#68 - Why New Clients Choose Other Coaches Over You & Hesitate to Sign Up

Ever wonder why some coaches effortlessly attract high-paying clients while others constantly struggle? It’s not about having the best program, the lowest price, or the flashiest marketing.

In this episode, I break down:
✅ Why price isn't the reason clients reject you on sales calls
✅ How your potential clients' past failures are holding them back from signing up
✅ The simple shifts you can make today to become the coach people want to work with

If you’ve ever struggled to close sales or get clients to fully commit, this episode will give you the missing piece.

What is Callum Walker | Figuring It Out?

Welcome to The Figuring It Out Podcast. 

At 22, I took the plunge to go on the entrepreneurial journey and start a fitness business, 7 years later I’d been the nutritionist for 2 elite sports clubs and private coach to some of the worlds best sportsmen and women. 

Now it’s my mission to show fitness coaches how you can put yourself in a league of their own, become the go to coach, and finally eliminate the self-doubt and imposter syndrome that's holding you back from building the business of your dreams. 

This podcast will help you figure out how to thrive and conquer the fear that comes with the lonely entrepreneurial journey.

Callum Walker: 00:01

Hello everyone and welcome to the podcast. I have got some news for you. Hey, I've got news and it's not good news. It is great news. It is great news.

Callum Walker: 00:16

My microphone works again. So fingers crossed this audio should be much better. But there we go. What a fantastic news. And I've got some even better news.

Callum Walker: 00:26

It's sunny. It is sunny. It is sunny. I can't believe how sunny it is. It is beautiful.

Callum Walker: 00:33

And do you know what? If it wasn't five degrees outside, I would think that I was abroad. But unfortunately, it is five. Anyway, we take what we can get in The United Kingdom, don't we? What's been going on and what is going to help you today?

Callum Walker: 00:47

Well, couple of things. First of all, of all, I am off to Zimbabwe this week. Zimbabwe. I know. I've never been to Africa before.

Callum Walker: 00:59

One of my best friends, he's a professional cricketer playing in a tournament over there. So I'm going out there to support. So yeah. So that's super exciting. And do you know what's even more exciting?

Callum Walker: 01:13

It's the first proper holiday I've been on for a while. I've definitely fallen into that trap. The entrepreneurial trap of prioritizing other things away from business and sorry. Prioritizing business away from other things and not giving you self permission to go away. I think that what's important is that you book these things because if you book it, then you know that it's in the diary and that automatically kinda gives you the permission to make it happen.

Callum Walker: 01:47

Otherwise, definitely find that we can almost kind of feel like, no, have to work. I have to work. I have to work because the momentum, won't continue if I'm not working on the project. And I understand that school of thought. I have fallen into that school of thought.

Callum Walker: 02:05

But then when we kinda take a step back, we go like that time away gives me that vital energy. It gives me that vital perspective. And also, you know, as as entrepreneurs, we do have to see ourselves as content creators. Not just necessarily content in terms of, you know, content for the acquisition of new clients, but but also content creation for our clients. And I think that one key thing is when it comes to creating content, it it really is about having things to talk about.

Callum Walker: 02:41

So if you found that you've ran out of ideas when it comes to your content, whether that's content in terms of your marketing or whether it's content in terms of new perspectives in which you can really kinda share, your health and fitness lessons with your clients. The antidote to it is to have more things to actually comment on, which really is all about kind of like having new experiences. So again, if I look at the new experiences that I can think of while going to Zimbabwe, you know, it's given me different angles to actually communicate to you guys, and also communicate to my clients. You know, first of all, as an entrepreneur, the challenge of, giving yourself permission to go like, hey, go away. It's gonna be good for you.

Callum Walker: 03:36

You deserve it. You've put the work in. You've put the energy in. You've put the time in. You deserve it.

Callum Walker: 03:41

This is what you do these things for. Go and spend some time with your friend. You know, again, it's about I think the real fear that we have is loss of momentum. That, know, I think that that's one of the biggest fears that we have as entrepreneurs is that momentum. Because again, like, you know, we go a week away.

Callum Walker: 03:59

The fear can be, oh my god, my clients aren't gonna be happy. Oh my god, know, like how am I gonna get new clients in during that time? That is a real fear. So being able to navigate that fear myself is invaluable to you and sharing the lessons that I learned during that experience is invaluable to you. So again, first of all, that experience kind of, you know, that I'm taking that experience gives me more valuable lessons that I can share to you guys.

Callum Walker: 04:28

Then secondly, I'm I'm going to be spending a whole day flying there because I've got to again, I'm not being a snob here but I had two choices. I could go with Emirates or Ethiopian Airlines. And I decided to go with Emirates. Again, why is that? I've been with Emirates so many times and I trust them.

