This week’s TED Talk clip is from an independent TEDx event:
Do Ordinary People Need a Brand Guru? | Tara Vallente | TEDxWhitehaven
Clip length: 16 mins 47 secs
Prefer to watch on TED.com? In that case you’ll need to click here.
In today’s guest post Karen Williams asks an insightful question to help you and your coaching business.
From my experience, many coaches (and other transformation experts) work with clients who have gone through something similar to themselves. This may be situations like redundancy, cancer, trauma, a chronic illness, or perhaps they have learnt something that they know will help others.
Going through a difficult situation may have been one of their motivators to retrain in this profession, and likely to be one of the reasons that they want to help people now.
My story is similar to that extent. When I started out as a coach, I struggled to get clients and turn my passion into a business that was sustainable. Then I spent time with very successful coaches, discovered their secrets, implemented them into my own business, and then wrote a book about it! That’s why I help my clients to create their own successful business, get more clients, make more money and do what they love.
Even though coaching is traditionally non-directive, and technically you can work with people on any topic, clients will often look for a coach who has credibility in a certain area.
When you’ve been through a situation yourself, you:
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To create a profitable and fulfilling business, it’s about finding that area where you have knowledge, passion and experience, and building your niche from this place. However, I also know that it can be hard to define what to do, and niching may feel counterintuitive when you start out.
But these days you don’t need to have one of those ‘traditional’ niches such as a career coach, health coach, etc. The narrower you specialise, and the more unique you are, the easier it will be – trust me!
When you know your ideal client and what you do well, the advantage is that everything you do is aimed towards that person. You’ll have the systems in place that allows you to establish your expertise – and everything will stem from this framework.
If you’re struggling to niche, one of my favourite questions to ask is this: “What do you want to get known for?” I’ll be honest; it’s not enough to say “A great coach”, or “making a difference”, etc…
What do you really want to get known for?
Where is your expertise?
What are you good at?
Who would you love to work with and why?
What is your story and how does this relate to your clients?
You could, of course, do one of my favourite exercises, which you’ll find in my second book, How to Stand Out in your Business. Take your passions and talents and explore these areas unique to you. Take time to get clear what you are good at and where you excel, as well as understanding what you feel passionate about and why you love this. You can also look at your story and where you have come from and how you can might be able to help others in areas where you have your own experience.
But ultimately I suggest you ask yourself the question: What do you want to get known for? I’d love your comments below.
If you’re ready to stand out and become more visible, or want support to discover what you want to get known for, contact Karen for a free discovery call. You can also join her at the Star Biz conference on 11/12 July and on her Writing Retreat in Spain from 25-30 September 2014.
Karen Williams is the founder of Self Discovery Coaching and is a Business Coach and Mentor, Author, Speaker and Fire Walk Instructor. She predominantly works with solopreneurs (coaches, consultants and therapists) who want to make a difference, but know that to do this, they need to learn the skills to create and grow a successful business. She helps them to get more clients, make more money and do what they love.
She is known for helping her clients to succeed by standing out from the crowd, getting noticed and being an expert in their business. She is the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, which reached #1 in the Business charts on Amazon. Her second book, How to Stand Out in your Business, was published in 2012. In the second book she shares the 7 Step Success System that she uses to help her clients to become more visible and create a successful business. She is half way through writing her third book.
What are the traits of successful coaches? In today’s guest post Andrew Ferdinando, who runs Hubworking, shares his thoughts.
By Andrew Ferdinando
Having never experienced coaching, the coaching industry was new to me when I set up my business Hubworking (www.hubworking.com) in 2006. Based in 3 locations in London we operate 3 centres where we hire out meeting rooms to business people on an hourly basis.
When launching my first centre I considered that we may get some bookings from coaches but I admit to being surprised when over time coaches became our biggest source of business.
Having now worked with the coaching world for 5 years as a service provider, I have observed hundreds of different coaches, many of whom are considered to be at the top of their profession.
As a complete outsider, I have noticed many common traits which they all exhibit and which have clearly led to their success. Below are my thoughts on what makes a successful coach, simply based on these observations:
Whatever form of coaching, the more successful of my clients seem to have cut out a niche in their particular field. In some cases they are even specialists within an already narrow field. A good example would be the area of presentation coaching where I have seen several highly regarded voice coaches who work with their clients on how to project their voices and “perform” in front of an audience. Each coach offers something unique to the next and advertises themselves as such so that the client appreciates they are hiring an absolute specialist.
My clients all have a good understanding of how to market themselves. For the micro business, which coaches tend to be, this involves networking, writing industry specific articles, creating a good website, blogging regularly and using social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook to grow their brand virally and indeed stay in touch with their clients and future clients.
