coach

Coaching Confidence Chatterbox with Jen Waller

13 January 2014 in Chatterbox tagged advice / business / Chatterbox / client / coach / coaching / interview / Jen Waller / lesson / starting / starting coaching

Chatterbox

Coaching Confidence Chatterbox with

Jen Waller

The Coaching Confidence Chatterbox is an interview feature with coaches where the questions are generated based on the origami fortune teller/chatterbox game.

As this is the first week, I thought as this is my site I’d join in and play first. 🙂

Name: Jen Waller

Website: www.CoachingConfidence.co.uk (this one!)

Jen Waller

(The answers to the above questions are then used to generate a choice of numbers)

Select one of the following numbers 8, 1, 4 or 5: 5

“What is your favourite way that a client has found out about your work?“:

A lot of the clients I work with have either come to me as a referral or because they have already have experience/contact with my work – either through the written word or in person.

For example, I have had clients approach me to become their coach who I initially met at someone elses event and we did a coaching exercise together.

Select one of the following numbers 7, 2, 3 or 6: 6

“If you could travel back in time to give a message to yourself either at the start of your coaching journey, or earlier, what would that message be?”

For a long time I let fear and that voice of doubt and self criticism get in the way of actually coaching and being present with the other person.

So the first thing that springs to mind is to actually give her a big hug and tell her that everything will be OK. One day you will really see that the voice inside your head, the one that wants to give a running critique (the one you think is getting in the way), really doesn’t have to be important!

I know that at the time I was all about the destination and not so much about the journey – I doubt I’d have let myself get away without giving what I’d have viewed as a more practical answer.

So I’ll also add that you really don’t need to know all the questions you’re going to ask before the session – it works so much better if you respond to what your client actually says in that moment. Not what you imagined they may say or even where they were before the session!

Not knowing before the session what you are going to ask really does not reflect on your coaching skills – it just means that you’ve not learnt to time travel yet!

Select one of the following numbers 8, 1 or 4: 4

“What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as a coach?”

Oh so many to choose from – both from a coaching and a business perspective. I suspect that this is one of those questions where my answer will change from one week to the next!

If I had to just pick one today I would pick a coaching related one. It’s one where the language may get a bit more messy as it describes an experience – different people may use the same words in different contexts and to describe different experiences.

I think being totally present, focused and just “with” the other person is so powerful. It’s about listening without the purpose of fixing them, or using a specific pre-determined “technique” etc. It’s that space where if that voice of self doubt and criticism appears in my head it can go as quickly as it came – ‘cos it’s not about me in that moment, it’s about the other person.

When I’m in that flow it’s almost as if the questions, stories, quotes etc I share are coming from elsewhere. I’m not consciously having to think about any of that. Sometimes there’s a relaxed choice to make about a direction to head in but there’s an ease and naturalness about it all.

I love learning new things and I think certainly when I started out I would focus loads on the techniques, do lots and lots of language based drills, study different models and theories etc. I certainly undervalued the impact that being present environment can make – it seemed so simple and yet makes such a big difference.

What question would you like to add to the Chatterbox for another coach to answer?

What advice would you give to someone thinking of starting a coaching business?

How would you answer that question?

Two aspects immediately spring to mind:

Firstly the easiest way is to get some practical experience both as a coach and as a client. See how you enjoy this before jumping headlong into setting up a full time business and then potentially discovering that what you thought in theory is nothing like the actual experience!

Secondly, if you are wanting to “make a living” from coaching with your own business then there is the business aspects – it’s not just about coaching every working hour. That may seem obvious and it’s worth stating you don’t have to do all that single handed.

Having a support structure in place helps. How that support structure looks will vary from person to person – some will want support from an admin perspective, others with accounting, many love having someone to bounce ideas off or to talk about how to find clients etc.

It also really helps if you can make a difference with your clients so depending on your existing knowledge and background it may be that part of that support plan involves training and skill development.

One of the questions I’ve been known to ask people is to consider what their “dream” support would be? So if you had unlimited money/ time/ resources what would you put in place to make this easier and more fun?

Logistically unlimited money/ time / resources may not be your reality but I find that question often highlights surprising answers that many hadn’t considered exploring previously.

I’m on a mission to support, nurture and encourage coaching skills and talents from Non-Coach to Coach and Beyond, to find out more about me and my work visit here.

