Powerful Women Rising - A Business Podcast for Female Entrepreneurs

Stop Winging It: Signature Frameworks That Get Results w/Amanda Walker

• Melissa Snow - Powerful Women Rising, LLC • Episode 102

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If you want to stand out in a crowded market, have clients rave about your work and make more money with less effort - you need a signature framework!

You can have the best intentions, the fanciest website, and all the certifications in the world but if you’re still "winging it" most of the time, you're leaving money and momentum on the table.

In this episode, I’m joined by Amanda Walker, former teacher turned “Framework Building Ninja” on a mission to help business owners stop improvising and start delivering consistent, scalable results. 

In this episode, we cover:

• What a signature framework actually is—and what it’s not
• The difference between micro frameworks and big-picture methodologies
• The power of specificity: how to sell the problem you solve, not your title
• The "Reverse Design Method" that makes success inevitable for your clients

Whether you're a coach, consultant, strategist, or creative, this episode will change how you think about the way you serve your clients and how you grow your business from here. 

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Connect with Me, Your Host Melissa Snow!

Melissa Snow is a Business Relationship Strategist dedicated to empowering women in entrepreneurship. She founded the Powerful Women Rising Community, which provides female business owners with essential support and resources for business growth. Melissa's other mission is to revolutionize networking, promoting authenticity and genuine connections over sleazy sales tactics. She lives in Colorado Springs with her two dogs, three cats, and any number of foster kittens. She loves iced coffee, true crime, Taylor Swift, and buying books she’ll never read.

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Speaker 1:

Hello Amanda, Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for having me so pumped to be with you.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I'm excited to talk to you. You have such an official microphone too for those who are watching on YouTube.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's very official Full disclosure. It's a $20 wrap from Amazon, so you know, just add a little branded imaging. But I do kind of love it. It makes me feel official. Yeah, it makes you look very cool.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. A little branded imaging, but I do kind of love it. It makes me feel official. Yeah, it makes you look very cool. So I've got that going for you. Before we dive into today, tell everybody a little bit about you and about what you do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I am a former high school teacher. I actually want to reverse. I started my first. My first job ever was as a coach. I was 15. I was working for the local Y coaching boys basketball for five and six-year-olds which, funny enough, was more like herding cats and less like coaching.

Speaker 2:

But it was really like the domino that set cadence to my life because I realized, man, I love freaking, helping people and watching this transformation take place, and so I thought I was going to do that first in medicine, went to school to be a physician, decided that lifestyle is not for me, and so I ended up getting a graduate degree in teaching and coaching and taught high school until I had kids, and that was really a major life transition for me because I was like I love teaching but I love my kids more, and kind of took a year's leave and stumbled into entrepreneurship and kind of transitioned those skills into what I do now.

Speaker 2:

So now I'm known as the framework building ninja. I'm the coach's coach, as some will call me as well. So I teach coaches how to put together like their lived experience and their formal experience and create their own signature methodology so they can build authority and then to really help them take that and build a coaching business that actually makes money in the industry that exists right now. So I'm super excited to share, you know, whatever zone of genius I can with people to help guide them to results.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. I feel like there's a lot of former teachers turned coaches. I was a teacher also. I didn't do it quite as long as you, I only did it for four years. But it's interesting because sometimes I think initially I thought wow, I went through all of that time and money to get a degree that I'm not even using, but I actually use it all the time as a coach.

Speaker 2:

I agree with you. I used to say that I used to have this shame. At first I was like dang I spent the same, all this money and like nothing transferred. And then, the deeper I've gotten into my work and, truthfully, the more I've doubled down on my strengths and realized what my strengths are, which are group coaching, facilitation and results driven data and frameworks. I'm like, oh my gosh, I was building this skill set and now make way more money and have way more time and life freedom. So I'm grateful for the beginnings for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. So today we're talking about creating a signature framework and before we go into that, this is going to sound like a silly question, but tell everybody what a framework is, because I think sometimes we have people who listen to the podcast, who are brand new in business and they're like I don't even know what that is. I can guess. I also think there's a lot of entrepreneurs I was one of them who goes through our first year or two years and we hear things like scale and framework and client journey and we smile and nod like we know what people are talking about.

