With so many different tactics for generating coaching client leads - social media, blogging, paying for ads, giving talks, and more - Chase opted for the most direct route: talking to people and offering them a free consultation.

What's most impressive about his story is that he managed to get 3 new clients in 14 days and along the way he learned how to more confidently talk about his services.

Listen to the full interview and if you would rather read it, the transciption is below.

Listen to Chase Jackson and how he got 3 new clients in 14 days

About Chase Jackson, Peak Performance Coach

Chase Jackson is a peak performance coach based out of Oakland California. Chase works with high-functioning males looking to apply optimal living best practices from the World’s greatest teachers. There are two things that he absolutely LOVES to do in life: he loves to coach and he loves to read. He loves to read so much that he reads a book a day and has read over 500 books on self development and counting. Check out Chase's Noomii profile today to learn more about his 180-day Insight to Personal Power program.

A transcription of Noomii's interview with Chase Jackson

0:00 [SW] Hi, my name is Stephan Wiedner, and I am The Co-Founder of Noomi.com. Today, I am interviewing Chase Jackson, not my standard interview where I am asking the coach a couple of three or four questions about. This is intended for coaches to learn from Chase’s experiences and we will call them ‘victories’ in terms of building his coaching business.

So, Chase welcome and thanks for joining me.

0:24 [CJ] Greetings, happy to be here.

0:26 [SW] So, Chase, give the listeners here a quick rundown of how this conversation came together. I was going over your profile with you. And then, you asked me a question about building your business, about getting clients, and then I issued a little challenge to you. Tell us about that.

0:44 [CJ] Sure, it was about six weeks ago we conducted the audio for my profile page. And we were just talking, either before or after, I think it was before the audio. And I kind of brought up the fact that my background is as an entrepreneur and as a kind of added value to my business, I was doing some executive coaching.

But, when I closed that business down and went full time as a coach about two months ago, I had never up to that point, introduced myself to anybody as an executive coach or as a key performance personal success coach. I had never done that before.

And just from kind of going through coaching materials and things, I know that there is…for people who aren’t familiar with life coaching or personal success coaching, there can be some tension there like in terms of “you are a coach, what is that?” you know. “How does that work, how do you provide value?” And I knew that for me to be successful, I needed to get used to very quickly the idea that this is what I do, I bring extreme value and be very confident when I provide my 20 second elevator speech.

So, when I talked to you - kind of story of my life in terms of getting into things and accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish - is we kind of came up with this personal challenge for me where I had to go out, and I think the number that we decided on was, wanting to introduce myself as a coach to forty two different people in a month. And I was to introduce myself as a coach and ask them if they needed any help in terms of their life or if they knew anybody that did.

And a quick story, when I got off the phone with you that night to kind of get me rolling in this process, which helped a ton, is there was a super successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker in the seventies, W. Clement Stone, he is kind of like the Tony Robbins of forty years ago. And what he used to do at his seminars was instruct the people who attended his seminars  to say fifty times before they went to bed and fifty times when they woke up, “do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now.” And I started that that night and that was a good kind of first step in terms of getting me rolling.

03:43 [SW] So, I presume the next day you picked up the phone and talked to someone?

03:50 [CJ] Yes, now I did most of this in person.

03:53 [SW] Okay.

03:54 [CJ] So, I did most of my conversations in person and I spent a lot of time at a crossfit gym. And actually, when I started coaching, I kind of picked that, selected them as a target market of who I wanted to promote my services to. I did a lot of promoting my business in person at the gym, at my boys’ school and I even got a couple waiting in line at the grocery store.

And the reason I was doing that was, I wasn’t necessarily expecting the business. But again, my background is in entrepreneurship and sales and I know that the way sales works is you need to be able to communicate your value in a way that the other party can understand; and that they appreciate the value as much as you do.

And so, in doing this challenge, probably the biggest benefactor for me in terms of doing this challenge, other than I picked up some business, was that I was able to experiment with what works and what didn’t. And yes, so I did most of them in person.

05:14 [SW] So, I love how you said you got into conversation with people live in person and even met people at the grocery store in line waiting to pay for your items. How did that conversation go? Can you role play it as a ‘I said this then they said that’ kind of thing? Can you give us that kind of detail?

05:36 [CJ] Dale Carnegie in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People has laid out the five questions that he believes to get people to open up. You ask them what their name is, what they do professionally, where they live, do they travel, and do they have any hobbies?

So, I would usually look for some way to build rapport with someone at the grocery store in terms of like what they are wearing or something to give them a complement on. And then I would kind of go into those questions with me saying first, “Hi, my name is Chase, what is your name? I work as a peak performance coach, what do you do?” And so by me initiating like that, it gets them thinking “okay, this guy is a coach.” So that is a win for me already. And then I would ask them what they do professionally, and then do they have any hobbies or do they travel or do they want to go somewhere?