If you are a coach and want to play with the Coaching Confidence Chatterbox send an email via this page.

Co-Coaching

1 November 2013 in Guest Post tagged AKC Consultancy / Amanda Clegg / Co-coaching / coach / education / goal / teacher

In today’s guest post Amanda Clegg shares some of her experience and observations about some of her recent coaching work.

"Co-Coaching" A guest post by Amanda Clegg

Co-Coaching

by Amanda Clegg

A teacher comes into a staffroom and says “I can’t…”

It doesn’t really matter what the end of the sentence is because you have probably already heard it many times before and it is not a joke!

I have found during thirty years in teaching and senior management that as a profession we are rife with self limiting beliefs. We are ready to talk ourselves down and often think we are not as good as the teacher in the neighbouring classroom etc.

I was coaching a teacher prior to the summer and she confided that she spent most of her waking hours every summer worrying what the GCSE results day would bring. This was a good teacher who was well organised and had no evidence to suggest she needed to worry at all.

The results were fine and whenever we see each other in the corridor this term, our mantra is “no evidence”.

A Co-Coaching Programme

I was asked to set up a co-coaching programme in a local secondary school. The Head teacher was clear that every teacher should be coached. The challenge was to support all teachers to deliver good and outstanding lessons consistently and that meant working with individuals to address their own particular strengths and challenges. This was to be an important part of the school commitment to continuing professional development.

In many schools up and down the country, teachers who wished to develop their practice in an area (or if their line manager felt they needed to) are given brochures of relevant courses. Research carried out in 2003 observed that:

‘there is a much better chance of learning from someone in the next classroom than from someone 20 miles away’ (Reynolds D. (2003) News & Opinions, TES 20 June)

This agreed with research in 1995, by Joyce and Showers, who reported that:

‘Training courses and workshops fail to make a long-term impact on classroom practice’ (Joyce, B. and Showers, B. (1995) Student Achievement through Staff Development. White Plains, New York places: Longman)

Regular coaching by staff working side by side in the same school with the same students should make an impact and it does.

The school in question has 60 teaching staff including the senior leadership team. Staff were asked to apply for the role of teacher coach by letter. The post would have two periods of extra non-contact time and a small monetary increase. Ten teachers applied for the role and all were interviewed and appointed. Coaching would be 1-1. The school had dabbled with coaching triads and buddies in recent history but these had not had the desired impact and quickly faded.

Teachers are ‘fast listeners’

I ran two twilight coaching training sessions for the newly appointed teacher coaches (6 hours in total) where we looked at what coaching was and was not. We practiced active listening, the GROW model technique, selected appropriate questions and developed a Coaching Protocol for staff to sign. The coaches also invited each other into their class for an observation and then conducted a coaching session with each other.

The Senior Team also wanted to be coaches and so I trained them using the same materials.

The most difficult aspect for all teacher coaches was to avoid suggesting what to do, giving ideas and solving the problem for the coachee. Teachers are “fast listeners”- usually solving the issue that is been presented before the person has stopped talking! This desire to solve the problem can stop us hearing what the issue exactly is.

We also need to stop letting others delegate their thinking to us. How often does someone bring you a problem to solve which is well within their capability? What do you do?

Are you hooked in and solve the problem?

Or do you ask what they could do to solve it?

Get Out Of Jail Free Card image (c) Mark Strozier If you are hooked in, then this person will keep coming back with issues for you to solve. If your advice is ever wrong they have their get out of jail free card – Mr X told me to do it.

Coaching can help if you let it

Last week, I hosted a fellow teacher from a different subject on a learning walk. Our focus was the quality of marking and feedback. Steve had commented in a 1-1 coaching session, that he felt his marking was not up to scratch. He carried around a feeling of guilt that he did not spend sufficient time on this area of his job, but also struggled to see how he could do more of this without it impacting on his lesson planning time. When I asked him what he could do about this feeling, he proposed a visit to see what happened out in the wider school.

Afterwards in our coaching session, he talked to me about what he had seen and how it made him feel. He realised that his marking was great and the students were getting good value from his efforts. The smile on his face was tangible; our fifteen minute foray across the quad to a different department had worked. He was able to let this feeling of being inadequate go and also began to think of the next steps for his own department in terms of marking and feedback.