Callum Walker: 04:51

There is a lesson there especially when it comes to the real thing. If you're struggling with sales right now, if you're struggling with new individuals coming towards you, and or you're struggling with retention issues, there's one word that I really truly believe will solve that problem for you and it is trust. It's trust. Now, if I kinda look at like my experience here going with Emirates, so the Ethiopian Airlines. The Emirates flight is actually more of a pain in the ass.

Callum Walker: 05:22

Not only is it £300 more expensive, but also it's at Gatwick Airport which is an extra hour away from me instead of going from Heathrow. And also I have to go via Dubai. I have to go via Dubai, then I go from Dubai to Zambia, and then from Zambia I go to Zimbabwe. So that's I think it's about twenty plus hours of travel time. Whereas the Ethiopian Airlines, I think it works out at like fourteen hours.

Callum Walker: 05:54

So I go to Ethiopia and then from Ethiopia I go to Zimbabwe. So why am I going to all of that trouble just to go with Emirates? Trust. I've been with them many times. Many times.

Callum Walker: 06:07

For those of you don't know, used to live in The Middle East before Dubai was cool. Yeah. I went to school there back in 2007. 2007 was when I lived out there. We started going to Dubai back in 2001, I believe was the first time we went to Dubai.

Callum Walker: 06:26

We used to go there probably about three or four times a year before anyone kind of really went there, which is pretty cool. So yeah, before the tats, before the teeth, all flooded there. I was there. And we always used to go with Emirates. Now, there's another reason why I'm going with Emirates.

Callum Walker: 06:43

Why I trust them, but then also there's these nostalgic feelings of getting on a plane of going with Emirates because it reminds me of such amazing experiences. The excitement of going there, the excitement of moving there, the excitement of moving back from there to The UK. So again, the overall experience that I have had on Emirates really really is the reason as to why I am happily going to go out of my way, both with my time and my money to go with Emirates. And do know what? I am excited to give them more money.

Callum Walker: 07:17

So again, if I can really kind of pass on a huge lesson for you here, it's trust. You know, I on my last I think it might be the last episode, the one before. One of the later episodes before anyway, was talking about how not to do business. There was a business mentor that I spoke at an event. I couldn't trust them as far as I throw them.

Callum Walker: 07:36

They they could get me from a to b. Again, Ethiopian Airlines will get me to Zimbabwe. But because that trust isn't there, I'm not going to make that purchase. Yes. That business mentor could, you know, could be very very good at what they do and they could grow my business for me.

Callum Walker: 07:54

But I don't trust them at all. So I have absolutely no interest in engaging in their services. So I think really, you know, one I really wanna pass on to you is whether it's with your marketing, whether it's with sales, whether it's with your clients. What are you doing today to build trust with your audience? What are you doing today to build trust with your clientele?

Callum Walker: 08:18

Because it's so powerful. And you know what? I truly believe the only way that you can build trust is by being trustworthy. Delivering over delivering delivering on what you say you can do is an amazing saying that's always kinda stuck with me. And it's interesting because I was having this conversation with my my best friend Al the other day.

Callum Walker: 08:41

So my best friend, you know, he just brought in a half £1,000,000, over half £1,000,000 worth of business into the company that he works for. And and, you know, we were having this little conversation and and and he was like, you know, I just don't like, they they they would normally give a bonus but they're not giving a bonus. And he was I I like I could sense his frustration and I could understand his frustration because I would also feel that frustration. I was in that situation as well because he has paid for himself minimum. Do you know what I mean?

Callum Walker: 09:10

And I said to him, I said, look, I understand and this is gonna be really easy but one of my favorite quotes and sayings has always been from Napoleon Hill, no surprise, which is, if you are willing to do more than you pay you are paid for, then you will eventually be paid for more than you do. So if you are willing to do more than you are paid for, you will eventually be paid for more than you do. So I think within the coaching industry, there's been a real urge towards, you know, I'm just gonna give my clients what they pay for, which I do understand. But I just think that you are so better off over delivering on the promise because, like, you know, it is a win win situation for you. If you over deliver on the promise, you're not gonna have any headaches of clients not being happy.

Callum Walker: 10:03

You're not gonna have any headaches in terms of that nagging feeling of, oh, am I doing good enough? Am I enough? You know, I feel like I'm swooning these people. You're not gonna have that feeling. That doesn't weigh you down.

Callum Walker: 10:16

You also your your likelihood of referral or even like, you know, from a retention point of view, your likelihood of retention and referral, it's just gonna go through the roof. So again, here's a question for you today. What are you doing to over deliver on your service today? What are you doing to over deliver on the promise? Because I promise you, if you can do that, it just solves a lot headaches for you.

