If you’re a health or life coach who wants more clients without living on social media, I’ve got some genuinely exciting news for you. A couple of my recent clients told me they found me through ChatGPT. Not through Instagram, not through a reel, not through a viral post. They asked an AI platform for help, and my name came up.

So in this post I’m sharing how people are now using AI to find a coach, why this is such good news if you’re a sensitive coach, and five simple things you can do to help AI find you (and understand what you do).

Listen to this episode on The Wholehearted Business Show Podcast: Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify

First, a quick word on AI

I know AI is a polarising topic, and there are some massive ethical issues around it. I’ll level with you, I still struggle with how we’re meant to navigate it when it’s so ingrained in everything we do, especially in business.

So here’s where I’m at. I do use AI, but I don’t use it to replicate who I am. I use it to support tasks and processes, but I don’t let it replace my art. When I’m writing an email to my list, or developing what I’m going to say on the show, that’s my art. That’s you getting my individual take on things. (I’ve done a whole post on how I use AI in my coaching business if you want to go deeper.)

This post is a slightly different angle. It’s all about being found through AI, and I think that’s a fantastic opportunity for coaches who want to market their businesses in more sustainable ways. The best bit? If you’re already doing the foundational things I talk about all the time, you’re most of the way there. This isn’t another shiny thing to chase.

How people are using AI to find a coach

My business was originally built on my blog, and a big part of that success was traditional SEO. Someone typed something into Google, got a list of results, and my blog posts popped up.

That still happens. But now people are also getting AI-generated answers at the top of Google, or going straight to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Gemini and asking much more nuanced questions.

Where someone might once have typed “health coach Durham”, now they’re saying “I’m really struggling with this, who are the best people to help me?” They get a detailed answer back, often with links to the sources that answer came from. And that’s where we come in.

So the shift is from short keywords to big, long, messy, detailed questions. The good news is that what we were already doing for traditional SEO is not that different to what we need to do for AI.

Why this is good news for sensitive coaches

If you’ve been around my world for a while, you’ll know I’m a big fan of searchable content over scrollable, algorithm-based content. It gives you a much better return over time, it’s often easier for us to create, and it helps people get a real feel for who we are.

AI search backs all of that up. As highly sensitive people, we tend to find short-form content harder to create. We like depth. We like nuance. We like really getting into an answer. There’s a reason I make long-form podcast episodes, YouTube videos and blog posts. It feels so much more natural to me, and I think a lot of you feel the same.

And depth is exactly what AI is rewarding. Blog posts, YouTube videos, podcasts… that content is still working, it’s just being picked up in a new way. AI is really an extension of the search algorithms on Google and YouTube. It’s one more place you can be found, using the same content.

Five things that help AI find you (and understand what you do)

1. Say clearly who you help, in more than one place

Make sure your website is really clear about who you help and what you do, and that the same message shows up consistently elsewhere, like your YouTube channel description. Google and AI trust what they can cross-reference across multiple sources.

I’m reviewing my own website right now, and the research I did for this episode showed me a few places where I need to say this much more clearly.

2. Answer your clients’ questions in their language

Think about the questions clients bring to your sessions, and the exact words they use. Create content that answers those questions in that wording, because that’s likely what people are typing into AI.

If you don’t have many clients yet, that’s absolutely fine. Do some market research, look at how people word things online, or use Google and AI to see what people are asking. Then answer those questions in your blog posts, videos, podcast episodes and the FAQs on your sales pages.

3. Put your name and experience on everything

Google and AI are looking for authority. So make sure you have a really solid About page that covers your experience, your credentials and why people should listen to you, and connect your bio back to your blog posts, videos and episodes.

If that brings up a wobble of “but I don’t have enough experience”, I promise you do. You just need to tease it out of yourself and get it written down. (And that’s exactly the kind of thing I love helping with.)

4. Make sure your content exists as text

This is a big one. If your content isn’t available in written form somewhere, you’re making it much harder for AI and search to find it.

That could be blog posts (you know I love a blog post), transcripts, or detailed descriptions on your YouTube videos and podcast episodes. Honestly, this has been a reminder for me too, because I’ll sometimes tell clients “just do the videos” when it’s so easy to turn them into text as well.

5. Get mentioned by other people

AI and Google look for trust. If other people cite you, whether that’s as a guest on their podcast, in a roundup article or as a guest blogger, it reinforces that you’re someone worth listening to. You might pick up backlinks too, which is classic SEO, but it’s the mentions themselves that really help.

One quick technical check

Lots of websites automatically block AI crawlers. There can be really good reasons to want that (it’s your intellectual property, after all, and this gets right into those ethical questions). But if you do want to be found through AI and you’re worried you’re not showing up, it’s worth checking your site isn’t blocking them.

A little test you can do this week

Open an AI platform you don’t usually use, so its memory of you doesn’t skew the results. I used Gemini, because I never use it, and asked something like: “I’m a highly sensitive, heart centred coach and I want more clients. Who can help me?”

I came up… right at the very bottom of the list. 😂 So that was a useful nudge!

It can also show you who else is in your space. That can bring some stuff up, but it can be really inspiring too.

You can also give it your website and ask “What do you know about me? What do you think my business does?” That will show you exactly where the gaps are.

For me, it showed that my website needs to reflect my messaging much more clearly. I only really dialled my messaging in around highly sensitive, heart centred and neurodivergent coaches about eighteen months ago, and my website hasn’t fully caught up. So I’m refreshing the copy (along with some new photos and a little branding tweak, which I’m genuinely excited about).

It’s a great reminder that clear messaging really matters. If you can’t say precisely who you help and how, you won’t come up in the detailed, granular searches people are doing now.

Keeping it in perspective

Let me be clear, this is not about rewriting your whole website to speak to the bots. If anything, one of the lovely things about AI is that it understands nuance. You can share a thoughtful, fluid opinion or some really deep content, and that actually works in your favour.

So you don’t need to tie yourself up in knots or write like a robot. You can just be yourself. And for sensitive coaches, I think that’s a bit magical.

Where to start

If you want to market your coaching business in a sustainable way that doesn’t rely on social media (and that works with a messy, unpredictable, inconsistent life rather than against it), the best place to start is my free Steady Marketing Plan. It now comes with a masterclass too, so there’s loads to dig into.

And if you’d love support putting all of this into practice, with clear messaging, searchable content and a strategy that fits who you are, take a look at Wholehearted Business® or 1:1 Mentoring.

I’d love to hear if you try the AI test. Come and tell me over on Instagram!

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