Marketing Confidence for Coaches: Why Waiting Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
“How would you describe the most confident person you know?”
I read that question, called a certain person to mind and instantly thought “yeah, but I don’t want to be like her, she’s a dick.”
Which made me realise that somewhere inside my brain I’ve made confidence mean dickhead. So I probably don’t aspire to be confident because I don’t want to be a dickhead.
This revelation got me thinking about how many coaches sabotage their own marketing because of these twisted definitions we carry around. If you’re an executive coach, leadership coach, or career coach struggling with marketing confidence, you’re not alone.
The marketing confidence problem most coaches face
What you know for your clients but probably forgot for your marketing: confidence doesn’t create action – action creates confidence. But still most coaches I work with are waiting to feel more confident before they start marketing their coaching services effectively.
This creates a frustrating cycle where coaches:
- Avoid LinkedIn marketing because they fear judgment
- Delay launching their coaching programs
- Struggle to attract coaching clients consistently
- Hold back from positioning themselves as experts
Sound familiar? I created a simple exercise to help coaches break this cycle and start building marketing confidence through strategic action.
The 3-step marketing confidence exercise for coaches
If you’re not showing up in your marketing as you’d like to and you’d like to be brighter, bolder and braver in promoting your coaching business, I invite you to take yourself through this exercise.
The questions that I think are a great starting point are “What does marketing confidence mean to me?” and “What would my coach marketing look like if I felt more confident?”
Step 1: Define marketing confidence for your coaching business
What does confidence in marketing mean to me as a coach?
For most coaches, marketing confidence includes:
- Sharing your coaching expertise and opinions online
- Being more visible on LinkedIn and other platforms
- Showing up consistently in email marketing and social media
- Owning your coaching experience and expertise
- Making direct offers for your coaching services
Step 2: Visualise confident coach marketing
What would my coaching business marketing look like if I felt more confident?
Confident coach marketing typically involves:
- Being bold in your content and sharing your coaching insights truthfully
- Not holding back from being visible because you’re fearful of people’s opinions
- Consistently showing up with valuable coaching content
- Email marketing to your coaching prospects regularly
- Making direct offers to potential coaching clients
- Being seen as a trusted coaching advisor in your niche
- Growing your coaching business audience strategically
Step 3: Identify marketing fears vs. marketing goals
When it comes to marketing my coaching services, what am I afraid of and what do I want?
When I took myself through this exercise, it was helpful to note what I didn’t want versus what I did want:
Marketing fears (what I don’t want):
- To be obnoxious in my marketing
- Lots of criticism or negative comments on my content
- To pretend I know everything about coaching
- To use spammy sales language for my coaching services
Marketing goals (what I do want):
- More coaching clients
- More visibility for my business
- People to know I can help them
- To position myself as a coaching expert in my field
If I remove what I can’t control (what other people think and do), I’m left with clear, actionable desires for my business and my marketing.
Turn marketing desires into business actions
Now here’s where it gets powerful – you can turn these clear desires into practical actions to improve your coach marketing, messaging and positioning.
Get specific about your coaching business goals
I want more coaching clients – How many more? For what coaching services? By when?
I want more visibility for my coaching business – Where? LinkedIn? Email marketing? By when? Who do you want to be visible to?
I want people to know I can help them with coaching – Help who and with what? Be specific about the transformation you’re going to help them with. Show them by sharing previous clients’ coaching results, testimonials, and case studies.
I want to position myself as a coaching expert – Write articles about coaching, create helpful coaching resources, share coaching testimonials and feedback.
Real Example: How this transformed my own marketing
When I applied this to my own business marketing, I realised I wanted two new executive coaching clients within two months. This led me to:
- Commit to refining my messaging on LinkedIn
- Get back into weekly newsletter marketing to my email list
- Reach out to five warm connections each week with specific offers
The neuroscience of marketing confidence for coaches
After spending seven years working with hundreds of coaches I know that confidence doesn’t create action – action creates confidence. Each time you show up with coaching content, share your expertise, or make an offer for your coaching services, you’re building evidence that you can do this.
Neuroscience backs this up. When we take marketing action despite feeling uncertain, we literally rewire our neural pathways. We create new associations between “putting my coaching business out there” and “I survived and even succeeded.”
If you wait until you feel confident before you start marketing your coaching services, you’ll be waiting forever. You become more confident through consistent marketing action, not the other way around.
Your next steps for building marketing confidence
- Complete the exercise above – Be specific about your coaching business goals
- Change “I want” to “I will” in your answers
- Schedule these marketing actions in your calendar with deadlines
- Start with small, consistent actions – one LinkedIn post, one email to your coaching list
The coaches I work with who transform their marketing fastest are the ones who stop waiting for confidence to arrive and start building it through consistent, strategic action.
Get support with your content marketing
If you’ve completed this exercise and want support turning your insights into a systematic marketing approach that feels authentic to your coaching style, I’d love to help. As a copywriter and marketing coach who specialises in working with executive coaches, leadership coaches, and career coaches, I understand the unique marketing challenges you face.
Ready to build marketing confidence through action? Email me at clair@upwriteonline.co.uk to explore how we can work together to get you the visibility and coaching clients you want.
Friendly nudge – your ideal coaching clients need what you have to offer. Being invisible doesn’t serve anyone.
About the Author: Clair Strevenson is a copywriter and marketing coach who helps executive coaches, leadership coaches, and career coaches build confidence in their marketing and attract more clients through strategic content and copywriting.
Connect with me on LinkedIn here Clair’s LinkedIn