Writing Often, Writing Relevant for Your Coaching Business

To be able to “coach the game” you have to “play the game“. In fact, you must “master the game“. You must be on the playing field with your players. That doesn’t mean you’re always “in the game” but your on the sidelines watching, and guiding the plays.

Writing Often (feel free to substitute writing with communicating)

The tools available in a profitable Internet marketing plan give you the opportunity to make your “Coaching Playbook” available in some format so that potential players at least know what game you coach. Like it or not you need to see your self in the publishing business because it is important to create multiple opportunities to connect, engage and make your offer. The tools for connecting, engaging and making your offer, to give your potential players the opportunity to discover you and your method for coaching the big games of life will most likely be:

• books – printed & ebook
• audio recordings – digital download or on CD
• video – online & DVD
• special reports – free & premium
• blog posts
• email – newsletters & auto-responders

Not only does creating these tools help potential players decide if you are the coach for them, but,  depending on your frequency, can give the feeling that you’re right along side them as they play the game.

All of these tools can give you the opportunity to create and maintain relevancy for your relationship with your players.

In 2010 I will be moving to a very prolific content creation and distribution schedule.  I have already moved to a daily email format which have caused many of my subscribers to unsubscribe. That’s a good thing. These readers were not my market and I applaud them for managing their intake of information. At the same time my subscriber number are growing daily because of the feedback I get on Twitter about the content in the emails as well as the fact that the emails are being forwarded to their colleagues. I am enjoying many personal responses with comments like, “I needed this message today…”, “This was so on target, it’s right where I’m at in building my business…”. or this one is the best, “When can I get started working with you?”.

Writing Relevant

In preparation for the massive amounts of content that I am creating for next year I have intentionally engaged with my potential players more frequently and more strategically. Here are some of the things that I am doing to keep me relevant and how I use the information to help me identify & attract my perfect paying client – and develop future products as well:

Client Calls: With permission I record nearly all of my coaching sessions. I have a high level of trust with my clients since most come from word of mouth. I am very clear that the purpose of the recording is so that my client can listen to the call as often as he or she wants to take notes and learn from, as well as be able to hear themselves outside of the moment for their own observations.  I also let them know that I will be listening to the call again and it will help me coach them better being able to listen out of the moment of the call. It’s kinda like how sports coaches use video tapes of practice and game to correct or learn new plays.

From these recordings I am also able to pick up on patterns and common threads of questions or mind sets that show up not in just one client but in many of my clients.  When I write emails, articles, or posts for my blog I’ve got lots of juicey content stirring inside because of real live stories that I am connecting with.

My famous “No Strings, No Cost Laser Coaching” calls that I offer on Twitter & Facebook. I usually do about two of these calls a week if my schedule permits. This gives a prospective player the opportunity to have another perspective of the business side of their coaching. I have mastered the ability to take a look at the overall picture of their business and point out possible gaps in their client path. They leave the call with a recording that they can listen to over & over – not just about some obscure strategy they could be implementing but a very specific personalized assessment they can take immediate action on.

When I offer these sessions, often an sense of imbalance is created. The prospective client wants to know what they can do for me. First of all this tells me they have already made the decision that this was a valuable session. If there is enough value in what I offer on the call to the point of making them want to do something in return – I know I’ve done my job. This helps me hone my skills and know that I am right on target with the issues that coaches building their business are facing right now. And, I always let my clients know that from my perspective the call is R & D. It keeps me in touch with my market. When they realize that they’ve helped me by keeping me in touch with my market they can see the value in that for me and it balances the scale.

I also get new clients this way. After a No Strings, No Cost Laser Coaching session it frequently leads to a perfect paying client relationship. And since I said “no strings” I do not attempt to sell them on anything in the future, but because I hold nothing back, giving them whatever I can in the way of guidance or perspective in a single 60 minute session – they almost always want to take it to the next step which would be to work with me on going as a paying client.

