Your Marketing Key – Who You are as a Coach
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Recently, I was a guest on The Coaching Show, the great internet radio show about coaching that I wrote about in a previous post. It was a great discussion about the pre-marketing work for building a coaching business. If you would like to listen to that interview, here is the link to listen right now -
http://www.biztipsforcoaches.com/coachingshow/
One of the items we discussed was what I call “The Four Questions”. This is the contemplative work that each coach must be willing to do at the beginning and periodically throughout the life of the business. The four questions lead you to know how to market what you do because they are at the core of your business.
The first question is “Who Are You?”. This is about who you are as a person. To succeed in the coaching business, it helps to know yourself inside and out. As a coach, so “your stuff” doesn’t get in the way of the client and as an entrepreneur so that you can get the most out of your abilities and compensate where needed. How do you describe your own uniqueness? What is the combination of personality traits, values experiences, and history that makes you who you are. This is the vital piece that makes YOUR coaching business different than the other five thousand.
The second question is “What do you do?”. This is having the ability to talk about coaching and what it is. Being able to describe your work in a genuine, impactful way is vital to attracting the people that will want to work with you. As you are learning to talk about coaching, the more practice the better. Talk about coaching with anyone who will listen, read about coaching widely, research what others say about coaching and by all means have your own coach. All this is collecting knowledge to be able to put in to words the results that you and others can expect to get from coaching.
The third question is “What do you have to offer?”. This is who you are as a coach – what are your strengths and skills as a coach. Ask for lots of feedback as you are learning this about yourself. Perhaps your clients have insight into your traits that were most helpful for them. Other s to ask for feedback include your supervisor, coaching partners or peers. Think about your values and beliefs and how they impact the work you do as a coach. Decide what you believe about motivation and personal change and how that impacts your presence with your coaching clients.
The final question is “What is your purpose, passion and path?” – really 3 questions in one. Your purpose is the spark within you that makes you want to be a coach. Ask yourself what it is that you think is great about coaching. Your passion is the driving force that makes your coaching be genuinely from your soul. Yes, we are starting to think niche here! Your path is how you put all the elements together in a business that is unique to you. Think about what the essential elements are for the business to be authentically yours, how you intend to measure success and how these two factors will impact how you run the business.
This is a brief highlight of The Four Questions which are covered more thoroughly in the book, Mind Your Own Biz. Utilizing The Four Questions will help you lay the foundation of your business; revisiting this periodically will allow your business to flourish. It is the work at the foundation of attracting clients, making marketing easier, keeping you motivated and increasing your income.