The key principle I had to negotiate with the Head teacher was that coaching was confidential

In order to achieve the open, honest conversation about teaching and learning that was required, the process must be non judgemental. It was vital that the Senior Team or Head of Department did not require coaches to tell them how a particular teacher was doing with their coaching. Coaching must provide a supportive, open door approach in every classroom where teachers are encouraged to be innovative and take some risks which they would not necessarily do in a judged lesson.

It was agreed that the coachee is responsible for all the records of the meetings. The Coach can only be asked by the Senior Team to confirm how many coaching meetings have been held.

The Assistant Head teacher allocated the staff to the teacher coaches. I became the coach to the Senior Leadership team and also to the teacher coaches. Next academic year, I fully expect that I will not be required and the teacher coaches will take on my role. This is my goal – not to be needed!

Feedback so far – after term one

The co-coaching program has been in place for a term now and I have completed a brief feedback with the teacher coaches. It is pleasing to see the resulting comments summarised below:

Having support has helped. Taking to others about their teaching has also made me reflect greatly upon my own.
People are changing their attitudes and practise. They are thinking things through before reacting.
Time to reflect for coachees and giving the opportunity to focus on an area for improvement has been a luxury.
Staff are valuing the input and attention; goal practice is being shared
Staff have more confidence within their own teaching ability. Coachees now realise that lots of teachers have similar problems but just have different ways of dealing with things; this has led to independent success and cross sharing of ideas.
Identifying and raising people’s self limiting beliefs and challenging these has been beneficial.
It is great to have the chance to talk confidentially about things and not worry about it being repeated.
The chance to discuss aspects of pedagogy is great
Having someone who is non judgemental to talk to is great
More useful than anything else we have tried. I wish we had done this years’ ago.
Very beneficial – has opened a lot of conversations up and got people into different areas of the school and lessons.
My coachees are thinking about how to be outstanding consistently and willing to try new things
Wider relationships which are cross curricular. There is an openness to learn and teachers are talking about T&L
The coaching process is leading to meaningful, practical sharing of good practice and identification of areas for development which I believe is leading to a genuinely reflective process and better T&L. I feel we are both learning and improving our practice as a result.
I am hugely happy with the process and feel I am benefiting enormously

What types of goals are being set?

I asked coaches to summarise the types of areas their coachees were working on. It was great to see both the diversity but also the congruence of the goals.

distribution of goal areas from "Co-Coaching" A guest post by Amanda Clegg

As with any new intervention there are teething issues, but these seem very minor in comparison to the positive comments and benefits above. I am looking forward to term 2 and also setting up the co-coaching programme in another school.

About Amanda Clegg

Amanda Clegg has been a science teacher in state secondary schools for almost thirty years. She was a member of a Senior Leadership team for 15 years before being asked to lead a private sixth form college through their initial ISI inspection. The college achieved an outstanding judgement. Amanda now works as an Educational and Coaching Consultant in Oxfordshire and Swindon. She is currently acting as temporary Head of Science two days a week in a local secondary school, as well as being an Associate trainer for Creative Education, co-author of a GCSE revision guide and an Associate Lecturer for UWE on the PGCE programme.

www.akc-edconsultancy.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/AKCConsultancy

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/akcconsultancy

email: cf********@*****et.com

Twitter: @Teachercoach1

Bringing out the best in you and your athletes 1

18 October 2013 in Guest Post tagged athletes / clients / coach / greatness / gymnastics coach / motivated / options / self efficiency / self reflection / strength / swing big / Zari Goldmann

Zari Goldmann shares advice and expertise around how to bring the best out of the people you coach in today’s guest post.

Zari is a gymnastics coach and you are invited to consider, with your own coaching grounding, how this applies to your clients/athletes.

"Bringing out the best in you and your athletes:" A guest post by Zari Goldmann

Bringing out the best in you and your athletes:

By Zari Goldmann

1. Be prepared with options. No matter what you’re coaching whether it be sports or life we (hopefully) go to our athletes or clients with a game plan. What are we going to do in our workout today, what do we need to accomplish. But the worst sides of ourselves often come out when we get flustered, when something goes wrong and we don’t have a plan to fix it. Go into every day with both a game plan, and a plan if those things go wrong. It will make you more comfortable, as well as those you are serving.

