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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Attracting Better Quality Connections by Making One Change on Twitter

I am sitting hear listening to Blog Talk Radio Host, Sandra Lee Schubert, interview with Rick Butts who just released his program Stardust Factor,  a social media workshop about how to create an authentic, attractive, persona for your and your business and I am reminded of something that I heard Rick Butts talk about last summer.

Here’s the idea as I understand it:

Everyday I “evesdrop” on Twitter conversations. I see one Twitter friend tweeting with someone I am unfamiliar with, but the conversation looks interesting so I click on their Twitter handle to open their profile, but it doesn’t end there. First thing I look at to decide whether or not I want to follow this person is if their Twitter background suggests that he or she fits the kind of person I want to follow. The very next thing I look at is whether or not this person has a url in their profile.

Here is one important thing – if he or she does not have a URL in his or her profile – I never, ever follow that person, but more about this at another time.

One of the things that Rick Butts suggested is to intentionally put a url that invites and encourages connection. So rather than just sending visitors to the home page of your blog why not create a landing page designed especially for those that discover you on Twitter?

I love this idea and I don’t know why it took me a year to decide to implement it. Okay, but realize I am not suggesting that I will, or should you create a landing page that is an email sign up – that is exactly the wrong approach, in my opinion.

I also just listened to The Fulcrum Effect by Rajesh Setty – where he defines your “personal brand” as the promise you make to the world and to the market. As Rick Butts so aptly put it on his interview with Sandra Lee Shubert, “a personal brand is a whole lot easier to pull off if it is authentic.

So with this interview and seminar processing in my brain, I am wondering how to present a friendlier invitation to connect and expand my circle of influence with Rick’s idea of a Twitter specific landing page. Here are some of my ideas:

• A video of me welcoming them as they arrive as a result of finding my Twitter profile.
• A short summary of some of the projects that I am involved in.
• A list of the books I am reading or listening too.
• A list of the different ways to connect with me including other social media & Get More Business Show

The only invitation is not to subscribe to my newsletter but rather to connect with me in my social setting if they believe I will add value to their circle of influence. What do you think? Do you have any other ideas?

Not sure exactly what I will do on this landing page for new Twitter friends but as you can see I have a couple of ideas. I will experiment with different things to see what will encourage quality connections. I need your help and would love to hear your ideas.

If you were to visit my, or someone elses Twitter profile, and click on the link in the URL – what would make you smile and encourage you to follow? What would encourage you to connect and not send you clicking on the back button like retreating from a snake pit?

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Expanding Your Circle of Influence Increases Traffic

The key to building your coaching business online is being seen where your ideal client is looking, or at least hanging out, even if they don’t know they’re “looking” you can be seen – when the time is right.

So it started on a Monday, we both showed up and connected; then by Friday we both showed up and did a fabulously inspiring show.

What?

Two coaches showed up on each other’s Twitter stream on Monday. Actually we’ve probably been following each other for 6 months. I’m seeing her tweets but not really seeing her tweets. Not sure why. But then on Monday one of the tweets really get’s my attention and I reply. Back and forth we tweet.

Am I ready for the answer? Yes, I AM ready for the answer. She sends a tweet with a link to THE life changing video. Life Changing? Yes in 24 hours I had a major breakthrough because of this simple interaction.

I send her a thank you tweet and offer to write a testimonial in gratitude for her intuition and generosity to share. By Friday morning the blog post is prepared with the story (much more detailed than this) on her blog. We’ll all set to Tweet about it and share the power of Law of Attraction and Twitter.

On Friday, early in the morning another twist enters this story. My scheduled guest, Maritza Parra, emails me that her voice is gone and she needs to reschedule. The Get More Business Show will go live with no scheduled guest.

I email an invite to my new treasured Twitter friend but she never receives until much later in the day. Fourteen minutes before the show I announce I have no guest but I’ll open the lines for listeners to ask questions – guess who my first caller is?

If you guessed that it was my new Twitter friend who had so profoundly touched my life, you’d be right. We did an hour long show discussing how opportunity and the answers we seek are all around us but sometimes our thoughts and perspective do not allow us to see because there is no framework for reference.

The moral of this true story could be any or all of the following:

• Marketing can be much more effective with proper use of Law of Attraction
• It’s amazing what happens when you make your self available to opportunity
• Setting your intentions gives you the ability to see what you’ve been missing

Are you hanging out with your ideal prospect?

• Social Networks – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning groups
• On your own blog – how often do you post to be seen by those that are looking?
• YouTube – You have so much to show and say – Just do it!  You’ll get better.

Here’s the link to much more details to this story over on @AffirmingSpirit / Nancy Barry-Jansson’s blog. The story will make much more sense if you read her story and she even share’s the links to the life changing video’s that impacted me.

