Archive for January, 2009
Coaching and Counseling are Very Different
Posted by: | CommentsCoach Claire Chapman and I have recently become friendly after meeting on Twitter. She is a coach with a similar philosophy and business to mine who lives and works in the UK and runs GrowAsACoach.com. After a nice phone conversation comparing our similarities and differences, we decided to write guest posts for each other’s blogs. If you missed Claire’s post here you can scroll down to find it or click here.
When Claire discovered that I came to coaching from my background as a counselor, she was excited to learn more about the differences between coaching and counseling. This is a question that clients often ask and it can be difficult for a coach who does not have a therapy or counseling background to answer. I have worked with so many beginnning coaches that I know it can also be a very hard question for those coaches who DO have that background too. In response to Claire’s request, I wrote my guest post for her blog on the distinctions between the two services. I hope you will take a moment to read the post and while you are there, check out the rest of Claire’s blog.
Coach Authentically, Market Ethically and Value Results – Guest Post from Claire Chapman
Posted by: | CommentsClaire Chapman is one of the most interesting people I have met through my new connections on Twitter. She is a coach and a supervisor of coaches in the UK and has a great perspective on the business side of coaching. She and I have decided to write posts for each other’s blogs as we have much of the same ideas on how to succeed in business as a coach. I hope you will contact Claire or leave a comment here if you enjoy what she has to say.
Coach Authentically, Market Ethically and Value Results: How to bring together the business you and the coaching you.
When I work with coaches I find often that they get hung up on marketing and sales. If you can get comfortable with coaching, marketing and selling then you’ll have a successful coaching business. If not, then you’re more likely to be either running a coaching business that you wish would grow, or comfortable that you have another source of income.
Personally, I have come to see marketing as a conversational opener to building great relationships. It is just as much a part of who I am as a coach, as well as how I coach. And that’s because I focus on the ethics and authenticity of the marketing and selling, and strongly believe that if you can do the same you’ll start seeing that marketing your business, and selling your coaching, is a great extension of the work you do.
I love the Andy Bounds book, The Jelly Effect, precisely because when he talks about networking events, he focuses on the fact that the goal of a networking meeting isn’t to create a sale, it’s simply to work out who the best people are that would benefit your business and then create the next meeting, one to one with them. Straight away, you’re into a whole different game, arranging a meeting where you have a conversation. And you’re a coach, so you are great at that already, right?
I market in ways that fit who I am individually as a person and my values as a coach. If it doesn’t feel right, I don’t do it. If it works, I do more of it. If I didn’t market, I couldn’t afford to keep coaching unless it was on the side of a job which I may not love as much or have so much to give to.
So, thinking about marketing within your values, and ethics, and beliefs – what door does that open up for you? I’m hoping it has given you some new language to get in touch with sharing with others (marketing…) what great results you get for people. And that’s my next tip – you’ll feel much more comfortable and authentic when you can talk about what a difference and impact you made with the people you worked with.
So, go open that door of opportunity by working in the way that fits who you are. And have fun!
Claire Chapman is a coach and supervisor for Coaches. Claire helps coaches get their vision and values clear to create the strongest foundation possible for their business growth. Claire focuses on marketing and professional development for coaches. For a 30 day ecourse on the Lessons they don’t teach you at coach training school visit www.growasacoach.com – also come say hi on twitter at http://twitter.com/coachclaire.
Break Through "Recession Thinking" with Business Development Info
Posted by: | CommentsThose readers who know me, have purchased my books, or read my newsletters know that I always want to provide more than what you expect. Truth be told, I am dedicated to helping your business grow. Even in this economy, there are great opportunities for success. It is not easy, but together we can do it.
Recent financial times have been tough. But does the sad state of the economy have to affect everyone? Well, I sure hope not. But the reality is that the average coach is feeling the pressure of these hard times.
This means that you have to be extra savvy and conscious of where you invest your hard earned income. You also need to be diligent and work exceptionally hard to keep your clients coming back to you.
You may need to be extremely careful with your purchases. You may even have to pare down the number of resources that you use. There is no shame in that. It is just smart money managing.
As a savvy business owner, you can thrive in hard times by being smart. Smart with your time and with your money. You need to recognize necessary and usefule resources that can help you, especially ones that exceed their percieved value ten-fold or more.
In light of the economical issues that are readily apparent everywhere you look, I wanted to help in as many ways as I could. So check out these Recession Busting Offers.
***Offer 1 ***
Biz Tips – The Book at 20% OFF
Sale Price $7.95
This is the book with more than 50 ideas to improve your business.
Go here to take advantage of this time-limited special offer.
*** Offer 2 ***
Mind Your Own Biz Book – MORE THAN 25% OFF
Sale Price $27.00
This book is the complete resource for starting a successful coaching business with details, resources and exercises in vital business areas. Find your unique package as a coach, learn the entrepreneurial skills to succeed, discover how to use a business plan succesfully and develop powerful ways to manage your time, money, information and equipment.
Go here to take advantage of this time-limited special offer.
