Back to School: Coaches Continue Education

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterward. ~Anatole France

I absolutely adore “back to school” time. Here in the United States our children get the summer months off from education and go back to school at the end of August or beginning of September depending on what part of the country the family lives in. I loved back to school even when I was a child. I loved learning, loved a schedule and loved measuring my success (getting good grades) and I really loved being with all the other students. I loved books, paper and libraries. And now that I have children – more specifically – teenagers, I love sharing this experience with them. All of my kids are great students and they actually like school as well.

And, then there’s the added benefit of having my kids otherwise occupied so I can focus on work for a few hours everyday. Kids and I are both happy about this.

Now that I am an adult, and a professional, I still love learning. Daily I cull juicy bits of practical online marketing wisdom from blog posts, articles and Internet radio expanding my thinking by evaluating what other marketing educators are saying.

I have also developed a love for teaching learners and passing on what I have learned and tested in my own practice. It is a real thrill to get feedback from readers and clients who implement a practice and develop a new marketing skill with successful results. It is so delightful that my “work” is really “pure play” for me.

I believe it’s important for coaches identify weak or non-productive areas of their business and implement an education plan that brings them closer to realizing a successful practice.

Many coaches are certified as a coach, or in a particular method but are not educated or prepared to operate their coaching practice as a business. Personally I think this has been a weakness in many of the coach training programs is that nothing is offered in the way of training coaches how to build their business.

I’ve interviewed a number of coaches who are struggling with their practice – they don’t know how to enroll new clients – or how to enroll as many new clients as they can handle. Yet, I hear, or read from many of the same coaches that they are sick of all the pitches from all the coaches who coach coaches.

Here is what I am observing:

• first, there are coaches struggling to make a go of  a “coaching business“. They are dabbling at many different activities but don’t really know what works.
• these same coaches seem to feel surrounded by coaches who coach coaches on how to create a business from coaching

It seems to me these coaches are attracting their answer and running from it at the same time! Not all of the offers for education will fit them and the struggling coaches won’t know which ones will fit them until they specifically define their need for more information and then evaluate the offers to see which one promises the answers they seek.

Across the board, business is rapidly changing and evolving at such a fast pace that one can not simply learn the basics and be “good to go”. It is imperative that each of us budget for continuing education on a regular basis.

One of my clients just upgraded their 3 page website to a multi-page blog format. While his website had met his expectations for his definition for success, I observed that it was beginning to fall behind because of the pace at which his competition was moving forward. The Internet is much more than a “web”; that descriptive word is far too static. Personally I find that a word more like “raging rapids” is more descriptive of the pace of business & learning online.

Don’t let that frighten you or keep you from learning to build your own coaching business online. It is possible to learn as you go and with growth, I strongly encourage you to build a virtual team to help you evolve your coaching into a thriving business.

I would really love to hear some feedback from you as to what you feel you are lacking in information or education on how to grow your coaching business. What would you like to read about here or in the email ecourse that would help to move you forward?

Tell me, how may I support your growth?

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“I already know that!” said the Coach…

The simple formula to building your coaching business online is to create a reputation of trust and credibility so that your ideal prospect will hire you and become your client. Great…but I bet you already knew that.

Your ideal on line activities are

• blogging
• publishing articles
• email marketing
• social networking
• Internet radio and podcasting
• video

My current clients range in their Internet marketing practices from

• not yet doing any of the above
• dabbling in most of the activities above,
• or they are actively doing all of the above.

The client that is not yet doing any of the above sometimes is not really sure they should be doing any of the above and wonders what should they be doing and how to get started. On the first consultation, these clients truly believe that I am pure genius. Yeah! I love working with these clients and helping them catch the vision early for building their on line presence.

Then there are the clients who are a bit more Internet marketing savvy. The already know about the above activities, might be dabbling or actually active in most of the activities…but they still come to me and say, “It’s not working! Tell me what you can do to help.”

Upon closer inspection of their Internet activities what we usually discover is that in spite of all his or her doing,

• the coach doesn’t really have a cohesive plan of delivery of their coaching message using all of the tools to gain momentum in spreading their message
• there are usually weaknesses in his or her sales message that’s all about what the coach has to offer, i.e. the coaches credibility, training, etc, instead of a sales message aimed at the problem this particular coaches method solves
• and, there is often no call to action, too many choices or an unclear call to action - because most coaches hate to sell themselves and services. I guess their hoping if they’ve presented their remarkable skills and training the prospect will know they’re supposed to pick up the phone or send an email and hire the coach. That rarely works.

Coaches that

• are actively & regularly involved in the above activities
• have a well thought out plan of delivery of their coaching message, method, & promise that demonstrates overwhelming value for their ideal prospect,
• present his or her coaching message with clear language that conveys not only the coaches credentials, but the promise your prospect will take away from the relationship – preferrably with testimonials that demonstrate others who have experienced the coaches promise,
• present clear, regular opportunities to experience the coaches message, method & promise with a product (e.g. book, audio, video, teleclass), or enroll in a one to one or group coaching experience,

are the coaches who enjoy a growing and expanding practice and business.

