Monthly Archives: October 2015


How to Get Clients Knocking on Your Coaching Practice Door

In today’s guest post Max DuBowy looks at:

How to Get Clients Knocking on Your Coaching Practice Door.

By Max DuBowy

"How to Get Clients Knocking on Your Coaching Practice Door" By Max DuBowy

You’re an amazing coach and you know it. You’ve got the skill set to do your job effectively and provide the utmost value to transform your client’s lives. Yet, why is no one knocking on your door to sign up for your coaching services?

The answer is simple: You’re not promoting yourself.

I’ve got some pathetic news for you. 80% of coaches are unable to support themselves solely through their coaching practice. That means only 20% of coaches make a living doing what they love and what they’re good at. Are you part of the 80% or 20%? If you’re not part of the 20%, there is still hope to turn your income around!

To become one of the 20% of coaches who fully support themselves and get clients knocking on their door, you need to promote your services. There are many ways to promote your services and you need to know which ways produce the results you’re looking for.

Practice what you preach – Ask yourself how many clients you want right now. Write this number down on a piece of paper and write down why you want that number. Post this paper in a location you’ll look at everyday such as your desk, refrigerator, or next to your night stand. Say this number out loud several times a day. State the reason why you want this number when you wake up and before you go to sleep.

You need to do this so you have a concrete goal to reach for. You also need to believe in the goal you set for yourself. You know this works because you’re a coach and it’s worked for your clients.

Network, Even if You’re an Introvert! – Getting outside of your comfort zone and introducing yourself to strangers is the best way to meet prospective clients face to face. You get to ask questions to people and learn more about their daily challenges. Go to places like meet up events, local charity fundraisers, or community social mixers. When you go to these events, have a few business cards handy and get ready to introduce yourself.

This is your opportunity to promote who you are, what you do, and why its important. Make sure you speak from a place of honesty and integrity. When you start a conversation at a networking event, ask open ended questions that get other people to speak. This way, you can decide whether or not your coaching services align with their challenges and goals.

If you meet people who don’t need coaching at the moment, don’t be afraid to ask for a referral. Most people are happy to make introductions, especially when you’ve got a great service to provide!

Ask for the sale with confidence – You need to believe that your coaching service is the greatest investment anyone can make in themselves. If you don’t believe that, your future clients will never believe it either. You will only get a client to sign up for your coaching service if you ask for the sale. This means you need to clearly state what your services include and the associated price.

When you ask for the sale and your client follows through, make sure you provide the utmost value for their investment. You need to do this because this is what keeps clients coming back for more coaching sessions and make referrals to your business on your behalf.

These are a few pointers to get clients lining up for your coaching practice. The advice may sound simple and trite, but the techniques are timeless and effective. You deserve to have a fruitful coaching practice because you will be rewarded with personal and professional happiness, pleasure, and fulfillment. When your clients walk away with value and growth, they’ll thank you for your advice and send more clients your way to keep you busy for years and years to come.cleardot

About Max DuBowy

Max DuBowy

Max DuBowy is the founder of Your Success Launch. He helps introverted business owners make friends and sign-up clients in a way that’s easy, effective and fun!


Guest posters welcome

Do you like writing?

Got something to say and share with other coaches?

This week rather than a guest poster we’re going to focus upon guest posts themselves. I wanted to take the opportunity to first give some detail of what our guest posters volunteer for as well as have an open invite to get in touch if you think it’s a fit for you.

Guest posters are welcome

What can the content of a guest post be about?

One of the first questions that’s usually asked is about what I want the guest post to be about.I give no apology that my answer to this question is usually some form of “What would you most like to share with this blogs readers?”

You see, the actual content is decided upon by the guest poster BUT it must be something that will be of interest to the blogs readers – other coaches who can come from a wide range of different areas of coaching specialisation and niches. This means that there can be a real mix of different approaches, styles and schools of thought shared from one week to the next.

Whilst it’s not an exhaustive list many posts fall under the broad categories of:

  • personal experience with coaching/ having a coaching business,
  • sharing different aspects of coaching knowledge/approaches,
  • topics around establishing/ running a coaching practice/business

I do have a list of questions that I’m happy to share with guest posters to help spark inspiration and I’m happy to discuss specifics with guest posters.

There also isn’t a word limit to the length of the post – so if you need a longer post to communicate the message of your post that is allowed. Also, if the thought of a small essay is off putting to you, posts that are shorter and concise in message are also welcome. The important part is the actual content being of interest/valuable to other coaches not how many words you use to share!

