You’ve got a new offer, and you’re super-excited 🤩 to start getting people into it!
But without client testimonials or case studies to show off, it can feel like you’re stuck waiting on results before you’re “allowed” to put yourself out there.
Frustrating, right?
You know you’ve got the expertise. You know you can help people. But when every marketing coach out there is telling you to “share your client wins,” it’s hard not to wonder…
What if I don’t have any yet?
As someone who has worked with hundreds of coaches and service providers on their marketing (many of them with new businesses and new offers!), here’s one thing I know for sure:
It’s important that you don’t let this stop you from getting your first clients, making progress, and making money in your business.
It’s counterproductive to stay hidden and wait. You need visibility — and you need strong, strategic content — to get those first clients.
I know it can feel like a total chicken-and-egg situation…
But luckily, there are smart, practical ways to connect with your audience and build demand for your offers — even if you’re at the very beginning or pivoting into something new.
In this blog post, I’ll outline 3 strategies to help you start booking clients, pre-testimonials.
(And yes! One of them will be how to write high-converting marketing content – even before you have results to tout.)
Let’s dive in…
Strategy 1: Get creative & leverage the experience you do have.
Here’s the thing to remember: just because you haven’t worked with clients in your current offer doesn’t mean you don’t have relevant experience. So reach back and take inventory:
- Were you a designer in the corporate world before going solo?
- Did you help patients as a hospital dietician before becoming a health coach?
- Did you coach people whom you managed, even just as part of your role as leader?
- Have you helped friends, family, or colleagues (even casually) with the same / similar thing you now offer as a paid service?
If so — those stories, results, and experiences count. You just need to bridge the gap for your audience and show how they connect to the work you do now.
What to do:
Grab a fresh notebook and start jotting some things down…
✅ Brainstorm past work, past “clients,” and pull out the themes that align with what you offer today.
✅ Revisit past feedback or praise (even informal DMs or Slack messages) and see how it reflects your strengths.
✅ Think about people you helped and people you worked with. What problems did they come to you with? What did you do to help? What did they experience as a result?
You’ll be able to use these ideas in your marketing content, as stories about clients.
And yes — you can still ask for testimonials now.
If you do, don’t leave people guessing about how they can be helpful! Instead of asking, “Can you write me a testimonial?” — give them a few guided questions to answer. This makes it way easier for them to say yes and give you something you can actually use.
Here are some questions to consider sending, when you ask:
- What was going on for you before we worked together? What made you decide to reach out to me?
- What happened or changed as a result of our work together?
- What would you tell someone who’s thinking about working with me?
Here’s a version for asking people who worked for you:
- What did you like about working with me, and having me as your {manager, mentor, team leader}?
- Was there anything that you learned or modeled from me, that makes you better at your work today?
- Do you recall any specific times when I coached you on something and it was helpful?
Or, if you’re asking colleagues / peers for testimonials, you could ask:
- What did you like and appreciate about working with me?
- What made you happy to refer clients / patients to me?
- Do you remember any specific projects we did / patients we served together? What do you remember?
If you’re comfortable, you can even ask to hop on a video call to briefly catch up and ask these questions in a live conversation.
Set the expectation in advance that you will ask them these questions, so you feel confident about asking them. Remember, most people will really want to help you. And it will be 1000x less weird-feeling if they know this is the purpose of the call! So be straightforward.
Also let them know that, with their blessing, you’ll turn their answers into a short draft for them to approve — using their actual words. (Then email it to them after the call and ask for their 👌🏼 okay!)
The key here: Make it easy for them.
Strategy 2: Write high-converting marketing content that leans on your thought leadership ideas.
Here’s something many coaches and service providers forget when launching a new offer:
➡️ Client stories are only one type of content that converts.
Inside my signature program, High-Leverage Content, I teach a topic selection framework called the 9-in-2 Content Pillars — the nine key things your audience needs to hear, learn, or understand, to feel ready to buy from you. And I bring you through my process to turn your ideas and expertise into content that covers those things.
And here’s the important part:
Out of those 9 pillars, only one is “Client Results Stories.”