Speaker 1:

But on inside we're like do I have that? I don't know yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no-transcript. You could be delivering this in a one-to-one or one-to-many environment or some other fashion, even in a more passive, like a course. And then also there's something called what I call, in a way like acute frameworks or micro frameworks, and these are frameworks that you're using at a more momentous occasion. You know, a really common one that we don't realize is like the framework stop, drop and roll. That's a process that I know I like had ingrained in my freaking head as a child in elementary school, and it's actually really effective. It's a three step framework. It's's very tangible and it helps you have a specific outcome, which is getting away from fire, if you should catch fire, which I always think is so funny that it was taught to us so much. But that's something that you use, like in a micro moment where a signature framework would be over a longer period of time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so is it similar to the client journey in terms of like?

Speaker 2:

these are the steps that we're taking our clients through, whether we're a coach or a bookkeeper, or yeah, I don't see them as synonymous and here's why the client journey, for me personally, begins at the moment of first contact and they get to know your work, and so that's going to look very different for all of us, because how you attract your client and this kind of nurturing journey where eventually they become our client, and from there the onboarding process, those are all still part of the journey. So I would differentiate a framework from the moment you begin. Your actual work with them is when the framework starts. So first session, first experience, et cetera, till the culminating step or experiences where a framework really separates you apart.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the framework is part of the client journey? Yes, not the whole hundred percent.

Speaker 2:

You got it. Okay, got it.

Speaker 1:

And so I think sometimes when especially for coaches we hear that and we think like when I was brand new in the coaching world, I started out as a dating and relationship coach and I would hear things like that and think like when I was brand new in the coaching world, I started out as a dating and relationship coach, and I would hear things like that and think like OK, before I start getting clients, I need a workbook, I need a course, I need to know, like every single client, I'm going to take them through. The first week is going to be this, and the second week is going to be this, and the third week is going to be this, which worked ish and then sometimes didn't, to be this, which worked ish and then sometimes didn't. So what do people need to kind of start thinking about when they're?

Speaker 2:

thinking about the frameworks. Yeah, I think that, no matter where you are in business, you know what they're saying is like the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The next best time is now, and that's how I feel about frameworks. I've there's people just starting out that have the idea of, like I got to coach all these people to get a sense of what my framework is, and so they are in this place of like a lack of readiness is, they hope, being clarified through coaching more clients for free, and I reject that because I think that one of the most important things you can do is practice the energy exchange of getting paid, even if it's like $5 for your first client.

Speaker 2:

But we all have a framework. You may not see your framework yet because, honestly, we suffer from insider blindness, so we can't read the label from inside the bottle, and so we don't see ourselves necessarily as an export or see the process, and sometimes we just need somebody to come alongside of us and ask us the right questions to say, hey, you solved a problem and you have the answers, and you don't have to have, like it all figured out. You don't have to make multiple seven and eight figures to help a client get to 50 K if you've already been there. But you are perfectly positioned and prepared to walk them through a process to get them results right now.

Speaker 1:

I love that and I want to go back and reiterate for those in the back, nice and loud we do not have to take clients for free to figure out what we're doing or what our framework is or any of those other things that we think like, well, I need to do X number of free clients first, no matter what field you're in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would agree that the opposite actually serves you more. I love getting paid to monetize my offers. You know as I make them. But more importantly, there is a different value that we bring to the table when someone has actively chosen in to give them their energy in the form of money and then you exchange your energy I mean we all. I mean simple put like, you treat a handbag from Walmart different than you would a Louis Vuitton. So we have to think it applies to coaching similarly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a whole other episode, but I also think, especially when you're just starting out part of, I think, we like to hide behind the like. Well, I need to do some free clients first, because really we're just really terrified to take people's money, and I think that there's something really transformative in your identity as a business person that starts happening when someone is paying you and you are delivering a result to them. And you are delivering a result to them Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

In my communities I say you get one, you get one freebie, and then we're on to the next thing and there doesn't have to be massive jumps, but micro jumps in pricing as you gain experience and confidence is lovely along the way. Yeah for sure.