1b. Don’t always be the one to figure it out. One of the keys to athletes being successful is self reflection. Like I said above, if something you had planned isn’t working have a back up idea. But (and this depends on the age group), if you have a little time, ask the athlete or client what THEY think they need. Who knows they may come up with something similar to what you had planned, or they may not. But if what they come up with HELPS them, you’ve just made tremendous strides towards self efficacy.

2. Be motivated. Be as motivated as those you serve. Your mood, your presence and your work ethic rubs off on those around you. If a coach continually shows up late to practice, are kids going to be inclined to show up on time. Instill those values you want to see in your athletes in yourself. You’ll be surprised what an impact you have on them. The overall mood of practices will change with this.

3. Find your greatness and find your resources. We aren’t all good at everything, lets be honest here I’m AWFUL at some things in the gym (birthday parties much?). But I’m also great at some things. I try to strategically place myself in those things that I’m really good at, and those things that I’m not good at I either try to get another coach to do (not because I don’t want to look bad, but because I know overall it will be better for the gymnasts), or if that’s not possible I’ll sit down with someone who is really good at it, and just talk it out. Talk strategy. Here are the things I feel I’m really struggling with, how do you deal with them? Normally other coaches are happy to sit and chat for as long as it takes to feel comfortable in that role. Find YOUR strength, and when you can’t, find your resources even if they aren’t within your club or company.

About Zari Goldmann

Zari Goldmann is a gymnastics coach, judge and blogger. After spending most of her life growing up in a gym she decided to dedicate her passion to creating a business that would give gymnastics coaches resources to better serve their athletes. That’s how www.swingbig.org was born.

Website: www.swingbig.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwingBig

Twitter: @Swing_Big

Pinterest:http://www.pinterest.com/swingbig/

Let your body do the talking 1

11 October 2013 in Guest Post tagged body / Charlotte Green / clients / coach / confidence / emotion / feeling / kinesthetic / moment / NLP / personal development / self-esteem / senses / thoughts / women

Coach Charlotte Green shares some of her expertise and knowledge in today’s guest post:

"Let your body do the talking" A guest post by Charlotte Green, founder of Inner Confidence for Women

Let your body do the talking

By Charlotte Green, founder of Inner Confidence for Women

I am often asked whether ‘feelings’ and ‘emotions’ are the same or different – are they interchangeable words or do they mean different things?

Feelings and emotions are certainly related concepts and that is why they are often confused and treated as the same thing, and in many cases that works well. But when we, as coaches, are helping clients to really know and understand themselves, it can be really useful to differentiate between the two.

So what is the difference?

Feelings are in the moment. They are what we experience physically within our bodies and through our 5 senses. It’s useful to refer to them as physical feelings. Unlike our emotions, they do not involve the mind. Emotions on the other hand are a mental interpretation of the feelings we are experiencing mixed in with our thoughts.

When asked how they feel, I notice that people respond on one of three levels. Some respond with a thought – “I’ve got so much going on” – others give an emotion – “I’m finding it hard to cope” – or they go inside and describe exactly what their body is telling them – “I feel so tense and exhausted. Everything aches.”

Here is a table to show examples of the 3 levels:

,,,,
Level 1:,’no one will help me’,Thought ,An idea or opinion produced by thinking / a mental picture – imagined and contemplated in the mind influenced by life experiences
Level 2:,’I feel anxious’,emotion,A combination of thoughts and physical feelings – an interpretation
Level 3:,’My shoulders feel really tense and my stomach is in knots’,feeling,Physical experiences within the body and information received through one of the bodies 5 senses (touch/ taste/ smell/ sound/ sight)
[/table]

So, which level do we want to be working with?

We are a holistic system and need information from each of the 3 levels to be fully resourceful and yet, in the western society we overemphasise the importance of the mind. This means that thoughts can dominate and hijack the system resulting in stress and overwhelm.

By paying attention to all the messages we receive from our thoughts, emotions and feelings we maintain a balanced and informed system, each giving us feedback that helps us be safe as well as to develop and grow. Imbalance occurs when one level dominates or hijacks another or we shut one down. There is no hero or villain in this situation – each part of the emotional system is equally valid and essential and deserves attention.