Response to my daily email: Since I now send out daily emails 5 – 6 days a week I get lots of replies. I reply to as many as I can. I get questions for more information about a topic or get positive feedback when my message struck a cord.  Quite often my reply will inspire a new writing project. In fact this blog post is an inspiration from on of my readers comments.

Finally…

I get the best response to the content I deliver – email, articles, blog posts, etc – when I am “in state“. For me “in state” is that energy I feel when I am perfectly connected with a client and together we’re perfecting the “plays” of the game. It is when I recognize what is needed by my client to move forward and I help them see it through the view of their current mindset and it moves them into a new mindset for growth. Many of the things I have described above either get me “in state” or move me back into state if I am listening to a recording of a previous session.

The creation of the Coaches Profit Wheel has come out of regular, relevant engagement with my perfect paying prospects & clients. I’ve been told that my emails seem as if I am reading their minds. I think that means I am “in tune” and writing relevant.

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– How a book can build your business and how to create a successful book concept

Nancy Cleary has been an entrepreneur since 1992 when she relocated to Deadwood, Oregon, on the gorgeous Oregon coast.
With a background in graphic design, Nancy ran a design studio for six years before launching her publishing company in 1998. To date Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, named for her son and daughter, has helped well over 100 women to enjoy an empowered publishing experience, and has taught thousands more through classes, licensing, and her book about the publishing experience, A Book is Born: 24 Authors Tell All.

Listen to the show and find out how to get a copy of this book for free.

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Convert the Reputation & Attention You Get From Your Free Give-Away

“Free is not a magic bullet. Giving away what you do will not make you rich by itself. You have to think creatively about how to convert the reputation and attention you can get from Free into cash.” Chris Anderson, author of  Free: The Future of a Radical Price

Do you realize that “free” is a business strategy?

This quote from Chris Anderson’s book says it well. The powerful strategy behind the free giveaway that you give to new subscribers gives you the opportunity to build reputation and attention; your on-going strategy is to convert that into to cash.

You’re missing out if you’re not giving away something with enough value to build reputation and attention to your message, method, & promise.

Your emailing strategy is the “build” – continuation of what you started with your free special report, mini-guide, white paper, manifesto, audio, video -whatever your give away is – the backend is in the email follow up. You lose momentum and credibility if your giveaway and your follow emails don’t build your reputation and capture your prospects attention.

Take a look at your lead capture strategy. This is a pivotal piece in your marketing. A lot is riding on this.

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Just Get Up and Get Busy Communicating Your Message, Method & Promise

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

— Stephen King

I read this quote over at Michael Hyatt blog. Of course this is aimed at aspiring authors – but it got me to thinking. If you are a coach doing business on the internet, some form of writing is a staple for communicating to attract your perfect client.

You may not think you’re a writer or an author. You may not think you are in the “publishing” business.

You ARE in the communication business.

The perfect recipe for building your coaching business is “just get up and get busy communicating” your message, method & promise.

Message: The foundational story that presents the solution to a problem your identified perfect client is looking for. When your perfect client here’s your message, your story, they say, “yeah, me too. I can so relate to that.”

Method: Your unique process for solving a particular problem or set of problems. Or your unique process for taking someone from satisfaction mixed with unrest to new heights of inspiration.

Promise: What do your clients get, or aspire to achieve because they have worked with you. How have you moved them farther, quicker or both because of their investment of time and finances with you and your method.

Your perfect customer may be attracted by reading your blog posts, your articles, listening to recorded audio or watching a video. If you are only doing one form of communication you might miss many ideal clients who are best reached with a different communication tool. What? Okay if you only write in your blog – you could be missing perfect clients that love to listen to an audio or watch a video.

Coaches are in the business of communication. Plan this into your daily activities so that your perfect client can be attracted to you.

How do you attract your perfect client?

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Coaching & Business or Coaching as a Business

In order for your practice of coaching to be profitable you must operate it like a business, otherwise it’s just an avocation or a hobby.

av-o-ca-tion – n. An activity taken up in addition to one’s regular work or profession, usually for enjoyment; a hobby.