Speaker 1:

So when we're talking about frameworks, what are some of the common mistakes that you see people making when they're figuring out their frameworks or building their frameworks or delivering on them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I really love to. There's five, but I'm going to highlight the most frequent ones that I think are problematic, the first one being probably a larger business mistake that ties into the framework is that coaches don't really know the problem they're solving for their client. And your business should be fundamentally built on a solution to a problem. I love the quote from Robert Herjavec, who is a shark from Shark Tank, and he says something of the nature I might butcher it, but it's like something like you know, business is built on problems Like find the problem, solve the problem first. The business comes second.

Speaker 2:

In the coaching world, since that's where I spend most of my time is coaching, mentorship, therapy I have a lot of therapists turned coaches is that we're like we want to change people's lives, we want to be a coach I'm a coach but we don't really know the problem we're actually solving. Or we say generic things, like I'm going to help people feel empowered and confident, which are intangible, and they really, as a prospective client, we really don't have a visual understanding or an emotional understanding and attachment to what that means, and so that's really key that we get clear on the specific problem we solve, because your framework then is also the solution to that problem. So an ideal client then is like oh, melissa can get me these results. I need her in my life. I mean, a really tangible example is our perspective.

Speaker 2:

Clients aren't going to Google searching mindset coach, trauma coach. They're looking for the things that our coaching provide. Which really leads me to the next step. Is that, or the next mistake is that a lot of coaches are selling fluffy coaching and the coaching title themselves instead of the results that the coaching actually provides. If you think of a generic weight loss example, many, most people and I mean I could prove this through Uber, suggest or other SEO tools is people aren't searching weight loss coaching, even though in your brain you want to convince yourself of that. They're searching how do I lose 20 pounds? And so that's really what we need to anchor both our marketing from a holistic business perspective around, but also the framework that we build needs to be a solution to that and also marketed around them. So there's two, and I think those two are like the great and most common mistakes I see.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would agree with that, and what I love about those examples, too, is obviously you're talking about coaching, because that's your world and that's where your clients are. But everything that you're saying applies to anyone who is listening to this podcast, no matter what business they're in.

Speaker 2:

We still yeah, if you're an expert in business, if you're an expert providing some sort of service product, even those things apply.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs who struggle to figure out what problem they solve, because they don't think that they solve a problem right, like I just sell skincare products or I just do like bookkeeping or whatever it is, but it's like everyone is solving a problem, everyone. When you were using that example, I was thinking about like some of the things that I've seen on Shark Tank and like even the silliest things that you think that is really bizarre, like why, why would someone even make this? Yeah, it's solving a problem for somebody somewhere.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and most coaches that have failure to find success are because they haven't tried to articulate, or don't know how to articulate, their problem, and so their ideal client does not see them as a possible solution and therefore they have no clients 100% yeah, and a lot of times they don't believe us when we say finding fulfillment is not a result.

Speaker 1:

Correct yes, helping busy moms that's one of my favorites is busy moms. I'm like where are the not busy moms? Yeah, yeah, true when is the coach for the not busy mom. Yeah, yep, I haven't met one of those yet. That always makes me laugh. Okay, so those are really good. So what do you think? You have a model that you use about that called the reverse design method, right, and so tell us a little bit about that and how that works with your frameworks.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm just to go back and share a story. When I was a second year high school teacher, I taught anatomy and biology I'm sorry, biology first and then anatomy and physiology later on. But this is when I was second year. I was teaching freshman biology, and I remember at the end of my second year I had a colleague come to me and be like your test scores are crazy. Like did you give them the test to study from? And I was first offended and then second like patting myself on the back, cause I was like, okay, I'll take that as a compliment, because of course I wasn't giving them the study guide. But what I noticed about a lot of my colleagues and many of them had been doing this for many years, longer than me is they were what I would call like winging it teachers, just like there's winging it coaches out there is. They would show up five minutes before the bell, get into the textbook and be like we're reading chapter two and then you're going to answer the questions.