Who can be a guest poster?

Generally guest posters are either coaches themselves or work with coaches – this means that they have an understanding of what content will interest coaches.

Some of the fantastic guest posters since 2010 have decades of coaching experience and have amongst other things generously shared lessons learned from their extensive coaching experience.

We have also had some who are just establishing their coaching practice and these posts also bring value – sometimes by bringing a fresh perspective and often leaving readers breathing a sigh of relief that they are not the only ones to feel that way. So do not rule yourself from being a guest poster because you don’t think you have enough experience.

Bio’s/ Links

At the end of each guest post there is an “About the author” heading, this is where we put your bio. It’s there to give the reader the opportunity to find out more about the guest poster and their background.

I also like it to include ways (i.e. a link(s)) so that anyone who wants to find out more about your work etc can easily connect with you and your work.

What are guest posters actually committing to?

  1. Providing a guest post via email by the date agreed
  2. Providing a bio to be included on your guest post, again by the date agreed.

That’s it – if you are on twitter and you let me know your username then I can include that in any promo about your post.

Interested in being a guest poster?

If the above fits with what you’re thinking then I invite you to fill in your details on the form below so we can look at making this happen.

[si-contact-form form=’14’]


The most popular quote from our twitter account from week 41 of 2015:

Most RT'd quotes last week on @thecoachingblog

Each Thursday I share the most RT’d quote(s) from the blogs twitter account over the previous week. Last week, again there were lots of RT’s, the two quotes with the most RT’s were:

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”

(Lou Holtz)

Tweeted on 13th October

and

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”

(Maya Angelou)

Tweeted on 15th October

There was a 3-way tie for the quote with the next highest amount of RT’s between:

“The ancestor of every action is a thought.”

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Tweeted on 13th October

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Tweeted on 14th October

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

(Ambrose Redmoon)

Tweeted on 16th October

and

“Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.”

(Aristotle)

Tweeted on 16th October

thank you

Many thanks to everyone who shared the quotes above and the other quotes from last week. I know that there are various aspects that can influence if a quote attracts your attention – if you saw the tweet, personal style, if it speaks to something happening in your life at that moment etc.

Which quote do you prefer?

(For those of you as geeky as I am and wondering what tool I’m using to measure individual RT’s this week I’ve been playing with www.twitonomy.com)


Swallows 1

In today’s guest post coach Liz Scott reflects upon how she’s found a new meaning to what it is to be a coach.

Swallows

by Liz Scott

"swallows" by Liz Scott

The swallow chicks have gone. For the past week I had been talking to them as passed through the garage. They had looked quizzically at me from the nest on the rafters, with their dark intelligent eyes. I’ll miss them.

Their parents left on their migration a week ago leaving the 3 chicks behind. Since then the youngsters have been out hunting all day and building up their strength and reserves for the long journey ahead. A few days ago they left and I felt a twinge of sadness.

They’ve been part of our lives ever since we found the speckled eggshells on the garage floor. We’ve watched them grow, seen their industrious parents feed them constantly and we witnessed their first flight around the garage as they learned to use their wings.

It has been a huge blessing to observe these beautiful creatures taking their part and place in the world. There was no drama or crisis as each bird just effortlessly moved from egg to chick to fledgling.

The natural world seems to get on with life without any fuss; endless skies, changing seasons, migrating birds, ripening fruit, hibernating animals… and so the list goes on.

I can’t imagine nature has a to-do list that she keeps ticking off. There is a grace and humility to her work of constant regeneration. Nature is not a ‘thing’ or a ‘doing’ Nature is an energy that gently breathes beginnings on her ‘in’ breath and ends on her ‘out’ breath. An end is a beginning and a beginning is an end. There is a constant regeneration of life and death.

As a coach I have noticed within me a gentle spiritual awakening that has made some of the stuff I once found fascinating (money, clients, marketing, business) seem rather hollow. The things that once seduced me no longer hold the same fascination. I find I am more interested in wonder of the world (like the swallows). My focus now rests on witnessing the limitless flow of humanity and spirituality that dance through life. There is a simplicity and intense beauty that dwells within us.

Once I wanted to change the world. I thought coaching could make the world a better place. Now I realise my real purpose is to touch the spiritual depth inside me. When I do this then clients are able to touch their own wisdom and internal depth of peace within.

It seems that many coaches are in the transition of a spiritual awakening. Are you one of them? I am keen to come together with coaches who are finding new meaning to what it is to be a coach. If you find you are fascinated and absorbed by the steady beauty of nature, or if you are experiencing a spiritual transition then get in touch. I’d love to hear your story and discover how it is showing up in your coaching.

