. Once you complete your work with a client, it’s a good time to ask for referrals (as well as a testimonial).
When asking either clients or loved ones for referrals, the more specific you can be with your request, the better. Tell them who your ideal coaching clients are.
If you just ask, “Hey do you know anyone interested in a career coach?” it might be too vague of a question to bring anyone up in their mental contact list.
Instead, try something like: “Do you know anyone who’s sick of applying for jobs who might benefit from a career coach?” This will likely give you better luck because that specific description will draw up someone who fits the bill.
Action Step: Think up who your ideal client is, and then ask either a friend or a client some time this week if they know a person who fits that description who might benefit from your coaching.
7. Put Up Physical Flyers
This is an old-school method, but it still works and is a good option if you are creatively inclined and looking for local clients.
Design a flyer, postcard, and business card that advertises your coaching services.
Then, put them up in places where your ideal client is most likely to spend time. That might be coworking spaces, job fairs, career centers, or professional networking events.
Here are a few tips to help you with your flyer:
Include a QR code that links people to a landing page with more details about your coaching. It’s recommended to print QR codes with a minimum size of 2cm x 2cm (.8 inches by .8 inches). Here’s a free QR code generator.
Make your flyer stand out. If you pin it to a corkboard next to a bunch of other flyers, it can easily blend in. So use images or colors to catch people’s eye.
Use text wisely. People probably won’t read a whole paragraph on a flyer. Be very intentional in using text that speaks to your ideal client’s challenges or desires.
If you have graphic design skills, that’s a huge plus, but even graphic noobies can make this work. If your design skills are underdeveloped, try out Canva. They have free templates you can work off of.
8. Guest on Podcasts
One way to put yourself out there is to guest on others’ podcasts. This is a great choice if you thrive in 1-on-1 conversations.
This gives you a free platform to speak your wisdom in front of another person’s audience.
As a bonus, it’s also a powerful opportunity to work on empowering your own voice and message.
Though recognize that just guesting on one podcast might not be enough to attract clients. But if you guest on 5 or 10, then you’ll likely start to see some results.
One straightforward way to find podcasts is just to search career podcasts on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and reach out to the ones you like.
Make sure to personalize your emails and explain why you want to have a conversation with them. Better yet, include a Loom video message; this will show that you’re not just copy pasting proposals. Plus it’ll give them a taste of your podcast presence.
It’ll be really helpful if you listen to an episode of the podcast (or at least a few minutes!) before reaching out so that you can share something genuine that you appreciate about their program.
Also consider making your proposal with a specific list of topics that you have expertise in and would like to discuss.
So instead of just saying, “I’d like to have a conversation,” you can say, “I’d like to have a conversation on how to recover from burnout, and I have a method I think your audience could really benefit from.”
It might also help your case to mention that you’d love to share the podcast on your social media, newsletter, etc.
If you do get invited to an episode, it’s a good idea to brainstorm what might set you apart from other career coaches. Either a specific coaching niche, a unique way of looking at things, or a novel coaching style.
At the end of the podcast conversation, consider closing out with an offer to the audience. This might be any of the following:
“If you’re interested in working together, check out my website.”
“I’m offering a complimentary strategy session to any listeners of this podcast.”
“Take a look at the free mini-course I made.”
Action Step: Send a personalized message to 5 podcasts asking to be a guest.
9. Create Content
Content marketing is typically seen as a long-term strategy. If you enjoy writing, and can appreciate working by yourself, this could be a great pick for you.
Here’s how content strategy works in a nutshell:
Create content on a discovery platform. This is where you write or make videos that reach new people. With discovery platforms, you are relying on the mysterious underworkings of algorithms to introduce new people to your content. Discovery platforms include: Instagram, search engine optimization blog posts, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Youtube, and any other social media platform.
Create fresh content on a relationship platform. This is where people who found you on your discovery platform have opted in to hearing from you in a more personal way. They didn’t just click “subscribe;” they actually consented to you messaging them on their email address or phone number. Relationship platforms include newsletters, podcasts, SMS, or communities like Discord.
Provide valuable content and build trust. If you create high-quality and helpful material, people on your relationship platforms will grow to trust you as an expert in your field. They’ll even form a parasocial relationship with you as their teacher, mentor, or helpful friend.
Sell things to people who trust you. Once people have established trust and a liking toward your digital presence, some percentage of them will want to buy things from you to learn more. You can sell digital products (like courses) or services (like 1-on-1 coaching or group coaching).
You can see why content marketing is a long-term strategy. It requires consistency and quality. But if you stick with it and do a good job, it can connect you to an amazing audience who trusts and supports you, and it can provide you with an endless stream of clients.
10. Join a Community of Career Coaches
Joining a coaching community can be massively beneficial. You get to bond with other coaches, build your skills, and plug into a referral network.
The most helpful and high-quality coaching communities typically come from training programs.
You’ll likely get referrals both from fellow coaches and from the community itself (especially if it has a directory you can put your name in).
Action Step: Research a few community-based career coaching programs.
Here’s my top pick for a coaching community.
Takeaways on How to Get Career Coaching Clients
If you want to find your first coaching client (or maybe just add more clients to your roster), try any of these effective strategies:
Talk about your coaching practice and practice an elevator pitch
Go to networking events where you make authentic relationships
Run a workshop and give people a meaningful experience
Ask for referrals from clients or friends/family
Put up physical flyers in high-traffic areas where your ideal clients might hang out
Get interviewed on podcasts to share your expertise and tap into a new audience
Create content and share it with an email list who trusts you
Join a coaching program where you bond with other career coaches and get referrals
And just a reminder that if you want to double down on your skills and enroll in a career coaching training program (where you’ll join a cohort and community of other awesome coaches), I’d recommend this program from the International Association of Career Coaches.
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