It’s clear that the high level coaches have a strong mix of regular clients and new clients which I guess is down to strong marketing and a top class service.
The majority of rooms that my clients book with me are 1 to 1 coaching rooms. However, there is a trend that they will also book a larger room for workshops around once per quarter. It’s obvious to me that they have a core coaching product which sits alongside a public training course which they will run on an irregular basis.
Speaking to my clients they seem to have a good mix of customers including small businesses, government bodies, charities and corporates.
At Hubworking I work very hard to build the brand of my business. In some respects, I avoid being seen as the person behind the business. For a company like mine, this is important because for us it is the systems, quality of service and locations which my brand needs to represent. With coaches it is the complete opposite. As a specialist coach it is all about building up a brand around your name and what you represent so that your name becomes synonymous with what you do. A good example is one of my clients Alan Stevens who is known to many as “Alan Stevens – Media Coach”.
It’s amazing how small the world of coaching is. Over the years I have seen many referrals from my existing coaching clients. It is a close knit industry and this becomes very helpful when a big piece of work comes in that requires more than 1 coach. The ability to call upon top level, trusted associates is gold and something I have seen on many occasions.
If you ever need to hire at coaching room in London, please do get in touch – an****@********ng.net
About the Author/Further Resources
Andrew Ferdinando runs Hubworking, a chain of 3 business centres in central London which hires out low cost, flexible meeting space to small businesses and specifically the coaching community.
For more info, visit www.hubworking.com or contact Andrew directly at an****@********ng.net or 07985 914034.
In this week’s guest post Jennifer Holloway shares her expertise about what is your personal brand and some of the benefits you can get from personal branding.
By Jennifer Holloway
Everyone has a personal brand – whether they know it or not; that mix of things that defines who you are and what you’re all about, including:
Your Values – the principles by which you live your life, the rules you use to define right and wrong. Think of these as the foundations on which your personal brand is built. For one of my clients, his values centred around an overarching desire to be genuine and honest whilst still showing empathy to others.
Your Beliefs – what you hold to be important to you, the things that motivate you to do what you do, that drive you to succeed. It could be money, it could be fame, it could be a wish to make a difference. So for instance, I had a client who felt you should always take responsibility and act as if someone is looking, even when they’re not.
Your Reputation – in a nutshell, what you’re known for. Looking at this in more traditional marketing terms, you might call this your strapline. I’ve generated a reputation as ‘The Antidote to Yes Men’ – saying what needs to be said and making things happen.
Your Behaviour – what you say and do that is an outward communication of those deeper values and beliefs. You could think about it as the three words they’d use to describe yourself. Just some of the words used by my clients have been ‘trailblazing’, ‘larger-than-life’, ‘dynamic’, ‘inspiring’, ‘rebel’, ‘connector’…the list goes on.
Your Skills – your strengths, your natural talents, the things you excel at doing. One way to think about this is to look at the things that others come to you for. When I worked in an office I became the ‘go to’ person for writing copy because of my way with words and a love of language (plus a qualification in editing which helped!)
And last, but certainly not least…
Your Image – not just how you look but how you sound as well. This tells people an awful lot about you and will usually tie back in to all the previous things. For instance, one director I worked with used his quirky cufflinks to add a bit of individuality, while another added a large sports watch to his pinstripes to give a hint to the fact he was a keen cyclist.
Put all those layers together and you have your personal brand and the great thing is that if you take the time to define exactly what that brand is and then learn how to promote that to your audiences, you’ll get payback – BIG TIME! Here are just 10 of the benefits of personal branding:
So do you know what your personal brand is?
With a career including 15 years in the strategic PR and communications, Jennifer knows a thing or two about promoting a personal brand – she did it every time she picked up the phone to a journalist. The result? She stood out from the ‘press office crowd’ and got her stories on the front page as well as national TV.
When not making headlines Jennifer was mentoring and coaching colleagues and, sensing she had discovered a new passion, was inspired to change careers entirely, setting up her own personal brand coaching business, Spark.
Today, she is a personal brand expert, using her knack for spotting someone’s USP and her way with words to help them promote that in everything they say and do. Known as ‘The Antidote to Yes-Men’ her down-to-earth, straight talking, honest style delivers real value by helping today’s leaders discover how, by being themselves, they can be even more successful.
And when she’s not doing all that, Jennifer is living her version of The Good Life, pottering around the garden in her anorak and wellies, keeping bees and feeding chickens – and occasionally sipping a nice glass of Rioja while listening to The Archers.
