Stop Coaching in the DMs, Niche Down Faster, and What’s Actually Working Right Now

In this episode of Do The Work, we’re sharing several insights straight from our client community. The real strategies health practitioners are using right now to grow faster and sign better clients. 

We start by breaking down a common mistake practitioners make in their DMs: coaching instead of leading the conversation. When you diagnose, prescribe, and give away solutions for free, people stop seeing your service as something they need to invest in. Instead, the goal is to guide conversations toward discovery and leadership, not free coaching. 

We also talk about one of the biggest growth accelerators in the health coaching space: niching down. When you specialize and speak directly to a specific problem, trust builds faster and ideal clients are far more likely to invest in your services. 

Along the way, we share real examples from our clients who are seeing success with mini ads, myth-busting content, and humor-based reels that are attracting new followers and generating conversations every week. 

In this episode, we cover:
• Why coaching in the DMs hurts your sales
• How to lead conversations instead of giving free advice
• Why niching down helps clients trust you faster
• The danger of constantly switching your niche
• How mini ads are helping practitioners grow their audience
• Why myth-busting content is performing well right now
• How humor can improve engagement on social media

Free Resource
Want to learn the mini ad strategy our clients are using to grow faster?
DM us on Instagram with “MINI ADS.”

About Us
Coaches Creating Impact helps health professionals scale to $10K–$20K+ months using proven systems for content, lead generation, and sales.

Connect with Us
Reuben IG: https://www.instagram.com/reubendriedger/
Terri IG: https://www.instagram.com/terridriedger/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Where your host, Ruben, and Terry.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

He's the ideas guy.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

He's the system bring.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

And together we help you get clients, grow your audience, and actually run a business that works.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Expect real talk, tactical strategy, and the kind of perspective you can only get when you're building two things at once a company and a marriage. Let's jump in. Welcome, folks, to the podcast this week. Thanks for checking in.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

The work. Do do the work the work that work. Do the work.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

We should actually come up with a theme song and then re-record our like intro.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

You know what? Someone actually mentioned our theme song the other day, and I had no clue what they were talking about, but I think they were talking about our intro.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Because they asked me how I came up with our theme song, and I was like, I don't, I don't think we have one.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

We we're all about them theme songs. Yeah. Anyways, I was just telling Terry before we started to record the podcast. We always record this kind of like right before lunch, right before we're both like so hungry. I'm like, is this good? Like, do we create great podcasts because we're hungry, or is it terrible?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

It's probably a little more unhinged, which isn't awful. A little more unhinged. I really enjoy unhinged podcasts. Like our current favorite podcast is Swap.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Is the Swap podcast?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

If you're a runner and you don't listen to Swap, definitely need to swap.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Great podcast. Some work, I'll play. Yeah. That one. But, anyways, folks, we have another week where we just got a bunch of different insights and really great value for you as far as like what's working right now for our clients, for health professionals in this space. Um, and we are just going to rock and roll with that because yeah, one of the things that we've been loving is in our client community, our clients are not only crushing it, but also then just sharing their insights and sharing what's working well for them. And um, I just love it because it's just like a very easy way to see like, hey, this is what's working, this is what's working. This is like literally right now, as we speak, what what is working, so you should be implementing it. So, should we dive in? Let's do it. So, uh, first thing is one of the big realizations, one of our clients had this last week, is that they were coaching too much in the DMs.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

And we see this happen all the time because guess what? People, when they start to build their businesses, they view themselves as like a coach or a practitioner or whatever it is. And so when they have conversations with people, they just automatically slip into that, like basically like already diagnosing and prescribing and like all these different things. And the truth is, if you coach people in the DMs, what happens, Terry?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Well, they're never gonna pay for your service, they're never gonna pay for your services. Because if if they get the sense that they can just ask you a question at any time, you're just gonna answer it.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yeah, exactly. If they start to view you as you got tips and tricks, and every time you ask them a question, you're gonna give them the answer. Uh yeah, they're not gonna buy your services. Yeah. So one of the things that I talked about this last week in one of the reels that I made was that you need to be a leader in the conversation, not a coach, actually. So when you're having conversations with people, you need to lead them into understanding what's best for them. For most of these people, it's getting some type of support, right? Like if I had a uh, I don't know, an injury of some sort from running, let's say. And if I was asking a physiotherapist or someone like that, like questions, and then if they were just giving me answers, like, yeah, do this workout, do this, do that, do this, do that, and they were just like coaching me for free, I wouldn't then end up paying for their services. But if they would ask me, okay, when did this pain come around? Okay, how long has it been happening? How much do you want to get rid of this pain? Um, like what have you all tried? What hasn't worked? Um, and they just were kind of like more so like just doing discovery, and then they're like, okay, perfect. I would I would recommend jumping on a call with me or coming to book in a session so that I can like do a diagnosis officially and prescribe a plan that's good for you. I view them as a leader because I like I trust them, they have authority.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