👉 That means you still have eight other powerful types of content you can start creating right now — content that builds demand for your offer and trust in you as the expert.
You can write about: (These are just a few examples.)
- The shifts and reframes your audience needs to adopt before they’ll get the results they want
- Common problems they face (and how you approach solving them)
- A-ha moments you’ve had — insights they need too
- Behind-the-scenes looks at the processes or tools you use (or will use) to help people
When you use these eight content types intentionally — instead of just posting whatever pops into your head that day — your marketing does more than “keep you visible.” It starts working for you. It taps into the exact messages people need to hear in order to feel confident and excited to hire you.
👉 And yes, this kind of content can absolutely get you your first few clients… even before you have any case studies or testimonials.
This is exactly how High-leverage Content students create content that gets them clients for brand new offers — and even brand new businesses.
(I’ll mention a couple of their stories a little further down this blog…)
Now, to be clear…
When you have client results to talk about, I will absolutely encourage you to incorporate them into your marketing. And I’ll help you do that, inside High-leverage Content, too…
Inside, I also give you 9 plug-and-play Strategic Content Outlines (one for each of the nine pillars). These outlines walk you step by step, paragraph by paragraph, through what to include so your content hits the right triggers and builds demand for your offers.
And — you guessed it! — one of those 9 outlines shows you how to write about client results — so you’ll know exactly how to showcase them when the time comes.
So, here’s the big takeaway:
Don’t stay hidden.
Start sharing thoughtful, strategic content now.
Even without testimonials, your expertise will shine through — and that’s more than enough to start attracting clients.
Strategy 3: Use Your Own Story as a Case Study
If you’re like many of my High-Leverage Content students, you developed your coaching program, done-for-you service, or consulting offer because of something you went through yourself.
You had a challenge in your life or business, you worked through solving it (probably the hard way), and now you help your clients shorten the learning curve and get the same results.
If that sounds like you, then you already have your very first case study: your own story.
(And if that’s not you — that’s totally okay, too. You can focus on the first two strategies from this blog post, to get your first clients.)
When you write your story as a case study, it does two powerful things at once:
- It connects deeply with your audience, because they’ll see themselves in it.
- It proves you understand what it really takes to move through the exact struggle they’re in and get the results they are hoping for.
Here’s the biggest tip I can give you about writing your own story as a case study:
Tell it with a structure that highlights your transformation — not just the problem. When you do, your story will be so much more high-converting.
Inside High-Leverage Content, I give you a step-by-step process for turning your personal story into a conversion-friendly piece of content. We outline the before, the during, and the after — in a specific way that builds trust and demonstrates your authority in this area.
So, if you’ve walked the walk, don’t hide it. Share it.
Because your audience isn’t only looking for proof — they’re looking for someone who gets it.
💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
Okay, before I wrap up, I want to address a couple things that might be bubbling up for you…
You might be thinking…
But what if I feel weird talking about myself or my past work?
Totally normal. Almost everyone feels this way at first.
Here’s the thing: this isn’t about bragging. It’s about building trust. When you share your past work, or your own transformation, you’re not saying “Look how great I am.” You’re saying, “I get it. I’ve been there. And I know how to help you.”
If talking about yourself feels uncomfortable, here are a few ways to ease into it:
- Keep it client-centered. Frame your story around what your audience can learn, avoid, or achieve faster — not just what you did. (And believe it or not, there are ways to do this even when you are writing your own story!)
- Use guided questions. The same way you’d help a past client give you a testimonial, guide yourself with prompts like: What problem did I face? What helped me shift? What changed afterward? (Use my prompts in the HLC outlines, or use your own.)
- Blend your story with education. Share your experience, but pair it with a practical strategy or reframe your audience can use right away. This way it feels more like helping, less like “look what I did!” 🙂
Remember: whether you’re sharing a past client’s testimonial, a strategic piece of content, or your own transformation — the purpose is always the same…
It’s about showing people they’re not alone, and that you have something valuable that can help them take their next step.
Now, you might also be wondering…
Do people really buy without seeing case studies?
