We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Walker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I left my 10-year career as a high school teacher after my 2nd baby was born. I had ZERO plan but did have a giant belief that I would find a way to use my 25 years of coaching and teaching for a purpose! I stumbled into coaching and my business began to grow steadily from there. Truthfully, in the beginning, I was afraid to call it a “business” because I had zero marketing or sales experience. It did NOT happen overnight but rather a steady doubling of revenue year after year.

Over time, we grew the company from scratch to 7 figures with a solid focus on client results. In the beginning, all of our revenue came from 1:1 coaching. There came a point when I realized that I was hitting a revenue cap because I simply couldn’t coach more hours in a day 1:1, and that is when we launched our first group coaching program so I could begin to coaching 1: Many. In addition, we began to scale by creating small price point passive products to serve our audience as well.

The other massive learning and necessity to scaling was hiring my first employees. My first hire was a virtual assistant, which was a game changer for small tasks. However, the biggest catalyst for scaling support was hiring my OBM (Online Business Manager) who handles all the backend of my business. She allowed me to stay in my zone of genius and focus on the most important tasks for me–client results and relationship building. The way we’ve grown and continue to attract clients is primarily through webinars and providing insane online value for free. It has worked since the start, so we continue to double down on that.

While it can look really sexy on social media and online, scaling and revenue has some by doing LESS, keeping it simple and working to optimize what’s already working.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Amanda, a Certified Master Coach who inspires coaches to become better coaches. I am known as the “framework building ninja” and help coaches create their signature coaching framework. I run a group coaching program called the Framework Builder Lab and a community for coaches to grow their coaching mastery and business skill called the Best Damn Coach. I also host a top2% podcast called the Best Damn Coach.

Coaches and coaching have changed my life.

I became a coach for the 1st time at 15, coaching 4-5 year old boys in a pee-wee basketball league. I moved on to “coach” the hardest crowd ever as a high school teacher and coach, then added to my coaching resume Level 1 Crossfit Coach, Precision Nutrition Coach, and now Certified Master Life Coach, NLP and hypnotherapy practitioner. I have a combined 25 years of diverse and immersive coaching that I have integrated to help make coaches better and grow their coaching businesses through a focus on client results and impact.

I have been featured in website publications such as Forbes, Today Online, and Catalyst Athletics and on podcasts such as Mom Is In Control, Youest You, and Cubicle To CEO.

I am an Arizona native, wife to a fellow entrepreneur, and mama to 2 passionate kiddos.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I am passionate about reminding business owners that social media should not be their only focus for growth, and you don’t have to have a large following to create massive impact and profit. I remind my coaches often of this acronym: HOPE..help one person everyday. My growth on social media (specifically IG) did not come from viral posts or even IG contact specifically. My growth has come from using a consistent strategy to provide value to other people’s podcasts and communities. I constantly build relationships and pitch myself to podcasts where my ideal client would listen so I can provide value to them. When they love my message, they come follow my social platforms. I take the time to personally welcome each new follower to my account and ask them how they found me. 9/10 times it’s through another person’s podcast or speaking opportunity I have had. I liken this to an iceberg–what we see is all the followers on someone’s account and assume it’s because they create viral content. What we don’t actually see is all the work (under the water) they are putting in to gain the followers seen above the water.

Any advice for managing a team?

I LOVE my team and the #1 thing I can offer that helps maintain morale is investing in their life and the things they value. I want to know how my team’s family is doing, what their interests are, and in general, make sure they feel seen and heard.

I also feel an important part is being a leader who can admit their faults and mistakes so it breeds an environment of taking action and risks without fear of failure.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amanda-walker.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awalkmyway/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-walker-b75b53168/

Image Credits
https://www.facebook.com/erinmcmillonphotography/