EXAMPLE – Inviting client to connect to themselves at a deeper level

Here is an excerpt from a recent coaching session (I have client’s permission to share this) where I was inviting my client to connect to themselves more deeply. They move down through all three levels shown in the table above. For those of you who use NLP, this can be a great tool for accessing positive states to anchor.

Coach: How are you feeling today?
Client: I’ve had a good day (thought)
Coach: I know you said that you have had a difficult few weeks so that’s really good to hear. How are you feeling?
Client: I’m happy (emotion)
Coach: How do you know you are happy?
Client: work went OK, got time with my partner tonight and looking forward to getting together with friends tomorrow (thoughts)
Coach: they sound like a lot of good reasons (thoughts) why you might feel happy. Let’s go inside more and find out how you experience that within your body. How does your body let you know it’s happy? What do you notice about your body right now? How do you feel?
Client: I feel a bit tingly all over and I have a big smile on my face (feelings)
Coach: Just sit with that feeling for a moment. You can turn up the volume if you want …
Client: (smiling) Wow! I feel lovely. My breathing has really slowed down and deepened. I feel really calm and relaxed.

How to apply this to your coaching

Introduce the emotional system to your clients and encourage them to check in with themselves regularly throughout the day:
- Simply ask yourself “how do I feel right now”
- Then notice at which level you answer
- Practice moving up and down the levels, particularly going down if you tend to start from thoughts
  - Moving from thoughts to emotions “how am I feeling right now”
  - Moving from emotions to thoughts “what am I thinking about right now”
  - Moving from emotions to feelings “what am I physically feeling in my body”

As a coach, remember to walk your talk and check your own emotional system is flowing and that all 3 areas have your attention. It will improve your intuitive abilities to coach and help you build rapport with your clients.
You can shift physical feelings simply by being present with your breath (mindfulness) so this is a very effective method of managing stress. Give your breath your full attention – it takes practice but in my experience the calm comes quickly and feels really good.

Although I have been a coach since 2006, I have specialised in working with women for the last 4 years, and more recently with young adults, both of which are hugely rewarding. In my experience, developing a complete emotional language has been a massively influential part of my client’s successful transformations.

Women in particular, who are often so tuned into and committed to the wellbeing of other people’s emotions, have found that having the permission and skills to tune into themselves has enabled them to break free of limiting behaviours, thoughts and habits and be able to create a much more balanced and satisfying life.

I hope you and your clients enjoy exploring your emotional systems.

About Charlotte Green

Charlotte founded Inner Confidence for Women in 2006 after a fascinating corporate career managing an international training team for a global electronic publisher where she and her team ran workshops within Universities and Government organisations across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Although she gained invaluable experience and skills from the corporate world, her real passion lay within personal development.

Inner Confidence for Women specialises in self confidence, self esteem and emotional wellbeing for women and young people. Charlotte is incredibly passionate about her work and reaches her clients through running courses, workshops and through 121 coaching.

Charlotte was inspired to focus on working with women after the birth of her daughter in 2010. “Being around so many women who put their own needs to the bottom of the pile while they made sure everyone else was OK really spoke to me. I love helping women find themselves again, or for the first time. It is a joy to encourage women to raise their self esteem and self confidence so they can embrace their lives”

As a professional trainer as well as a coach, Charlotte is able to reach a wider audience creating and delivering workshops to inspire young adult carers in Suffolk. “When an 18 year stays behind after the workshop to tell me excitedly about how they used the new tools and techniques to improve a situation that normally spirals out of control, it is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world”.

Charlotte believes that unexpressed emotions are like a drunk relative at a wedding – they corner you and won’t leave you alone! As an accredited Peer Support Network trainer she co-runs courses on behalf of a local Mind charity, Suffolk Mind, helping people to learn how to notice, accept, express and understand their own emotions so they can increase their confidence and wellbeing.