Speaker 2:

And what I did was different, though. I studied where the goal was right, where the finish line was for my students to have mastered by the end of the semester, and then I meticulously spent time articulating, you know, unit exams, quizzes, lessons, so that I was assuring mastery and milestone checking along the way, and so I've taken that same learning into everything that I do in business. I mean, like a backstory is I stumbled into entrepreneurship. We grew our first seven figures in the health and nutrition space. I wasn't setting out to do that, but I had my own personal health and weight loss journey after having kids and people like Amanda help me, and so the only way I knew how to think was like okay, where do I want them and how am I going to get them there? And so reverse engineering. That was the process, and so the foundation of my business has also always been results driven, and so when your clients get results guess what? They go out and become a billboard for your work. They tell more people, people see their transformation or like what are you doing?

Speaker 2:

And I think this is highly undervalued inside of the coaching world and, honestly, most service-based businesses is. We have like it feels like this shiny marketing tools, and a lot of coaches are searching for these shiny strategies but, truthfully, is the best? Clients are the ones that go out and do free marketing for you, and that only happens when they get results. And so what I teach inside the lab or the Framework Builder Lab, which is our program where I coach coaches to build their frameworks, are we start at the end, like what are the tangible things that your client will be able to demonstrate or do or have at the end of the coaching container with you? And then how do we create kind of pillars or milestones along the way?

Speaker 2:

And so that's where that name reverse design comes from, is. It's a bit counterintuitive for many people, but for me I'm like it's obvious, like we got. In order to know where we want to go, we have to know what the finish looks like first, and to many of my students what they will say is knowing the finish line actually gives you so much more autonomy in the coaching session. It allows you to be a more masterful coach because you're like I already know what the end looks like. So I can be present right here, right now with Melissa and listen to her struggles and be in in the moment with her, knowing there's a framework that supports me as a backbone.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that totally makes sense. I remember as a teacher the phrase that people use all the time was begin with the end in mind.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely Same idea. That's a Stephen Covey quote, a hundred percent.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I didn't know where it came from. I thought it just came from my principal.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, he's smart too he wasn't that smart actually.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's really good. So would you say that's the best place for people to start? If they're listening to this podcast and they're like I don't really know if I have a framework, or I know that I don't have a framework and I need to create one, is that the best place for them to start is by identifying, like, what is the end result and what are the objectives that your clients are going to have at the end of working with you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that's a great place to start is just ask yourself that question Like what do I want them to have? And then how do I chunk that in steps that make sense, I mean, from a high level. That's kind of the process that I walk through with obviously deeper support. But I think it's a great place at the start and I think, if you're not sure, if you have a framework or process, the process. The other thing I'd ask myself is do I feel with certainty that every client who walks through my doors has inevitable success, that I have a process and a method, methodology that creates consistency in my clients, or do I notice that one in every 20 people are getting like decent results? If you're, if you're leaning towards like the one in 20, then I would say it's an opportunity to tighten up your framework and there's probably gaps in there that you know I'd love to help you with. That would make you even a more potent service provider.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. So if people want to connect with you, if they want to learn more about the lab and about what you do, what's the best way for them to find?

Speaker 2:

you. Well, I'm a podcaster too, so that's a great place to start. I host a podcast called Best Damn Coach. I talk about framework building and all things related to coaching, running a coaching business, so that's a great place. But I do offer a free training where I walk you through kind of the steps and some of the mistakes a little bit deeper that we chatted about today. You could come jump into that at any time you want and that is at amanda-walkercom forward slash framework and I'm sure you'll drop the link or share accordingly.

Speaker 1:

Yes, absolutely. I'll put the link to your podcast in the show notes and I'll also put the link to the website so people can grab that free resource. That's awesome. Thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast. This was really really good information, especially to get people thinking about, kind of how things are working with their clients and maybe, if things aren't working, some ways that they can tweak the framework to make it work a little bit better. It's awesome. You're brilliant.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you for that. I'm so grateful to share. So thanks for having me.

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