*** Offer 3 ***
Biz Tips for Coaches Newsletter – FREE
Get the weekly email that can make a difference in the success of YOUR coaching business. Filled with new and insightful information that is relevant to the growth of any coach’s business.
Go here to take advantage of this offer.
*** Offer 4 ***
Support Group for Coaches 25% OFF
$15.00 per group
Join a support group of determined coaches lead by a certified coach. Increase your motivation, creativity, accountability and more. Use the collective wisdom and supprt of a group to crystallize your ideas and accelerate your progress toward building your coaching dreams.
Email me at janet@lifeadventurecoaching.com to take advantage of this offer.
It is important to me that you thrive in these hard times. I want you to succeed. Do not hesitate – grab these great deals before they are gone because the sale ends March 1st. Act now while these prices are low and get the better value for your dollar.
Let Freedom Ring
Posted by: | CommentsThere has been something bouncing around in my head since I heard Aretha Franklin sing and President Obama give his inaugural address. It’s about freedom. Which I have long known is one of my most cherished values. Our President was speaking about freedom and at the same time he was speaking about responsibility. The two are inescapably intertwined. His words said, “… greatness is never a given. It must be earned.” And “we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work”. He could have been talking about an entrepeneur – he could have been talking about you as you build your coaching business.
The freedom of being an entrepreneur thrills me on a daily basis. I love to be the one who makes all the choices. What to do, where to be, who to talk to, how to do it. The list of decisions goes on and on and I don’t have to answer to anyone else who would do it differently. It is my way. Pure joy for my freedom loving heart. At the same time, I am acutely aware that there is a lot of hard work involved to make sure that I make good decisions, ones that are tempered by information and input from others. This is the responsibility of freedom.
Being an entrepreneur requires an amazing amount of hard work. As is true for our country in this time of change, “everywhere we look, there is work to be done.” This is not something to feel discouraged about. All your hard work in your business will reward you magnificently. Too many coaches in the past have chosen fear and given up their dream. Don’t follow them. The information and support you need to succeed in freedom as an entrepreneur is out there. This is the time for action.
A diffilcut task well done is one of life’s richest rewards. My coaching business brings me joy and freedom every day. Yours can, too. I think President Obama summed it up when he said, “Nothing is as defining of our spirit as giving our all to a difficult task.” Let’s get to work.
Women Conquering Fear
Posted by: | CommentsMy colleague, Carey Powell, is doing something VERY EXCITING for those of you who follow my Life Adventure philosophy and I want to share it with you…
Cary Powell, Associate Certified Life Coach and owner of Fearless Soul Life Coaching, recently put together a powerful audio series titled, “Living Fearlessly: Stories of 7 Women Who Felt the Fear and Did It Anyway”. These dynamic women’s stories will inform you, motivate you and most of all inspire fearlessness in you so that you live your dreams.
On January 27th, Carey is hosting a very special FREE teleconference, featuring several of the women interviewed in the audio series.
Here are the highlights from just a few of their stories:
- there is the former concert pianist who launches a skin care company and a PR networking site,
- there is a doctor who uses her medical expertise and her passion for dance in inspire millions around the world,
- and a woman who spearheads the “mompreneur” movement for women who are both moms and entrepreneurs.
And there are four more powerful women in the audio series!
On the free call, you will -
- Hear secrets and tips from Carey and the experts on how 2009 can be your most fearless year yet
- Learn the three things you need to do right now to get “unstuck”
- Identify the one BIG thing that is holding you back from moving forward
- Begin an action plan to propel you forward and out of fear
- Have the rare oppportunity to ask questions of Carey and the experts on the call live
To register for this powerful call, click here.
Call Details:
Living Fearlessly in 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
9:00PM Eastern time (8PM Central, 7PM Mountain, 6PM Pacific)
Can’t be on the live call? Don’t worry – everyone that registers for the call will receive a link to the recording. AND everyone that signs up for the call will also recieve an exclusive VIP bonus…
Business Accounting 101 – Cash Flow
Posted by: | CommentsThere are certain parts of accounting and bookkeeping that you need to be familiar with as the owner of a coaching business. Cash flow is essentially the movement of money in and out of your business. It can be determined over any convenient period of time and is a more valuable indicator of your company’s financial health than is net income.
Healthy cash flow means that you have the money needed to pay your business bills when they are due. Without available funds, the alternative for the entrepreneur is to pay those bills on credit. This points out the importance of attention to cash flow – you can have income from your coaching products and services, but still not be able to pay your bills properly. If you are not tracking your cash flow, it is simple to get into trouble without realizing it.
You will want to keep the concept of cash flow in your mind when you set up payment plans with your coaching clients. Many coaches use a system of clients paying for their coaching in advance at the beginning of the month. This helps prevent the problem of not having money to pay the phone bill because you have clients that owe you money. Be cautious of cash flow issues if you use other payment schemes with your clients.