Charlotte is passionate about helping people to believe in themselves “when you believe in yourself, anything is possible”

Find out more, get in touch, like, follow, tweet (!) …

Twitter : @ICforWomen

Blog: http://innerconfidenceforwomen.wordpress.com/

Website : www.innerconfidenceforwomen.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Innerconfidenceforwomen

8 C.O.A.C.H.I.N.G. Mindset Success Strategies To Boost Your Success! 1

4 October 2013 in Guest Post tagged action / business / clarity / coach / coaching / comfort / Frederique Murphy / help / impact / mindset / network / obstacles / results / startagies / success

In today’s guest post Frederique Murphy, shares some of her expertise and thoughts around how to have a successful coaching business.
"8 C.O.A.C.H.I.N.G. Mindset Success Strategies To Boost Your Success!" A guest post by Frederique Murphy

8 C.O.A.C.H.I.N.G. Mindset Success Strategies To Boost Your Success!

by Frederique Murphy

COACH… It is one of those words, isn’t it? Judging by the 577 million results obtained when keying the word in Google, it is something that’s definitely at the top of a lot of people’s minds!

So, how will YOU, as a coach, stand out from the crowd?

One answer. One word: MINDSET.

And, yes, MINDSET is also one of those BIG words!

I believe that your mindset drives every single thing that you do in life, and in the way that you lead yourself, your career, your business. We all have a mindset, the only difference (and, that is the one that makes the difference) is how strong and powerful yours is; your mindset is what sets you, as coaches, apart. It is THE factor that will determine how outstanding – or how average – your coaching business results are.

I know that you know that; but, what I also know is that as coaches we know these for our clients; we focus our energy and our strategies towards our clients, and it is common to forget to apply these to ourselves.

There are many mindset success strategies and I have selected 8 of them for you to focus on, using the word coaching as a mnemonic!

=> C <=

Clarity, Be clear on what you want to achieve for yourself and your coaching business.

=> O <=

Obstacles, Face and push through to overcome.

=> A <=

Action, Take actions to move forward.

=> C <=

Comfort, Step out and stretch to grow.

=> H <=

Help, Ask for help.

=> I <=

I as in you, Choose your attitude.

=> N <=

Network, Surround yourself wisely.

=> G <=

Get results, You are the key to your success, 100% responsible for your results.

Here you have them!

I’m sure that these look familiar or even too simple. BUT, do not disregard them because “they sound too easy”! These are powerful, and the power lies with you: ask yourself: do I apply this strategy daily, do I live by it, do I lead by it, and do I run my coaching business by it? You want to answer all 3 with a resounding YES for maximum impact.

These mindset strategies are powerful.

When you actually apply them, AND, when you do it consistently.

Which one of these will you apply today to boost your success? I’d love for you to share; this will be helpful for the other coaches. Comment below!

About Frederique Murphy

Frederique Murphy is a mindset strategist, who specialises in the areas of Inspirational Strategy, Leadership, Communication, Change, Impact, and Achievement. Thanks to her Mountain Moving Mindset platform, Frederique provides individuals, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs with a wealth of mindset resources to help them strategise with vision, design with clarity, plan with focus, and lead with momentum. She shares her M3 Power through her transformational range of innovative products, coaching services, #1 Amazon Best Seller book, award-winning blog, articles and newsletters, unforgettable talks and life-changing events. She believes in guiding her clients through unforgettable journeys towards their own true wealth as they become the true leaders of their life, career and business. For more information on Frederique’s transformational range, visit FrederiqueMurphy.com, join the free M3 Power Community, and start climbing now!

It’s About Progress, Not Perfection 1

13 September 2013 in Guest Post tagged action / business / coach / marketing / online business development strategist / overwhelm / perfection / progress / success / Tracey Lawton

In today’s guest post Tracey Lawton shares her experience and knowledge in:

"It's About Progress, Not Perfection" A guest post by Tracey Lawton

It’s About Progress, Not Perfection

by Tracey Lawton

“Strive for progress, not perfection!” That’s a quote I’ve heard several times over the past couple of weeks, and I think it’s a brilliant summary of what we, as business owners, need to do. (I really don’t know who said this, by the way.)

We get so caught up in a lot of the hype that’s out there, and judge our success against what other’s are doing, rather than what we are doing ourselves. And as a result we become overwhelmed with so much to do; frustrated that we’re not achieving the same results as everyone else (so-and-so’s just had a $10k month, why can’t I do the same??); and just plain exhausted by the busyness of each and every day.

However, if we were to just take a pause… breathe… and focus on our own progress and what we’re doing each day to take our businesses forward, a lot of the problems currently being experienced would simple fade away.

For example:

How many people have you shared your business with this week? It could be through an in-person networking event; a one-on-one conversation with a potential client; hosting your own teleclass, or being a guest on someone elses’; or some other way that you’ve connected with people.