And a lot of times, people would be like, “yeah I love to travel but you know I can’t afford to.”  And then now I would be like, “why is it you feel like you can’t afford something like that?” And then they would be like, “well you know, I am spending money on this” or “I am having a hard time taking up extra hours at work” and that is when I kind of go into, “would you like some help with that?”

And again, I never was able to take something up from the grocery store but I was able to develop my business which felt good. You know, even though, again my background in sales is I mean the more no’s you get, the better - because the more no’s, the more yes’s you’ll get.

07:33 [SW] And I think what you said earlier is you wanted to find a way or you recognized the fact that you needed to practice. You needed to practice talking about what you do, how you deliver value etcetera. And so, you were obviously practicing that skill. Was there a time at the grocery store or some other place where you think you really blundered; you really screwed that one up?

07:54: [CJ] Yeah. So, one of my coaches, he taught me about the importance of body language and body movement. And when I did a proposal a couple of weeks ago, and I have heard this story before, it happened to other people, and I didn’t know that this would actually happen to me. And I can’t say for sure because I didn’t have myself on tape but I think when I was offering my services, I think I was shaking my head left to right, like ‘no don’t do this’.

And this is very common for people who aren’t familiar with or not necessarily familiar but not confident in their business or service, and for me it happened itself because I was very new in what I was doing. And yeah I would say that is a big blunder where they did not accept my services.

And then actually what I did after I spoke with my coach that time is when I made another proposal, I was like the whole time I was nodding my head, I was having fun with it. I was nodding my head like a bobblehead. ‘This is what I do, these are the logistics’ and I was bobbing my head because I was so conscious of it and the gentleman I was speaking with, he was nodding his head right back with me the whole time, it was incredible.

09:23 [SW] That sounds great, I never heard of that before but that makes a lot of sense. So you think almost operating at a subliminal level you have this either confidence in yourself or lack thereof and your body gestures reflects whatever is going on inside your mind?

09:40 [CJ] Definitely! And 90% of communication is nonverbal. So, I mean if you are…as someone who I initiated contact about doing personal success coaching, so this idea might be new to them. And if I had only, I did some coaching with them but then you know after like ten minutes I offered them services and then I am shaking my head, then they are probably not going to accept that, you know.

And then one other thing I would like to say that was of great help to me, is that the number one thing that I learned from my coach and getting enrolment is that when you meet people, the first thing you want to do is you want to coach them. That has to be a part of it. You have to coach them or they aren’t going to know what they are getting into. You don’t go to a car dealership and buy a vehicle without doing a test drive.

Doing all of this was absolutely fantastic for me because I was able to experiment with having specific exercises like a life purpose exercise or a resume building exercise that I could work with with a potential client. Or, I could let them initiate things and kind of go with the flow to see where it goes. So that was great for me as well. I could only accomplish that - in terms of seizing out my best styles - by doing reps. So that was a great part of this process as well.

11:27 [SW] So, when you mention delivering a proposal or offering someone your services, you gave me the scenario in the grocery store where you said the person was talking maybe about how they can’t afford travel, ‘oh, well do you need any help with that?’  Is that what you mean by ‘the proposal’ or is there something more in depth?

I guess, I am wanting to know how you go from shaking their hand and introducing yourself, to ‘what is the next step as far as getting business?’ Is the next step for you to offer them a free consultation and say “here is my business card, let’s have another chat” or how did you do that?

12:05 [CJ] Sure, so with random drive by interactions like at the grocery store or at my boys’ school, the next step would be to set up a discovery conversation, where I can really get in there and coach them for an hour. But I guess of course I was fortunate enough during the time period, I was able to go to a conference and with the people that I met at the gym, what I did was when I said, “would you like some help with that?”, whatever particular challenge or goal they were trying to reach, I would take time right then and there to do a coaching exercise and do a coaching session.

So, if it is someone that I already knew, I would try and do the coaching session right then and there which would lead to me offering logistics to my services and that is, those are where…so in terms of what my actual numbers were, I set out to talk to forty two [42] people, and I was able to do twenty eight [28] initiations of contact trying to communicate the value of my service. From that, I did nine [9] discovery conversations and then I got three [3] clients out of that.

And those three clients all happened after I initiated contact with them. After hearing what their situation is or what their goal was, I said “this is what I do, would you like some help with that?”. They would say, “Yeah, how can you help?” and I would be like, “well, would you like to do a coaching session right now?” they said “yes” then we would go to the coaching session.

And then another thing I got from one of my coaches is that during that session, you want to kind of wait to see ‘aha moment’ where they are like “wow, this is kind of breakthrough for me”. And then that is where you ask them, “would you like me to share how my coaching program works?” and then you kind of go to the logistics of it.

14:27 [SW] Fantastic! So when you ask that question, “would you like any help?” I guess the next logical question from the client is; “how can you do that?” and then that is the perfect entry to, “well why don’t we do a quick session right now? I can walk you through a coaching exercise right now” and I would imagine the answer is going to be, ‘yes’ most of the time?

