In today’s episode, I’m going to be sharing with you the three lead generation strategies that you need to scale your coaching business in 2026.
Welcome back to the podcast. I’m so happy you’re here. It is a Sunday afternoon for me. I’ve had such a beautiful Sunday. I woke up, went to Pilates, then I went for a beautiful beach walk in Noosa, took myself out for lunch, then I went to the movies.
And now I’ve come home and I feel really compelled to sit and record some episodes, even though I’m not due to have another one go out for a while. But I just really feel like talking to you guys and really helping you.
Today I’m going to be talking about a topic that I get asked a lot about from my clients but also my audience as well. So I thought let me do a whole episode for you just to simplify it, because this is the kind of stuff that I would have wanted to listen to back when I was in the earliest stages of my business or struggling with this very thing.
And that is lead generation. So how you attract ideal clients, potential clients, dream clients into your sphere every day. And we want to have approaches in place where it actually is happening every single day so that it’s not every now and again that you sign a client or once in a blue moon that you sign a client, but actually consistently.
So let’s chat about it because guess what. There are only three ways you can do this. So let’s just simplify that right from the get go. There are only three core ways that you can attract leads.
I’m going to break them all down right now. And I’ve actually got a whole bunch of notes on my phone so I don’t miss anything for you.
First of all let me talk about the overview of all three and then let me dive super deep and chat about all the things you need to know and consider when it comes to attracting leads, aka attracting your audience, which is the very top of a funnel.
In your funnel we’ve got attract, then nurture, then convert, then deliver. They’re the only four phases. We’re talking about the very top phase today which is attract.
The three core ways are organic marketing, collaboration marketing, and paid marketing.
I like to categorise these in terms of vehicles so you can get an idea of the strength of each one. I like to see organic marketing as a bike. You are riding a bike. A bike is great. It’s free. It doesn’t cost you anything outside of having the bike. And you can get from A to B just at the pace that a bike goes.
Then I see collaboration marketing like driving a car. It’s a little bit faster, a little bit more efficient, but it also requires a little bit more energy output.
Then we’ve got paid marketing which is like being on a plane. Much faster, straight to the destination, and not as much effort required on your behalf.
So we’ve got the bike, the car, and the plane. You get to choose which route you want to go and which mode of transport you want to take. They all have different pros and cons.
Some you pay with your money, some you pay with your time, and some you pay with your effort. All of them require effort and the more energy you put into each one or all three of these the better the result is going to be.
You’ve got to have a skill set in all of these because there are equally people that get bad results in all of them and people that get great results in all of them. It just comes down to the skill set which is why investing in learning how to do marketing and sales is super essential.
It’s honestly the best investment I’ve ever made in myself because I can take marketing and sales skills with me wherever I go for the rest of my life. It just comes back to you tenfold.
If there’s anything worth investing in more than any degree or course or programme or modality it is literally sales and marketing. It is such a game changer.
They are all important and you do need to put in effort. This is not a conversation about not putting in effort. However some require a lot more energy output than others and some are easier to delegate than others.
So let’s dive into all three of them one by one.
Organic marketing is your platforms. Your free social media platforms. This could be posting content on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or TikTok. It could be hosting a podcast like I’m doing or a YouTube channel. It could also be showing up in person anywhere like networking events.
As you can see it’s quite time intensive. You have to create the content, edit the content, publish the content, or meet people in person. Hosting a podcast or YouTube channel means planning, recording, and publishing.
That is organic marketing.
Then we have collaboration marketing. This is using other people’s platforms to grow your audience.
This could be doing a joint Instagram Live with another person. You are exposed to their audience and they are exposed to yours.
You could interview someone on your podcast and if they share and promote the episode their followers will find you and your podcast.
Other collaboration strategies include referrals, speaking at events, affiliate marketing, or posting in other people’s Facebook or LinkedIn groups.
Then we have paid marketing which includes Meta ads, Google ads, and LinkedIn ads.
I’m not saying you need to do all of these. I see there being a time and place for organic marketing, collaboration marketing, and paid marketing.
For example I have never touched Google ads or LinkedIn ads and I don’t plan to. I’m happy with Meta ads. But I do use organic, collaboration, and paid marketing.
Ads are one of our biggest lead generation strategies today because it’s faster and easier. We’ve built a very lean and profitable business and I would rather invest money into ads to grow my audience without doing more work.
But I still see a place for organic marketing because it nurtures your leads.
Someone might find me through an ad but that doesn’t mean they are ready to buy straight away. When they follow me on Instagram, binge listen to my podcast, or watch my YouTube channel that nurtures them until they are ready.
Even though ads generate leads, organic marketing and collaboration marketing help nurture them.
For the first four years in my business it was all organic and I got to over a million dollars doing it organically. It’s not always about the size of your audience but the quality of it.
Now I personally post content on Instagram and Facebook and repurpose it to LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. I also host a podcast and YouTube channel and release an episode every week.
For collaboration marketing my clients refer people, I speak at events when invited, and I appear on other podcasts.
For paid marketing we run Meta ads which I completely delegate to my ads manager. I wake up every day with new leads entering my world which makes it easier to scale the business.
But for ads to work you need the entire funnel to work. Attract, nurture, convert, and deliver all need to be scalable.
You also need to understand something about your audience. When you attract a new lead they are the coldest audience. They don’t know you yet.
Statistics show that only about 3 percent of people are ready to buy. About 17 percent are gathering information. About 20 percent know they have a problem but aren’t looking for solutions yet. And around 60 percent aren’t even aware they have a problem.
That means attraction marketing should focus on helping people become problem aware and solution aware.
You want to educate them on your process, share your story so they connect with you, and communicate in language they understand.
You also want to consider where your audience spends their time and where you enjoy showing up.
Another big mistake I see is people constantly jumping between strategies instead of committing and mastering one.
Avoid trying to be everywhere with no focus. Avoid waiting until something is perfect before posting. Avoid creating content without building relationships.
Everyone starts at zero and you must be okay starting there.
Before choosing my strategy I asked myself:
What works for me based on my strengths
How I like to connect with others
My time, energy, and team support
Where my ideal clients already spend time
What I enjoy and can stay consistent with
My strategy has evolved over time. In the beginning it was all organic and I did everything myself. Now I have a team supporting me.
One thing to recognise is that most people do not convert the first time they see you. You need both quality and quantity of leads.
Being repetitive is a feature not a flaw. Trust builds through consistent presence. Visibility and attraction marketing is a long term game.
You do not need 100 pieces of content across multiple platforms. You need one strong piece of content that can be repurposed across different platforms.
This episode is one example of that. It will be clipped into short form content and shared across multiple platforms.
You just need to be seen to be remembered.
I hope this episode helped you get clarity on the three ways you can attract leads and what to consider when building your strategy.
If you have any questions just message me at sophia rose bernardi on Instagram.
And if you would like to explore working together check the links in the description because I would love to support you.
Bye for now.