Jot down all that you’ve done this week to share your business… that’s progress.

What marketing activities have you done this week? Building regular marketing activities into your business, however small, will see your subscriber base grow week after week. Have you posted to your blog? Updated social media? Shared an article with your clients/colleagues? All of these small, quick marketing activities, when done regularly, lead to more subscribers.

I’ll give you a little sneak peek into my marketing activities… I have a weekly Monday Marketing appointment with myself that happens every Monday morning from 12-1pm Eastern. This is when I update my blog, schedule social media posts, record my podcast audio etc. It happens every week… it’s on my calendar!

What project have you moved forward with this week? We all have projects that we’re diligently working on behind-the-scenes. Some of them are huge projects that are ongoing over several weeks (such as a new program launch), and others are much smaller and can be accomplished quickly.

Jot down those projects that you’ve taken action on this week, however small and imperfect that action has been. You’re still making progress.

Next time you’re in overwhelm mode, just take a minute to acknowledge the progress that you’re making in your business… and don’t worry about it being perfect. If you waited for everything to be perfect, there never would be a right time!

Apply This To Your Business:

1. Write down the above quote on a post-it note or card, and keep it visible on your desk.

2. Refer to it during those moments of overwhelm, and acknowledge that you are making progress, even on days when it doesn’t feel like it!

About the author

Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches life coaches, business coaches, and virtual assistants how to become more organized, streamlined, and automated so that they don’t constantly bottleneck projects and processes. Having the right systems in place leads to consistent revenues, more clients, and less stress and overwhelm. Find out if you have the right systems in place for your business with the free quiz, “Is Your Business Set Up To Fail?” at http://bizsuccessquiz.com

Connect with Tracey on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/officeorganizationsuccess

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tracey_Lawton
http://EzineArticles.com/?Its-About-Progress,-Not-Perfection&id=7959642

Growing your client list

23 August 2013 in Guest Post tagged Ben Morton / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / growing client list / leadership / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / marketing / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / sales / TwentyOne Leadership

In today’s guest post, Ben Morton shares his experience and knowledge in a post that provides an answer to one of the “how to” questions that so many coaches have when they start their coaching business.

"Growing your client list" A guest post by Ben Morton

Growing your client list

By Ben Morton

If you are thinking about starting your own coaching practice there are two routes you can take. Both have their merits and both have some ‘big names’ in coaching purporting their benefits. Having recently stepped out of the corporate world to do just this, I have tried both and ended up coming full circle back to my original plan.

So what are the two routes?

Route 1 is to focus on getting clients whereas route 2 is about focusing on being a great coach.

But surely you can and should do both I hear you say! Well, yes you can but at the same time – no, you can’t. Or at least, I don’t believe you can do both well enough to really enable your coaching business to take off.

To be a successful coach you need to have clients. The natural extension of this thought process is to focus on how to get coaching clients, which is exactly what I spent some time trying to do.

There is a lot of advice out there that supports this approach and goes even further by saying that you shouldn’t give away your time for free. The reasons being that your time is both precious and valuable, by giving it away you are somehow devaluing your own worth.

That may all be true but the net result of focusing on getting clients is that you will not be spending time doing the thing that you love and are good at – coaching.

Now, considering the fact that coaching is an inherently personal intervention where success is largely based upon open, honest and often deeply personal conversations. Do we really believe that we will get clients through traditional marketing activity? It doesn’t mater how many adverts, tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook posts we make, people will not engage us based on this alone.

Another pitfall of focusing on getting clients is that when we meet a prospect we naturally shift into ‘sell’ mode. As we go on looking for clients we place more and more pressure on our selves and subconsciously start to project a sense of desperation. There is nothing more un-attractive to a potential client than an overly ‘salesey’ and desperate coach.

So you can see that by focusing on getting clients we can actually end up sabotaging our own chances of success. And what’s more, our energy will slowly ebb away because we’re not doing what we love – helping others to develop and succeed.

What drives people to work with a new coach? Referrals, recommendations and social proof. None of which you will ever get if you aren’t actually coaching somebody. And it only needs to be somebody, anybody. One client is all you need because then you are into the land of referrals, which is where new clients live.