Yes — all the time. (How do you think coaches and service providers get their first clients?)
When your content has the right subject matter (which is what the 9-in-2 Pillars help you do), and it’s structured to convert (the HLC outlines show you how!) — people feel confident to take the next step, even without case studies.
One of my HLC students, a social media manager, joined when she had a brand new offer. It was waaayyyy different than anything she had sold before, so she didn’t feel her past client results were relevant. 👉🏼 She got her first client for the new offer within hours of sharing her first two HLC blog posts. (They didn’t have case studies!)
Another HLC-er, a somatics coach, joined when she was starting a brand new practice. She wrote her capsule library of blog posts my way 🙂 — then shared them with local physicians she knew, and shared them on a brand new social media profile she had *just* started. (She had no established audience!) 👉🏼 Within 30 days, she had people booking paid consults with her.
And yes… I see the irony of me sharing these case studies with you. 😜
But here’s what I want you to know about that…
I didn’t have case studies (per se) for High-leverage Content when I first launched it in 2022.
And I wondered things like, “Will people buy a brand new course that literally no one has taken yet? … Will they take the leap and learn from me in this way — even though the results stories I could share were from done-for-you clients, and from my own business?”
But I wasn’t going to let that stop me… I had something that I knew would be game-changing for coaches and service providers like you…
So I used the same strategies I’m sharing here with you today, to get my first students into the program…
✔️ I wrote about my own successes — and achievements that wouldn’t have been possible for me without this blog-first marketing strategy I teach in HLC
✔️ I got a few testimonials from past clients, whom I’d worked with on their content, but in quite a different capacity… And I put them on the first version of my sales page. (I still have one there. Can you spot it? 🙂
✔️ And I wrote blog posts using all the other 9 pillars — and people ate them up and bought the program!
And, at the time I’m writing this, I’ve had 230 students come through the High-leverage Content program… (Want to be #231? lol)
The Bottom Line:
You don’t need to wait for client results to start creating content that sells.
(And really, you can’t. 🤷🏻♀️ If you did, you’d never get that first client.)
Here’s what you can do right now:
- Adapt past experiences and ask for testimonials with guided questions.
- Create expert content using the 8 other HLC pillars (not just “Client Results”).
- Share your own transformation as a case study, and leverage it! (I’ll show you how!)
Everyone established whom you admire had a time when they were just getting started. And starting with the right strategy is how you will get those first few clients and build momentum, too!
Ready to Start Creating High-Converting Content Now?
If you want a fun, repeatable, beginner-friendly system to help you write content that gets clients — even if your offer is brand new — my program, High-Leverage Content, is for you.
Inside HLC, you’ll build a capsule library of evergreen blog posts, and you’ll learn how to leverage them to get clients.
You’ll learn exactly how to structure your posts and marketing content, so you can attract the right people, build trust quickly, and fill your offers.
When you join, you’ll get immediate access… And you get lifetime access, too, because this is a repeatable system. Learn it once, use it on repeat, for years.
Inside, you get:
🎯 My full evergreen blog strategy — the one that got me booked out and off the content treadmill
🎯 My ‘9-in-2’ Content Pillar strategy that untangles all your ideas and shows you what your people need, to feel ready to buy. (<< This is how we choose the right topics for your posts.)
🎯 9 Plug-and-play HLC Strategic Outlines that make it fast and easy to write quality blog posts in my high-converting formats
🎯 ChatGPT training, GPT assistants, and prompts for every part of every outline (Optional but awesome! Each time you use them, you’ll have a quality first draft in seconds.)
🎯 Practical trainings on things like: how to write titles and headlines; simple blog formatting; and how to choose and craft the right calls-to-action (CTAs).
🎯 Simple and effective repurposing frameworks + checklists
🎯 Private, student-only Facebook group for support, input, and questions
🎯 Monthly live group Zoom calls with me — for the questions that need a face-to-face convo.
🎯 A private, 90-min, 1:1 strategy call with me when you hit Milestone 1.
…And that’s just the basics!
Click on over to the sales page to learn more and join us!