Visit Jennifer’s website at www.sparkexec.co.uk
So you’re considering turning coaching into a business? Perhaps you’ve already taken that step. In this weeks guest post. Nicky Kriel shares tips of how to run a successful coaching business.
by Nicky Kriel
You are a coach. You have found something that you absolutely love doing, haven’t you? Don’t you love those light bulb moments when you see your client’s face light up? You love helping people to get to where they want to be. You love the feeling of making a difference in someone’s life. You have a real passion for what you do and you feel that you have found your calling in life.
So everything is rainbows and kittens, isn’t it?
The reality is a little bit different isn’t it? You have spent a substantial amount of money and time on your training, you have had very positive feedback from people you have coached; people should be lining up for you, shouldn’t they? So where are they?
There are a few coaches who become very successful and make a good living from coaching, but there are substantially more who find themselves taking a job to make ends meet. There is plenty of advice out there for coaches to deal with their clients. There is advice on how to get rapport easily, what questions to ask and techniques to use. There is very little advice about setting up your coaching practice as profitable business. The best advice for work is find something you love doing and then get someone to pay you to do it, but if you are not earning a living from what you love doing; it is a hobby, not a business!
So many coaches I know have an issue about charging money for something that they love doing. They undervalue their service or feel guilty about accepting payment. As a coach, you probably know quite a lot of coaches. Who would be a good person to help you clear out issues you have about money? How can you stop limiting yourself? What are your issues you have with money? Are you self-sabotaging? It is easier asking someone to help you with an issue than trying to resolve it all by yourself. Just because you can coach someone through their money issues doesn’t mean that you can do it on yourself.
If you are working for yourself, you need to learn how to be a good marketer, sales person, public relations person, bookkeeper, accountant, administrator and IT specialist. What skills do you already have in these areas? Who can help you develop these skills?
I found the best way for me to become more business orientated was to network with business people. I have learnt so much by the questions people asked me, especially the ones that completely stumped me. You don’t have to know everything to get started, but you must be willing to keep learning and keep improving as you go along. When you network, you will find plenty of people who will give you free advice and help.
Read books about business. One book that I would recommend is Dee Blick’s “Powerful Marketing on a Shoestring Budget “ which has good practical advice for small business. There are many good books available. What skills do you still need learn? Are there people who could help you in these areas?
If you are your business, it is sometimes hard to think of your business objectively. I had an “Aha!” moment, when a business adviser asked me how I was marketing my business. I was getting quite defensive about it. Knowing that I came from a marketing background, he asked if I had a tin of baked beans, how would you market it? I knew instantly! I realised that I had to start thinking of myself as a tin of baked beans! Not literally, of course! I had to think of myself as a product or an object.
What is your brand? Can an outside person tell what you are offering or is it all in your head? Find someone neutral (not family or close friends) who can give you an objective viewpoint on how you are coming across at the moment. Are you coming across the way you think you are?
As a coach, we are used to asking our clients what resources they need to help them get to where they want to be. So, what resources do you need to make your coaching business successful? Here are some of the ways that I think you might need to support yourself.
Mentors – People who are already where you want to be and are willing to guide you along the way, they could be fellow coaches or successful business people. They are the people who have been there, done that and got the bruises along the way.
Coaches – All coaches need coaches. Nobody is perfect, if you believe in coaching you should be developing yourself through coaching as well. Who is helping you to get to where you want to be?
Cheerleaders – You need people who are on your side, who are cheering you on and keeping you motivated, especially at times when you feel disappointed or frustrated.
People who can help you in your business – Do you need to do everything yourself? Are there people who can save you time by doing tasks that you don’t know how to do or don’t like doing? The most precious commodity you have as a business person is your time. Could you be spending more time doing tasks that generate money, by paying people to help you?
What ratio of “you” to “I” words are you using when you talk to someone? If you have a website or a blog, what is the number of “I”, “me”, “my”, “our” and “us” vs. “you” and “your” that you are using? It is a quick indicator of whether you are focussed on things from your viewpoint or your customer’s viewpoint. When you meet someone find out what their needs and wants are before selling yourself. Offering your toolbox of skills is meaningless to a potential client, they are interested in how their needs can be met.
If you really want to be a coach, you need to make coaching work for you as a business. So what are the changes that will make a difference?
Nicky Kriel came from a Marketing and Sales background before she retrained as a Master NLP Practitioner. As a Communication Coach, her passion is empowering people to reach their true potential. Aside from her private coaching clients, she runs personal development and social media courses for business owners. www.nickykriel.com
To read a second guest post by Nicky Kriel, “The perks and pitfalls of social media for coaches” click here.