About Liz Scott

Liz Scott (www.lizscottcoaching.com) is a leadership coach working in schools and businesses. Her coaching (and life) is being transformed by the development of her understanding of the Three Principles. If you’d like to learn more then you can download an introduction to The Three Principles http://coachingconnectplus.com/3ps/

Liz is hosting a Three Principles event this November. For a full list of speakers and more details visit the Coaching Connect 3P event site

 


The most popular quote from our twitter account from week 40 of 2015:

Most RT'd quotes last week on @thecoachingblog

Each Thursday I share the most RT’d quote(s) from the blogs twitter account over the previous week. Last week there were lots of RT’d quotes with a 4-way tie for the most RT’s between:

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

(Walt Disney Company)

Tweeted on 8th October

“There’s a big difference between showing interest and really taking interest.”

(Michael P. Nichols, The Lost Art of Listening)

Tweeted on 8th October

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

(Maya Angelou)

Tweeted on 8th October

and

“Do not go where the path may lead, going steady where there is no path and leave a trail.”

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Tweeted on 11th October

The quote with the next highest amount of RT’s was:

“If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.”

(Turkish Proverb)

Tweeted on 10th October

thank you

Many thanks to everyone who shared the quotes above and the other quotes from last week. I know that there are various aspects that can influence if a quote attracts your attention – if you saw the tweet, personal style, if it speaks to something happening in your life at that moment etc.

Which quote do you prefer?

(For those of you as geeky as I am and wondering what tool I’m using to measure individual RT’s this week I’ve been playing with www.twitonomy.com)


What Is Spiritual Coaching?

Two questions that often have new coaches scratching their heads are “what all the different coaching niches are?” and “how to talk about their coaching?” In today’s guest post Dr Alicia Holland Johnson shares how she talks about her work as she answers:

What Is Spiritual Coaching?

By Dr Alicia Holland Johnson

"What Is Spiritual Coaching? by?" Dr Alicia Holland Johnson

The human body is an intricate work of God’s vision for the universe. Beyond the realms of physical structure, Nature has designed each human being as a different entity, gifted with a unique purpose in life. As an individual scrambles forth in his rush for materialistic pursuits and commercial success, he often loses the ability to visualize the true purpose of his existence. Along with this, he also loses all contact with his inner core and subconscious mind. This is indeed a catastrophic stage when human life is diminished to mere physical existence.

By its intent, Spiritual Coaching is a structured process in which a person is led into a deep, meditative state of tranquility, with the sole aim of putting him back in touch with himself.

The human mind and body are gifted with a strong, inherent ability to solve life’s most complex problems and heal illnesses. However, clouded by the negative waves of fears, worries and self-doubt, this ability is often destroyed. It is here that a spiritual coach intervenes, bringing back the power to realize your true potential, be happy and above all, be able to solve your problems and heal yourself.

How does it work?

Spiritual coaching is administered by an experienced coach with a non-religious, neutral approach, either in a group or on an individual basis. The entire process begins with an informal orientation, followed by the slow induction of a meditative state. The coach then attempts to look deeper and identify the potential cause of anxiety and unrest within the individual. The strains of following sentiments or thoughts are identified:

  • Inability to form or achieve goals
  • Lack of interest or unsatisfactory personal lives
  • Lack of professional growth
  • Anxiety, fear and phobias
  • Constant state of illness
  • Inability to develop relationships

In some cases, spiritual coaching is preceded by mentoring, which is an informal, open-ended discussion. Once a basic comfort level has been reached, the spiritual coach will attempt to delve into deeper issues and target the core problematic zone. The coach will first try to restore the inner balance and awaken the consciousness of the individual’s true potential. Eventually, through powerful verbal, non-judgmental and persuasive techniques, he will empower the recipient to face challenges independently, with success.

About Alicia Holland

Alicia Holland, EdD, also known as AdvisorAlise, is a professional Cognitive and Intuitive, Spiritual Life Coach who has been having prophetic dreams since she was 7. She works with professional and entrepreneurial individuals and offers a practical and intuitive approach in her coaching that helps individuals become their best selves and create the lives that they desire. To schedule your complimentary breakthrough session, please visit  http://advisoralise.com/. You can also subscribe to her newsletters for some additional exclusive tips.

 

Article Source: What Is Spiritual Coaching?

Ezinearticles Expert page:Dr Alicia Holland Johnson