So route two is about focusing on being a great coach. Route two is about the virtuous circle, and this is how it can work…

You focus your efforts and energy on being a great coach, being the best coach you can be and being of service to people. You do what you love, do what gives you energy and do what makes you feel valuable. You focus on helping people solve their problems, helping future clients and in doing so you subconsciously project energy, confidence and enthusiasm – characteristics that are inherently attractive to potential clients.

It may be that when starting out you coach people for free, you offer them the first session free or you give them the option of paying you what they feel the session was worth.

This approach does two things. Firstly, it provides you with a happy client who will be willing to provide you with referrals. Secondly and most importantly, providing you have set the relationship up with well defined boundaries initially, it removes the difficult decision of them deciding whether to work with you or not. How? Because you are replacing the decision with a far, far less painful one of deciding whether or not to continue working with you. Research from neuroeconmics and neuromarketing has found that buying something can cause the pain centre in our brains to light up. It is therefore much easier for someone to buy when they have experienced the value of your coaching service as opposed to ‘buying blind’.

So those are two routes you can choose between. You can sit in your office developing a marketing plan, updating your LinkedIn profile and tweeting until the cows come home or you can get out there and do what you love.

I’ve tried both and I’m pretty clear which has had the biggest impact for me.

Coach

Obsessively

And

Clients

Happen

About the Author

Ben Morton is a Leadership Consultant at TwentyOne Leadership and a Chartered Member of the CIPD with approaching two decades experience in leadership and management. His work as a coach and trainer focuses on three key areas; helping clients to develop the leadership capability across all levels of the organisation, creating and delivering programmes to support key talent and helping to build highly effective, high performing teams.

You can find out more about Ben’s work via his blog, Leadership and Learning, or via his LinkedIn profile.

Call Yourself A Coach? 3

9 August 2013 in Guest Post tagged business / business card / change / change agent / clients / coach / coaching / coaching practice / executive coach / guest post / Judy Rees / label / life coach / marketing / mentor / name / personal consultant / sales / wellbeing coach / x-ray listening

“How do you get clients?” is a question I see and hear asked a lot. In today’s guest post Judy Rees shares her experience and knowledge in:

"Call Yourself A Coach?" A guest post by Judy Rees

Call Yourself A Coach?

By Judy Rees

Do you call yourself a coach? A life coach, an executive coach, a wellbeing coach? Are you a mentor, advisor or counsellor? Or does your business card claim that you’re a “change agent” or even a “personal consultant”?

And does it matter? I think it probably matters quite a lot.

At one level, all the above titles could refer to the same role – someone who helps other people make lasting changes in their life or work.

But some of them sound a whole lot more appealing than others, don’t they? Which would you choose when you wanted help to make a lasting change? And more to the point, which would your potential clients choose?

It’s important to remember that people tend to define words like Humpty Dumpty in Alice – they use words to mean just what they choose them to mean, not necessarily what you expect them to mean.

I had a lovely example of this when I went to Jordan as a volunteer ‘mentor’ for young entrepreneurs, with a UK-based organisation called Mowgli.

I was worried, because I expected that mentoring must mean giving advice – and I wasn’t at all sure my experiences would be useful or relevant in this new cultural context.

Mentors advise. Coaches ask questions. Instructors, trainers and teachers provide instruction. Those were my definitions.

But that’s not what Mowgli meant by mentoring.

Their view was that mentors ask questions, perhaps tell stories, but aren’t expected to give advice. It’s coaches that teach people to do things – to fly planes, for example. For them, the exact work I think of as ‘coaching’ was called ‘mentoring’.

If your potential clients think a ‘coach’ is someone who offers training in a subject, it’s no wonder that people searching for ‘coaching’ look for a subject-area expert, rather than a process-driven generalist whose business card just says ‘coach’.

What words do your potential clients use to describe what you do? And how do these sit with your marketing?

About Judy Rees

My business card says “Judy Rees: X-Ray Listener”. At least it gets people to ask, “What’s that then?” 🙂 I tell them it means I help people to get un-stuck and make big changes in their lives by working with the metaphors which underpin their thinking and which drive their behaviour. For example, if they’re thinking of making “a big career jump” I help them decide if that’s the right jump, at the right time, for them, and help them build the fitness they need to make it. Hear more – and book a free sample session – at www.xraylistening.com