I am looking forward to hearing how you are learning to “see” opportunities all around you by expanding your awareness.

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Coach Training Course: Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche [Day #4 - 31DBBB]

Remember – In this series I am writing follow up posts to Darren Rowse’s series on his website with my post taking off on his topic/task expounding on it for coaches who are building their coaching practice.

I am sitting here wondering how to do this – deciding on whether or not to actually post my analysis here in my blog.

Here are a few of the thoughts that stood out to me – with this disclaimer…I did NOT do an exhaustive search, and more research is probably needed. I welcome comments from my readers on any of these thoughts.

1. I didn’t find any super hot – “high traffic – lots of conversation happening blogs ” on the topic of coaching. I went to both Technorati and Google Blog Search. First thought that came to mind is that there is lots of room for improvement if you’re a coach with a blog. There is virtually no competition when it comes to a standout blog about coaching – any kind of coaching.
2. Many of the blogs that I did find totally missed the opportunity to engage deeper with their readers – there was either no email capture or it was below the fold (you had to scroll down to find it).
3. The posts were very informative but one sided (in my opinion). We all need to get more creative in engaging our readers to comment on our blog so that there is an interaction between blogger (coach) and reader (ideal prospect).
4. Missed opportunities to “make the offer”. I did visit one coaching blog that made the email sign up very prominent and when I clicked on the subscribe button I was immediately taken to a thank you page that made me a bonus offer of two books for a bundle price. That’s one of the opportunities that I’m talking about. This coach took the wonderful opportunity to make me an offer to purchase her life changing information during a time when she already had my attention. Once I clicked the subscribe button I was looking for instructions to get to the promised download.

A GREAT Blog by a coach who get’s it

One of my favorite blogs by a coach,  Dawud Miracle who get’s it

• lots of traffic,
• a healthy amount of comments to his post
• and takes opportunity to make the offer right from the beginning

So what are some great blogs that are NOT on the topic of coaching to use as examples:

Problogger – www.problogger.net

What I like about this blog:

• Darren regularly posts on his topic and he has for years.
• He has covered the topic of blogging from every conceivable angle.
• His posts never sound like he’s bored with the topic – it’s always new, fresh and interesting – and very actionable. His readers go there to learn what to do.

CopyBlogger – www.copyblogger.net

What I like about this blog:

• Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger, created a frame work for delivering a simple message that can be found on the About page – get traffic,gain subscribers, attract links, sell something – It’s all about write in a strategic, persuasive, compelling manner.
• Copyblogger takes many opportunities to make the offer for everything from their custom Thesis theme to the promotion of their blog post

What can you do?

• Make sure you have a call to action where it can easily be found – sign up on your email list AND subscribe to your RSS feed – these are two different levels of connection with your readers.
• Include a call to action - invite your reader to work with you as a their coach or purchase one of your many products with your coaching message (oh, you don’t have any? I can help.)
• Invite your readers to share their thoughts about a particular topic or post. Ask provocative questions of your readers. Write in such a way that it get’s inside their head-space.
• Ask for your readers help to promote your blog – “Stumble this – Digg this – Bookmark on Del.icio.us”
• Create an editorial content / posting schedule to keep your blog alive with your coaching message and keep your reader coming back for more.

It’s your turn – What blogs do you read that

• you learn from
• inspire you to action
• make you laugh
• make you cry
• helps you to build your coaching business

If you are a coach, speaker or author that would like some help building an Online Marketing plan for delivering content and attracting more clients, selling more products, booking more events and selling more books. Call me (406-278-6140)  for a 1 hour Online Business Audit or to schedule monthly coaching either one on one or in a master mind group.

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Article Marketing for Coaches: The Life Coaches Guide to Article Ideas that Multiply

I have a mindset for framing posts that will hopefully be useful to my community, while also being worthwhile to my business (I derive a high percentage of business referrals from my blog posts). Chris Brogan

One of my fav blogs to read and comment on is Chris Brogan’s blog. This last week he posted 20 Blog Topics to Get You Unstuck. I liked his list and wanted to create one of my own – or I will expand on some of the topic ideas from Chris’s list.

The opening quote from the same post is the exact mind set I teach my coaching clients to cultivate.