It is a productive practice to evaluate your business building activities on line to see what is productive and what might be missing something. Quite often small adjustments will make a surprisingly wonderful transformation to your bottom line.

Where do you fall in the above description?

• Just getting started with these activities?
• Dabbling?
• Doing it all but not really thrilled with the results?
• Doing it all and happily making a comfortable living and would like to grow your business more?

Hey, if you’re a regular subscriber to my email or the RSS feed – I love you! Thank you very much for honoring me with your readership. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you might be missing out on some great information… I’m just saying

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The Language of Coaching: Enrolling New Clients to Play with You

What if Coaches ruled the World?

“The whole world would speak a different language.”

In July, ‘09, Coach Milana Leshinsky, posted an interesting question on her blog as a contest for her 2009 Coaching Millions Super Summit in Dallas, Texas, on October 23-25.  Coach Milana asked her followers:

If you’ve ever been in a room full of coaches, you would agree that we are a special kind. We see world differently that most people changing the world around us where ever we go.  Can you imagine if coaches actually ruled the world?

I didn’t enter the contest, but yesterday when I did the Get More Business Show with Nancy Marmolejo and we talk about turning Followers into Fans & Fans to Leads and then Clients, the thought came to me that a huge difference in the coach world is out language.

Our language (not the language of our nationality) is one of play and not work. We don’t provide our coaching groups with workbooks – we use playbooks. Our clients hire us to play with them not work with them.

The language of a Coach is about inspiration.

Just prior to yesterdays episode of Get More Business Show with Nancy Marmolejo I listened to her preview call with Natasha Allrich, Soft Sell with Social Media, and listened to Natasha talk with Nancy about her clients enrolling themselves into her programs. She does not sell her programs to her clients – which is the language of coersion. Let me invite you to listen in to this conversation between Nancy & Natasha, I think you’ll find the conversation to be refreshing as they speak the language of Coaches; the language of compassion not coersion.

As I mentioned in my last post, Nancy’s program last August was transformational for me. I literally went from social media obscurity to being on the list of 50 Most Influential Women in Social Media in just a few months with the information that I learned from Nancy’s webinar last August. I fully expect this new program with Natasha will be every bit the Grand Slam as her last end of summer game.

On yesterday’s episode, Nancy made the comment, “Don’t let the spammers, and pushy marketers take over social networking and spoiling this beautiful method of connecting with our ideal prospect!” (my paraphrase, not actual word for word quote – but you get the idea, right?) It occured to me that we coaches really do have a powerful responsibility to be influencers in this world.

Coaches may never rule the world as in taking on the title of President, or Prime Minister, or Ruler of any official title – or one of us might – but we all have the power to be influencers. One of our primary tools is our words and how we use them. Let’s set ourselves apart and speak the language of inspiration especially in business.

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How to Turn Followers into Fans, and, Fans in to Client Leads

At least once a week someone asks me how I manage to stay so active on Twitter & Facebook. The question usually sounds something like “Do you spend ALL your time on Twitter? How do you get any work done?”

Well, one, I am on social networking sites A LOT – because it really works well for my coaching business to stay connected this way with my ideal prospects.

And, two, I’ve learned a few secrets of looking like I am more active than I a really am. Want to know where I learned these secrets?

Today’s Get More Business Show guest pretty much taught me the basics of what I know about social networking.

Nancy Marmolejo, of Viva Visability, is a PR, media, and social networking strategist who teaches entrepreneurs how to generate more money and attention by positioning themselves in the spotlight.

You know that social networking is THE place to be for online marketing, but how do you know if you using it effectively as a lead generation tool?

On today’s Get More Business show, social networking strategist Nancy Marmolejo will share with you her “magic secrets” of turning social networking followers into fans and fans into pre-sold leads.

Here’s what you will learn on today’s show:

• Expert tips on setting up a strong social networking presence so you stand out from your peers and competition
• The 4 Parts of the Social Marketing Cycle that turns followers into fans and fans into leads
• The truth on why people “Tweet” about coffee, food, snacks and how that can help your business
• Big mistakes social networkers make that cost you fans, followers, leads, and sales (you can’t afford to miss this part!)
• The 3 things to focus on that will drive pre-sold leads to you

Today Nancy has prepared a hand out for you to follow along with for turning Followers to Fans & Fans to Leads. Nancy always leads the way – she is the first guest every on the Get More Business Show that has prepared a hand out for my listeners.

P.S.  This is the second year that I have had Nancy on the Get More Business Show. I always learn so much from her. I’d really love to read your feedback on this show here in the comments.

As a coach, I think Nancy’s information on striking a balance between creating value and trust, and keeping up with the fast moving technological component is extremely relevant. What say you?

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