So, anyways, I'm hitting this on the head, but and the the other part of this um back when I was a health practitioner online, people can get really, really pushy. And something, a line that I used to say multiple times a day in my DMs is hey, you know what? It's against my scope of practice to actually start diagnosing and treating you in my DMs. Um, let's hop on a call so that I can discover more about what's going on and see if it's actually a fit for us to work together in a practitioner-client relationship. Um, because truthfully, especially like practitioners, like like you want to or you shouldn't want to. You legally need to stay within your scope of practice and ensure that you're not doing something that could get you in trouble. And so that's a line that I used to use a lot that would put me in the position of authority and professionalism compared to coaching in my DMs.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Well, exactly. I love that. Well, well said. Let's move on to the next one. One of our clients was asking us if they have to show up in their content as themselves and like show their their face and everything. Yes. We get this a lot. Um, the truth is, people, the biggest two reasons people are gonna buy from you is number one, do you have the authority and value? Like, are you like the right, like basically, do you have the right skill set and results? But the second biggest thing is people are buying you, okay? Because like let's let's view this. There's a lot of you who follow us who probably uh have seen other business coaches that you were like, yeah, they get people great results, but I just do not like them as a yeah, like I don't actually want to work with them. I don't want to be in their like energy in their environment. And this is because guess what? You attract kind of the people who you are, right? And so if you're not showing up, like your face, you talking on camera, all these different things, people don't get to know you.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, and I always ask our clients like, are you showing up in your modules? Are you doing coaching calls? Are you like like if you're doing sales modules andor coaching calls, but you don't want your face to be seen on content, that's just not gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yeah, well, a hundred.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Maybe it would have worked back in like a 2010 course world where all you're doing is like templates and your face isn't being shown in what you're selling, but like with what our practitioners are doing within their packages that they're selling, you just you need to show your face.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

You need to absolutely. And I think just personal take, as we move into the AI world more and more, yes, it's actually gonna become more important. Absolutely. Because I mean, people all are already this this the studies are out there when they see AI content, are scrolling by it quicker. Yeah, and so one of the because the lazy coaches, the lazy practitioners are going to use all AI. So they're gonna get just like run over by the competition who is showing up and being real and authentic.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

So be yourself, folks. Um time blocking. We've talked about this a lot. Um, maybe for some people who don't understand what time blocking is, Terry, because our clients have realized that if they're distracted in their work hours, they hardly get anything done. Yeah. So talk about time blocking, what it is, and why it's so useful for being like productive.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

I think the easiest way to talk about what time blocking is is to talk about what it isn't. So a lot of us, um, specifically when I was a practitioner, I would have my emails open, I would have my Calendly open, I would have my boxer open, I would have Instagram open, I would have CapCut open. And so essentially I was responding to emails, waiting for boxes to come in for my clients, immediately responding to those, then seeing how many sales calls were on my books the next day, then moving into content creation. Like you're you're essentially doing everything you need to do in the day at once, and therefore you're not truly being productive on anything. So, what we want to do is we want to close everything and choose one thing to work on, like within this hour. And and by the way, guys, back when I was still working in a clinic full time, this was not within this hour, this was like within these five minutes. Yes. I'm closing everything, and all I am doing is making my Instagram story for the day. Like that is it. I'm not opening boxer, I'm not opening my email, like this is all I am doing. And then the next 10 minutes, okay, now I am responding to boxers. This is my blocked time where all I'm doing is responding to boxers. I do not have Instagram open, I do not have my emails open. Um, and so it's it's essentially it's planning your week out that everything that needs to get done within your week is within your calendar, and it is one thing, and you are learning to close everything else within that period of time.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Yeah, yeah. And obviously, because we're bringing this up, this is working so well for our clients who before have been so distracted.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

And the other part of this, just to get nice and woo-woo, is like we know how much strain it is on your nervous system to be doing a million things at once. Like, so often our practitioners are craving a softer life, which I get that's something that I is a huge goal of mine always as well, is to live a soft life. Well, you know how you do that? You you do strategies at specific times and you shut off other things. If you're doing 20 soft things at once, your nervous system is just constantly activated and you want to teach yourself that it is safe to do one thing at a time. Yeah, and then you're actually gonna do it so much better and so much faster anyway. Like this is really a win-win-win.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