A business is profitable when operated with certain best practices. Yet many coaches who have trained and certified as coaches don’t make the time or the investment to learn profitable business practices. Many coaches actually avoid the very practices that would bring them the profit they are seeking.

Milana Leshinsky,  of Coaching Millions, in her New Coaching Manifesto talks about the 91% of coaches who are failing miserably as business owners because they spend way too much time trying to define or defend the profession of coaching rather than focusing on creating value and problem solving for a culture of people that really need a coach – but don’t yet understand the true value of coaching.

Here are the problems as I see it:

Unsuccessful coaches…

1. think “coaching” is their niche
2. do not have a message that clearly communicates value or solution to a particular prospect
3. avoid marketing like it is something painful
4. have no clear path for the prospect to become a paying customer
5. do not ask for the business
6. wait for clients to find them
7. have only one product – either one on one coaching or group coaching

Think about other businesses or professions.

Would you go to a restaurant that had a sign in the window that said, “We serve food”?

How about if you saw a business open in your community that had no sign, no way at all of knowing what the business had to offer – just a commercial building with the doors open? Would you go there to do business?

What about a business with an open sign but when you went inside, no one was there?

What are some of the practices of other professions, ones that you do business with?

Successful businesses have an easily identified product or service with an ideal client or customer in mind. A way to get their attention and offer their product or service for an exchange of money.

Let’s consider the example of the restaurant – no one is offended if the owner announces, even advertises that it serves only Mexican food. People that don’t like Mexican food can choose another restaurant. No one is offended when they receive advertisements about the restaurant or when a commercial comes on during their favorite evening show on television.

Yet, many coaches are struggling because “they serve coaching” (so what?!), and they don’t actually want to market their business – in fact they don’t know who they are solving a problem for and how to let anyone at all know that they solve a problem.

So what am I saying?

To be successful as a coach you must implement sound business practices. You must

• know who your ideal prospect is
• have a clear message of what problem you solve  or value you create
• a unique method for creating the solution
• have systems for attracting and communicating with your ideal prospect
• ask for the business
• have multiple entry levels for the client to do business with you and experience your method and solution

If coaching is something you feel passionate about, something you love to do – but unless you implement good business practices, it will be impossible to make a decent living, nor will it fund the life of your dreams.

Is coaching your business? What will you do about it?

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The “M” Word – what’s up with that?

I have become increasingly aware that there a many coaches that hate the “m” word. You know

I don’t get it – well I sort of get it because I used to feel the same way. What I have learned is that nothing significant will happen for your business without continuous marketing.

The problem is that many people think of marketing as “hype”, which is defined as exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material, or something deliberately misleading: a deception.

The truth is that not all marketing is hype (exaggerated, extravagant claims, or deception). Let me share a fresh “coach friendly perspective” about marketing.

Your marketing messages should

• demonstrate the clarity you have as a coach for them & their needs. This helps to build trust. People tend to trust people that identify with them.
• engage your ideal client in their emotions around that clearly defined need. Every buying decision starts with emotions and is supported by logic or facts.
• get your ideal client to imagine themselves within your solution and enjoying the benefits. The value of your solution must exceed the prospects need to hold on to their wealth. Your ideal client will part with their wealth (money)  if they will increase their wealth (value in some other area of their life)  in another form by acquiring your product or service.
• guide your ideal prospect to take action

If you do the above well you will create “harmonic resonance” which will provide a buying environment for your ideal prospect to become a client now or at some time in the future.

You are doing your prospects a disservice by not taking the time to understand what they need to create a buying environment for them to choose you to provide a solution.

Somebody needs what you offer – it’s up to you to discover how they want to buy it and help them make the match.

Consider this – you can have two different coaches with similar sales pages for a program that both make similar claims – for the one coach, every word could be an exaggerated lie – that is hype. For the other coach every single word, and emotionally engaging sentence can be 100% true – that is marketing – creating a buying environment – helping your prospect get “in state” with their problem and your solution so that they are motivated to make a choice.