Callum Walker: 10:40

And also more importantly, it develops that trust. So yeah. So so yes, I'm going with Emirates over Ethiopian Airlines. And then also have to kinda, you know, I've got lessons in terms of navigating and dealing with twenty plus hours of travel. There's gonna be some sleep deprivation there.

Callum Walker: 11:02

There's gonna be some challenging things. Fortunately, I've got a few, you know, tricks up my sleeve to to help from a sleep perspective while I'm away. I've got my cherry juice. I've got my magnesium supplements. I got everything with me.

Callum Walker: 11:19

So again, I have useful experiences to share with you guys. So again, if you find that your content is going stale, you don't have you don't know what to talk about, there are lessons in your experience that you need to share. But if you're doing what, you know, I definitely can fall into the trap of of experiencing the same thing over and over again, then you're not gonna have anything to comment on are you? Because yeah. What I say?

Callum Walker: 11:47

Oh, you know, I did the same things I did yesterday, today. That's not overly interesting. So so again, you know, what we need to do to freshen up our ideas, we need to freshen up our experiences. So another question for you. What can you do today to begin giving yourself fresher experiences to be able to comment on?

Callum Walker: 12:08

And then no doubt when I get there, there's gonna be a ton of things to comment on. It's funny because Henry, I call him h, h has messaged me. He was like, just so you know we gotta be a little bit careful. And I'm like, I'm aware of that. Don't worry.

Callum Walker: 12:26

He goes, no no no. Not just like careful in terms of like the safety. It's pretty safe now but what we need to be careful of is we're going to Victoria Falls and in the, you know, around there like in the town where we'll be walking around there's lions and cheetahs that just walk around. And I'm like, okay, right. That is something that I am not prepared for.

Callum Walker: 12:50

But anyway, you know, I actually, you know, I did run I did run a 100 meters at school quite quickly. So I understand that a cheetah, know, is is fast. Very fast. But then also cheetahs may be really really fast but they run out of steam very quickly. So again, I'm very very good when it comes to endurance.

Callum Walker: 13:08

So I'll be able to outrun the cheater. Oh my god. So yeah. There we go. So again, if I just, you know, summarize a couple of lessons there.

Callum Walker: 13:20

Yeah. There's multiple lessons within that. Trust. What are you doing today to build trust? Are you trustworthy?

Callum Walker: 13:27

If you're not, why not? And when you identify what areas you feel you are not trustworthy in, and that's not trustworthy in terms of your character, terms of your service. I've definitely gone through periods where I've gone, you know what? I don't think my my service is good enough. And that's valuable feedback because I know I go, okay, right.

Callum Walker: 13:46

What are the areas causing the anxiety? What are the areas that I feel have holes in? And then how can I, how can I fill those gaps? How can I, you know, rid myself of those anxieties? And I rid those myself of those anxieties by coming up with better solutions.

Callum Walker: 14:03

So, you know, we we spoke about this in the elite coach actually. Something called an anxieties list. So within your program, in terms of all of the things that your your offer contains, all of the ways in which you coach your clients, you know, what what are the things that cause you anxiety? Write them out and then specifically, you know, write out like what what is it that causes you the anxiety? How do you want it to look?

Callum Walker: 14:30

And what is a credible solution that you can come up with to overcome that anxiety? And that's helped me immensely in terms of plugging the holes within my program. So, so there we have it. There we have it. Back to the short and sweet ones.

Callum Walker: 14:46

Nice and sharp, short. And yeah, I'm I'm really excited for it. And especially, do you know what? This sunshine coming out today has really kind of like brought out some some excitement for me because it's almost kinda like that that hazy blue sky which you normally get when you are abroad which we don't really get here. So yes, that's got me really excited.

Callum Walker: 15:11

I'm excited to see my friend. I'm excited to take a little bit of time out of the business, get a new perspective on things, come up with some fresh ideas. And also, do you know the other thing? I'm really excited to go to the world's largest waterfall which is Victoria Falls and realize how insignificant I am genuinely. And to see animals in to see real nature in its truest form like, you know, I I do feel that in The UK, in the Western world, we don't have nature in its truest form at all.

Callum Walker: 15:46

Yes. Okay. We can go out into woods and everything which is lovely, but, you know, I feel we have to go fully into, you know, almost kinda into the wild, you know, whether it's almost coming right to the North Of Scotland, going into like, you know, into Snowdonia or, you know, so just real kind of areas of natural beauty and come back to that word, they're natural beauty. Man hasn't had any form of kinda like you know, put our fingers all over it. So I'm really excited to experience that.

Callum Walker: 16:21

So yeah. There we go. Never forget, if every one of your clients gave you just one new client, you've doubled your business.