• Useful to your ideal client (your community of ideal clients)
• Worthwhile to your business – lead generation

Okay, so here’s my list of article ideas that multiply:

1. Start with who, what, when where, why and how.
   • who is my ideal client (examples: parents, CEO, small business owner)
   • who surrounds my ideal client (examples: children, employees, other small business owners)
   • who would your ideal client like to spend more time with / less time with
   • what does your ideal client want?
   • what questions does your ideal client have?
   • what challenges does your ideal client have?
   • what mistakes does your ideal client make?
   • when does your ideal client get inspired?
   • when is your ideal client happy?
   • when did your ideal client last read a book, take a vacation, go out to dinner – why not more often?
   • where is your ideal client?
   • where does your ideal client want to be?
   • where can your ideal client find resources?
   • where are the mentors that your ideal client admires?
   • why should your ideal client do some thing (any particular thing)
   • why invest in books, training, resources to meet your ideal client’s needs?
   • why set goals, make changes, etc
   • why not…
   • how to … well you know
2. Make a list! List are great as a creative brainstorm idea not only for your own article ideas – Top 10 – The Best, The Worst, 7 tips
3. Favorite resources – what are your favorite resources that apply to your coaching message. They can be online or off line resources.
4. Favorite blogs – Make a list of your favorite blogs that are content rich with information that would appeal to your ideal client.
5. Share a recipe – Recipes are not limited to food. What about a recipe for social media zen? What about a recipe for better employee relationships.
6. Do over – What if you could do something over,  how would you do it, what would you do? (#20 on Chris Brogan’s list)
7. Survey Says… – Conduct a survey on Twitter? Ask a question and see what comes back? Use other survey tools, ask the questions to your blog readers, to your email list, or on your social networking groups.
8. Fantasy Island – Create a fantasy world. What would a perfect parenting day look like? What would a perfect workplace function like?
9. Ewwww! Bugs - what about pet peeves?
10. Current events – what is going on in your world? in your ideal clients world? in the big, big world beyond you and your client and why does it matter?
11. Industry buzz - what is happening in your industry and how it important to your ideal client.
12. FAQ – what are the frequently asked questions that surround your area of expertise. If you’re not sure than join discussion groups and forums to get real live questions from your ideal clients. Make a list of the questions and answer them on your blog or in an article.
13. Myths that need busting – what are some common myths that your ideal client might be held back by and how can your bust the myth and remove the barrier?
14. Rock Star Articles! - Interview the “rock stars” or experts that your ideal client would love to hear from. I do this ever week on my Internet radio show Get More Business. Create articles from the interviews (Hey, that’s a good idea! I think I’ll start doing that.)
15. Have some fun! - Tell some funny stories. What are some of the funnies things that happen on the job, or in a preschool class?
16. Nostalgia – how have things changed in your area of expertise and why is it better, or not?
17. Review a book, a movie, a play or a commercial – look for lessons that can be applied using your coaching message.
18. Take a tour – Visit every business on the top 100 places to work and write a blog post. Visit the top 10 kid friendly restaurants and create a check list of key things parents should watch for when dining out.
19. Write about a client conversation – anonymously of course. There’s a really good chance that if it’s a question, concern or insight of one client it could be one that would apply to others.
20. Lessons learned – we learn lessons all day every day if we look for them – lessons we learn from our children that apply to business – lessons that we learn from business that can be applied to parenting children. Lessons from our pets, or strangers, or….
21. In a word – pick a word that inspires you and define it, expand it, associate it with your coaching message and apply it some some insight that your ideal client needs.

Take any of these and apply the who, what, when, where, why and how. Ideas will proliferate if you begin to train your mind to think like your client, not like a coach.

Publishing articles is free. If your article is rich with the words and phrases that your prospects use to search for answers your articles will be found. These samples of your expertise have the potential to capture the attention & interest, inspire desire and ultimately action. Articles work like untiring sales reps caring  your coaching message as far as your key words reach.

It’s not too late to get started.

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Get More Business Show – LinkedIn Expert, Viveka von Rosen

Honestly, I never really liked LinkedIn, to me it never felt very “social”. It felt stiff and unfriendly. I have a LinkedIn Profile – but until recently, never really cared. But all that is about to change!

Friday, March 20, 2009, my very special guest is LinkedIn Expert, Viveka von Rosen. I sought her out on Twitter because I didn’t want to ignore LinkedIn any longer. I decided I needed to understand LI better so I could advise my clients how to incorporate LI into their over all Social Media strategy.

I found the following post over at Viveka’s blog which intrigued and excited me to learn about LinkedIn. This post made LinkedIn sound a lot more social – right up my alley!

After you read this post, leave me a comment with your burning question about LinkedIn so Viveka and I can discuss Your question live on Get More Business Show this Friday, March 20th.

Enjoy this post by Viveka, @LinkedInExpert.

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Is it the size of your network or what you do with it?
by Viveka von Rosen

I am what you might call a promiscuous networker. In fact, I never say “no” to anyone (on LinkedIn that is.)

Folks like me are known in LinkedIn as LIONS (LinkedIn Open Networkers). LinkedIn’s take is that you should only invite people you know (although Scott Roberts, Senior Director of Business Development at LinkedIn sings a different tune – and we love him for it). Nonetheless, since I am in the field of social media strategy and marketing – working with both corporations and individuals – I find I need a giant network as a service to my clients. The larger the network, the bigger the portal into the LinkedIn world, and the more likely you are to find the diamond amongst the gravel. A large network is very useful for people in Sales and Recruiting, JobSeeking and Marketing of any kind – where it is a numbers game. It’s awfully hard to connect to someone who is not a first or second connection. Never mind those not in your network at all.