100%. Absolutely love it. Moving on to the next subject. So, this is actually one of our clients, Sophie. She posted in the group that she finally hit her first 10K month, which we're really proud of her. Um, and she said that niching down has honestly been the biggest thing that has helped her over the last couple of months. Now her targeted ads are bringing in ideal clients who see her as a specialist, trust her much quicker, and are ready to work together. And I asked her the question actually, like, hey, I'm curious, what would be your advice if someone is in the program or someone listening to this podcast that is scared to niche down? Like, what's your advice? And this is what she wrote. So she said, if you're talking to everyone, you're talking to no one, the people that you are talking to directly by niching down are those that have specific problems that they feel like they need to solve and to see you as a specialist and an expert to be able to guide them, which draws in leads that are ready to invest and commit. And this is just so great. Like, yeah, I think that have probably on this podcast maybe every week, if not every other week, talked about like become a specialist.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Because when people again, like I'm trying to think of a good example here. We talked about this in food oftentimes. Like when I'm craving a specific food, I'm not gonna go to the restaurant that just says we have all types of food. Yeah, I'm gonna go to the restaurant, like right now, we were talking about that we are craving subs. Well, we're probably gonna go on a subway um to get subs, right? So, like niching down is one of the fastest tracks to um getting success. Absolutely. And I'll be completely honest with you folks, we have some clients that join our program and they uh struggle to pick something. Yeah, and the longer they struggle to pick something, the longer they struggle to get clients.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yes, and and also guys, stop switching your niche every month. You're essentially starting a brand new business every time you're doing exactly yeah, yeah, that's it's actually it's been interesting for me because you guys have to know, a couple years ago, I had been doing just B2C for a full decade. And so B2B has been fascinating. And one of the things I can tell you guys is when we get negative survey feedback from clients, the amount of times it's because that individual came into our program at one niche, our consultants may have said, Hey, that's probably not gonna be a profitable niche within the first call or two, let's do this. Yeah, and then they did it, and then they were like a month later, no, now I want to do this, and then a month later, no, I want to do this. And then they get to the end of the program and they've essentially started six, seven different companies during the length of our program and are like, I never got any results. Like, guys, yes, it is so important that you choose a profitable niche. If you join a program and a consultant says, I don't think that's a profitable niche, this would be a more profitable one. Listen to that. Absolutely, but then stop changing.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Oh, it's I I I explained it to someone the other day. It's kind of like you put the seed in the ground, you cover it up with dirt, you water it, you like pull the weeds away, and then a week later, you're like, I have no raspberries. I'm going to take that out of the soil and replant it somewhere else. It's like, no, don't do that. The way I'm telling our clients these days is you're not married to this niche for the rest of your life. Yeah. You only need to date it for the next four to six months. Yeah. Because in four to six months, you are going to learn a lot. You're going to learn how to get clients, you're going to learn how to like be skillful in sales, marketing, all those good different things. And you're going to be working with clients getting paid. And then at like, let's say in six months, you truly are like, yeah, I do want to slightly shift my niche. Okay, we can talk about it at that point. But at least you've made money, you've worked with clients, you've grown your skill set, and like you're you only need to date it for six months. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

But yeah, and it's just so frustrating every time I see one of our clients. And again, there are times where you should be switching your niche if you have a bad niche. Yeah, yeah. I'm not saying don't ever switch your niche. But once you have a good one, and then and then it's just so frustrating because I when you're asking them, like, oh, what are you working on this week? And then every freaking week, it's, oh, I need to change my Instagram bio, and I need to change my highlights, and I need to change this and change this because I'm changing my niche again. Like, changing your niche is so time consuming, it's so expensive. Like, yeah, stop shooting yourself in the foot.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Stop shooting yourself in the foot, folks. Another thing I talk about almost every single week is do one of our mini ads, okay? We had one of our clients just post this week. They said we boosted our first reel three weeks ago. We got 600 followers from it. We have the most activity in our DMs we've ever had. And what we've learned is we should have done this years ago. Damn, cool. And so uh it was Monica Michelle, she's crushing it. So I just I wanted to plug that there is like go like listen to our trainings on mini ads and like why you need to set them up. Last insight of the week, things that are working well, and then we need to go get our subway. Is one of our clients, Julia, is talking about how the insight that she had this week that was especially myth busting reels are going viral for her if she does them in a funny way. And so she's doing these like myth busting reels where she's busting like lots of people believe this, but that's a myth, and she's doing them in a funny way, and she's putting a funny spin on them. And yes, she has a mini-ad up, by the way, but also her organic content has been getting her like 50 followers a week, 100 followers a week as well. So she's getting the mini-ad followers.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah, I'm good for her.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

And the organic stuff. And so this is just like an insight that's like, hey, she noticed that if you do myth busting reels, that you do them in a funny way, um, you get a lot of leads from them because people like to be entertained, they like to like, especially like people like to smile, and so don't always be so serious. So those are the insights for the week, folks. Um, Terry, any other insights that you wanted to share?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Do you remember when I first joined CCI and I was trying so hard to convince you to do more humor?

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah, you did. Tried to convince me, and now we do more humor content. Yeah. Because life is not so serious. No. We do serious content because we need some people to realize the hard truth of business, but also have a lot of fun. Yep. Work hard, play hard, love harder, etc. I don't know. Anyways, folks, that's the episode for the week. If you got any questions you would like answered on the next podcast, send them over our way, and we'll see you folks in the next episode. Bye bye.