The conflict in marketing is when something is out of harmony on some level. The disharmony could come from exaggerated claims or not enough proof such as testimonials in the copy – or the disharmony could be the simple discomfort of the client’s inability to take action because of lack of funds. There are times that the prospect can see how parting with their money to acquire the product or service would be a good thing but does not have access to the funds required and does not know how to find the money to invest in the product or service – so it is easier to call the marketing “hype” because it is out of reach.

Would love to hear what you think about this. Do you agree or not? If not, why.

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What Makes Your Ideal Prospect Take Action?

Many great ideas go unexecuted, and many great executioners are without ideas. One without the other is worthless. ~Tim Blixseth

To be really effective in building your coaching practice as a viable business it’s imperative that you

• get your ideal prospect to take action to hire you as their coach, or to purchase your products so they can apply your coaching method
• develop an understanding of how to repeatedly get your ideal prospects to take action – so if you can get one new client, surely you can duplicate your efforts and enroll 10 new clients, right?

The reason some coaches have as many clients as they desire and sell thousands of dollars worth of product monthly (some even sell thousands of dollars worth of product daily!), and some coaches can barely get one client is because of the two statements above. The successful coach understands how to get their ideal client to make a decision and take action, and the successful coach knows how to repeat this formula for action to attract and enroll clients and/or sell more product.

Let me just say, there IS a formula. It is possible to make an outstanding income while inspiring others to take life changing action.

Psychological Triggers

Psychology is the study of the mind. There are many who have made a study of what causes prospects of particular markets make buying decisions. There are a few important keys when implemented as part of your product or service offering will cause your ideal client to effortlessly trade their money (yes, they will find the money even in this economy – sometimes especially in this economy) for your promise and your method of coaching.

Coach Dave of Coachville.com, is fond of saying, “A potential player, will only hire a Coach with more certainty than they have.”

There is a method for conveying your sense of certainty about your coaching method to develop the level of trust that your prospect needs to chose to become a client.

The human brain process is so many billion bits of information all day that it has developed efficient ways of processing information so that it can process quick enought to act in a timely fashion. For example, if you’re on a nature hike and something wiggles in the leaves you might jump with a start imagining a snake – but it might only be a twig. Your brain acted on the assumption that something wiggling in the leaves might be alive, possibly a snake and a quick leap away might save your life if it is indeed a snake.

We also process much of the information that comes to us in a buying experience. There are psychological triggers that quickly develop trust and confidence, as well as cause us to assume that this buying opportunity will supply us what we’re looking for.

As a business owner, a marketer – yes, coaches must be marketers to remain in business, must understand these psychological triggers to help the ideal prosect to take beneficial action.

No, I am not talking about manipulation.

This is the stuff that many of you that are NLP coaches understand. There is a language and action that will more often result in success with certainty.

I have coached brilliant coaches who run from any type of marketing and struggle the whole time to stay in business.

It is possible to understand the workings of the human mind and engage the triggers that help your ideal prospect to satisfy their own need with your method. You must help them take this action inorder to benefit from your coaching method. I would say if your message is of any value at all you have an obligation to deliver your information in the way that your ideal prospect needs it so they can take action.

This Friday on the Get More Business Show, I have invited MichelePW who is a master at getting ideal prosects to take action. She will share with me the 5 Psychological Triggers to Turn Prospects Into Clients (Warning: These are SO powerful you MUST promise to use them in an honest and ethical manner.)

I promise you that this is not about manipulation. This is about understanding human psychology and how we are “hard wired” to take action. I studied a few of MichelePW’s very successful sales pages for other coaches and have pinpointed these very triggers. I saw the formula over and over in each one. It is a beautiful process that is very complimentary to my ethics as a coach.

Join me on Friday, September 4th at 9 am Pacific / 12 pm Eastern on the www.GetMoreBusinessShow.com

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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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