Scott Roberts, Senior Director of Business Development of LinkedIn was recently quoted in a Right Management Press release as saying “LinkedIn’s research has found that the quality of an individual’s profile and the number of connections dramatically impacts response rates to job opportunities.”

“C” level folks might want to remain “LaMBs”(“Look at My Buds” – coined by Laurie Macomber Of Blue Skies Marketing.) LaMBs know everyone in their network, and if you are lucky enough to connect to one, you will find their network much more useful than a LION network. LIONs love LaMBs. I can contact Laurie and I know she knows everyone in her network and could, should she choose to, give me a very warm written, perhaps even verbal recommendation. (LaMBs had better have someone in their company who is a LION if they are selling product or services.)

For those wanting top grow a LION network, let me throw out a few caveats. Firstly, LinkedIn only allows you 3000 invitations, so don’t go inviting everyone in your 8000 person database. (You can accept as many invitations as you want). When you do invite someone, make sure you let them know how they know you and why you want to connect.

Be aware of the IDK. (I Don’t Know). Get even one IDK now and LinkedIn will limit the functionality of your profile. When inviting someone to connect with you, ask them to archive your invitation if they do not want to accept it. Most people are not aware the penalties LinkedIn enforces as a result of an IDK.

For most people, the ideal network lies between the LION and the LaMB. If you want to strategically grow your network beyond people you know, but don’t want to be completely promiscuous, I suggest going to TopLinked.com’s top 50 list and inviting all of those folks. (You can now download that list as a CSV file) They will say yes, open your network to about 10 million, while keeping your first connections close at hand.

For more strageies on how to grow your LinkedIn Network, attend one of Integrated Alliances Network Building Webinars.

And of course, invite me (Viveka von Rosen) to Link In with you!

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Twittering for Business: Developing a Follow Strategy for Relevant Connections on your Twitter List

Many Social Media Experts, as well as successful Internet marketers and coaches have come the conclusion that  Twittering for Business can no longer be ignored. In fact, it is being touted as a social media revolution.

I absolutely love and hate Twitter.

I hate it for the amount of time using it has the potential to waste. It is so easy for me to lose focus and just tweet my day away. It’s bad enough to be an mental illness if I didn’t have a Twitter Strategy.

The Small Business Guru Twitter Strategy

Twitter is my give zone. My strategy is to be sure that every tweet some how gives something of value to my community of twitter following. Following is a list of how I give

• Inspiring quotes
• Retweets of helpful information, posts, articles and quotes from the amazing people in my circle of influence
• Connections. If someone that I follow has a need that I cannot fill I tweet it to those that follow me to see if they can help make a connection for someone in my community.
• Encouragement. When someone is having a bad day and the tweet about, I look for ways to help or encourage in 140 characters or less.
• Virtual Applause – When someone in my following has acheived something they’re proud of I help them to celebrate with a tweet  and share the news with my followers.

The Small Business Guru – Who Do I Follow Strategy

First of all I do not follow everybody that follows me. No offense, but I am seriously applying a thought out plan for who is a part of my Twitter Community.  And, I do block followers that hi-jack “celebrity” names and tweet spam.

Oh, and if you follow me but have protected tweets…I might block you unless your Twitter page and profile are intensly of interest to me. Twitter is not meant to be a private instant messaging system, but a public stream of conversation.

Okay, so who do I typically follow and why:

1. Masters: The group that I call masters are people that I consider to have something substantial about their message that I want to learn – They know much about their topic and have lots of experience. An example of would be @ProBlogger, @JoelComm, or @DuctTapeMarketing - there are too many more for me to put in this post. And my masters might be very different from your masters.
2. Peers: These are people that I perceive to be about where I am on the learning curve of using the Internet and social media. I learn a lot from this group in observing how they communicate to their followers. I also watch who they follow, I read the posts in their public stream not only to read what they are saying but who they are saying it to. I find some really wonderful connections this way.
3. Prospects: These are people that have a need for my services and are in the right kind of business that I believe I am suited to provide solutions. Really important, although I follow possible prospects I don’t use Twitter to initiate a conversation about what I have to offer. There are subtle approaches to providing them with my coaching message without a direct sales approach.
4. Providers: Just like what it sounds. These are people that I have evaluated as being a great provider of product, services or information that I need directly or might be needed by my Twitter Community. What I learn from the Providers helps me become more valuable my Twitter Community.

These four categories and my give strategy helps me to stay focused on why I am using Twitter for business. That and I do have to watch the clock just to make sure I don’t stay on Tweetdeck all day!

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