Coaching Trends with Ernest Oriente
Posted by: | CommentsMany coaches do not know Ernest Oriente although they should because he is a model of success in the coaching world. Ernest has been coaching since 1995 and has created a multi-million dollar business coaching in six niches including real estate and publishing. Ernest is a legend where I was trained in coaching and so I always notice when his name comes up – his is an example to follow.
Recently Ernest was interviewed by Don Morris of the New Coach Connection about the trends he sees in the coaching industry. Ernest was clear with many of the points that I teach my clients about business development. First, Ernest reported that you must look at what others are doing and have done in the business world and learn from it. Ernest points out that there are specific steps that need to be taken in order to develop a business. We know what works, yet many coaches feel fear about doing those tasks and so resist them. Too many coaches spend far too much time just hoping that clients will come to them instead of taking a focused approach to getting clients.
Ernest and I also agree on the need to have a specialty in your work as a coach. It is a waste of your time and energy to say to the world “I can coach anyone”. You need to decide who you are best at coaching and help those people know you as an expert in resolving their problems.
Ernest is an expert in creating alliances. His book, Smart Match Alliances, which he wrote along with Judy Feld discusses this subject in detail. No one can start a successful business alone and finding the right alliances to help you grow is a vital part of your business success. To listen to this informative interview with Ernest and Don, click here and scroll down the page to find the audio player.
How To Write Copy Like the Pros
Posted by: | CommentsCopy writing is one of the most fundamental pieces of your business marketing. Yet most coaches and independent professionals do not pay enough attention to it. You want to be able to use your written words to create the intention you would like and to move the reader to action. In your writing that promotes your product, business or ideas you need to get the reader’s attention quickly. Then you need to keep them reading so that they get to the action you want them to take.
Expert copywriters will tell you that the purpose of the first sentence is to get the reader to the second sentence. The purpose of the second sentence is to get them to the next one. You get the picture. If you do not write carefully, you will not persuade the reader to take that chosen action. Today the fundamentals of good copywriting are to write clearly and concisely with simple words. Don’t worry about rules of grammar, but write as you would speak. That means including lots of sentence fragments, making lists and making paragraphs that read easily rather than by “the rules”.
If you haven’t been thinking about your writing, I would encourage you to start reading about copy writing. One of the best places to start is with Copy Blogger. This is a blog founded by Brian Clark that is devoted to teaching the use of words to get traffic, make sales and gain subscribers. There is a wealth of information here and I recommend you spend some time exploring it.
Another resource is from Pandecta magazine which is a website – no longer a magazine – devoted to “making e-business accessible”. Click here to see their Copy Writing Tutorial which will give you some principles for being effective with your writing including a little list of “good” and “bad” words. On the site you’ll also find info on copy-writing for websites and much more business information.
Let’s talk a little about copywriting basics. This info is from the Copy Bloggers site where you will find much more info about these points under Copy Writing 101.
1. Get your first sentence read. We discussed this wisdom above.
2. Write simply. Be careful not to overestimate the level of understanding of your audience.
3. Writing Headlines. Eight categories of headlines include Direct, Indirect, News, How To, Question, Command, Reasons Why, and Testimonials.
4. More on Headlines. The most read part of your copy so spend the most time on it using the factors of usefulness, urgency, uniqueness and ultra-specific.
5. Structure Your Content. Be focused on your reader, use specifics in the copy including statistics and references, make the offer and sum it up.
6. Stress benefits not features. Easy to say, harder to do. Be careful to find benefits for your offer that your reader actually wants.
7. Make your offer irresistible. It should be something your reader can’t help but relate to and you need to state it quickly and explicitly.
8. Include a real guarantee. This shifts the risk of action from the reader to you and increases the likelihood he/she will act.
9. Length of Copy and Headlines. The answer to how long your copy should be depends on your audience, product, venue, and much more. Be sure to do testing to see what works.
10. Read other people’s copy widely and look at what works. Keep samples and look for patterns and formulas you can apply to your own work.
How to Hire a Virtual Assistant
Posted by: | CommentsIf you have read this blog for long, you probably know that I couldn’t survive without my virtual assistants, Becki and Dale Noles of Virtual Accuracy. What you don’t know is that I hired two previous virtual assistants (VAs) before I found a relationship that worked for me. I learned by trial and error that there is a process to go through to find the right team members for your business. I am a strong believer that if you run a coaching business, you will need to hire a virtual assistant in order to be able to develop a strong business.
On Monday, January 12th, you have the opportunity to learn from my experience as I interview Diane Potter, owner of The Virtual Difference, on how to successfully hire a virtual assistant for your business. Here is what we plan to discuss on the call -
* How to know when the time is right to partner with a VA
* The process of finding the right VA for you
* Resources to find VAs that are available right now
* How a VA can help grow your business and reduce your stress
So if you are overwhelmed because of your workload, this may be the call for you. Find out how the right partner can allow you to focus your time on the vision of the business and know that the details are taken care of for you. The well trained VA is able to look at business strategy with you and help you find what will work best for your business.
Join me on January 12th at 8:00pm EST for this free call sponsored by Practice Pay Solutions. Register by clicking here.