14:47 [CJ] Yes, and that is where the ambiguity of what the people who aren’t that familiar with coaching can explore. That’s where they can get curious and it’s where it can be used to a coach’s advantage. Because, people are going to be like, “okay I want to see how much value I can get out of this”. There are no logistics involved. We just take fifteen minutes to do an exercise and if nothing else, they at least walk away feeling pretty good.

I know there is value in that service. I will walk away feeling pretty good even if I didn’t get a client out of it. I will feel like I shoveled some value to them. The next time they see me they are going to think, ‘Chase is a peak performance coach. I can see why, he helped me’.

15:44 [SW] And so now that you’ve conducted these twenty eight conversations, nine of which led to coaching conversations, three of which led to clients, are you doing anything else to follow up with the twenty five individuals that didn’t pursue coaching?

16:05 [CJ] Yes, so, I am a huge reader. So, what I do is if I get somebody in my network in terms of introducing myself as a coach, the way I keep contact - I guess from a marketing point of view but I look at it in terms of adding value to them - is what I have done with the twenty eight and the other people that I come across is that I will send them book reviews of books that I have read where I feel like it is relevant to their situation, goal or challenge.

And then also, I am a huge believer in handwritten notes as well. I have actually tried to send up to you and Amy but I get them sent back. I don’t know if it is because of the address or it is because of me sending them across continental lines or country lines. But, yeah so those two things, sending book reviews through emails and then sending notepads, handwritten note cards as well. And I have gotten feedback from people on the book reviews, “thanks for that, thanks for this, we are still thinking about service” and stuff like that.

17:25 [SW] That is great! And when you send these cards do you include your business card? Do you leave them with a pamphlet or anything? Or is it not at all like that? Are you just writing a note, ‘here is some helpful information’, and you leave it at that?

17:42 [CJ] Yes, I will put a note, ‘just checking in…’ and I will have a relevant quote in there from something I have read and yeah…I feel like they, I have given them my information. So, I don’t put any additional cards in there or marketing pamphlets. But that is something to experiment with as well which I will probably do just to see if that provides any additional value.

18:10 [SW] Yeah, I don’t know if it would, I think that genuineness of your desire to as you said ‘shovel value their way’ I think is probably a pretty good indicator of where you stand and what your values are. And people probably appreciate that and respond to it in a positive way. You aren’t just trying to get business out of them, you are trying to actually help them and be a peak performance coach.

18:35 [CJ] That is right, yeah definitely.

18:38 [SW] Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. As consistent with everything we have learned on how to generate referral clients, and referral client leads and so on. So, any final tips or thoughts or anything else that you have learned from your little mini challenge of reaching out to forty two people and having coaching conversations with them?

19:02 [CJ] Definitely, I feel like coaching is a professional service and I feel it is kind of like you are an artist or like a musician or even a consultant. I mean when you are offering a professional service, sales is a huge, huge, huge aspect.

A great book from one of my favorite coaches that I really admire and look up to, is a gentleman named Steve Chandler and he talks about if you have a coin, and every time you flip a coin, if it lands on heads, you are going to get $100, are you going to care if it lands on tails? No! You are just going to keep flipping the coin and then if it lands on tails, then you flip it again and it is going to land on heads eventually.

And then that will be my tip to coaches out there is just don’t take anything personal and just go out and if this is really what you want to do, I think that is kind of the make or breakthrough. What is the difference between super successful coaches and not super successful coaches is how much challenge you do, how much rejection can you take?

And that was great, I took a lot of rejection over the last six weeks and you know I am better for it. I feel good.

20:38 [SW] Not many people would say that but it is true. I guess I saw it as you’ve got three new clients out of it, hooray! But there is twenty five people who said ‘no’ in some way, shape or form, I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way but you did.

20:53 [CJ] That is right, yeah. And I got three clients and I learned all different kinds of ways to communicate my value which can only be done. You can practice in the mirror but like my story of proposing services and asking for money from someone and shaking my head like ‘no don’t give me money’, it is completely different when you do it in front of other people.

21:27 [SW] Sure is. Well Chase, I really appreciate your time here today and I appreciate you sharing all the details and the story of your successes here. And I am sure what you have built for yourself here just in a few months is going to project forward into the future and you will be one of those successful coaches. Well I think you already are a successful coach but what I’m talking about is one that has reached what we like to say ‘coaching nirvana’. This is a place where you no longer have to actively go out there and market your services. Instead you’ve got this rich network of people who have worked with you and are referring other people to you and you just have to pick up the phone and coach people.

22:09 [CJ] Yes, super excited, anything I can do to help Noomii, definitely.

22:13 [SW] Alright Chase. Thank you so much.

22:15 [CJ] You are welcome, thank you Sir.

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