Karen Williams

Recapping January – March 2012 guest posts 1

 in Guest Post / site news  tagged Amber Fogarty / Angus MacLennan / beliefs / blue monday / business / change / Cindy Hillsey / clients / coaches / coaching / content / counselling / goals / guest post / habit / ideal client / Karen Williams / Karen Wise / knowledge / Lenny Deverill-West / Liz Scott / Lorraine Hurst / Marie Yates / marketing / Mei Qi Tan / mindset / networking / new year / niching / Nicky Kriel / Parallel conversations / plans / Relationship / relationships / Richard Nugent / success / Toni Knights / websites

Over the next few days I’m going to briefly recap the last years worth of guest posts that appear here each Friday.

Today we start by looking at the first three months of this year.

Image showing first January on a diary with pen on isolated color background with fine clipping path.

January

In the first post of 2012 Amber Fogarty shared how she is in the “habit change business” discussing something she talks about a lot with clients in “Developing Better Habits”.

Coach and trainer Lorraine Hurst then followed with a post that could be of use to both yourself and your clients. “Blue Monday – what colour will yours be?” was published just prior to the third Monday of the year – read the post to see the significance of that date!

Coach and author of “Secrets of Successful Coaches”, Karen Williams, shared her expertise and knowledge in the third guest post of the year: “How does your mindset affect your business?” Read how Karen believes mindset, marketing and business knowledge will affect a successful coaching business.

The final post in January saw Karen Wise sharing a personal experience in the post “Relationship drama.” How familiar is this incident in either your own life or with what your clients tell you?

Image showing 14th February a Valentine day with heart symbol & message.

February

As we started the second month of the year, coach Marie Yates turned her attention to the action taken to the goals and plans made at the start of the New Year. This post contains a series of questions to assist you to make progress. Read “The warm up is complete… It is time for the main event.” 11 months since this was first published – what would your answers to these questions be today?

Liz Scott loves bringing coaches together to share experiences and knowledge. Her post focused upon “Parallel conversations and coaching”, using her personal experience as a lesson to be used in coaching sessions.

Lenny Deverill-West shared how he has been practically incorporating other teachings into his own work with clients. Read more about what he is doing in “The Coaching Aha!”

Social Media coach Nicky Kriel discussed errors she’s seen coaches make attempting one particular marketing approach. Are you making any of the blunders featured in “5 Big Mistakes that Life Coaches make Networking”?

March

March

Coach Richard Nugent invited you to “Explore Some Half Truths Of Coaching” with the aim of getting you to think about your own professional beliefs that could help you be more successful.

A coaching website is on many new coaches to do list, in the second guest post in March Mei Qi Tan shared her expertise and knowledge about what to focus upon. Read her post “Websites: It’s not just about content – it’s about users.”

Coach Angus MacLennan, who delivers practical Business Support to Business Owners, turned his attention to the subject that can have many new coaching business owners scratching their heads in the post “Niching Has Failed”

How to market your coaching is an often requested topic, in our next guest post coach Cindy Hillsey shared her expertise and knowledge in “Marketing and your Ideal Client”

In the final guest post in March Coach Toni Knights discussed what she considers to decide if it is necessary to refer clients for additional help, in her post “Identifying When Clients Need Counselling”

Visit tomorrow

Come back tomorrow for a post recapping April – June, or if you can’t wait, clicking here will bring a list of every post that has been published on this site labelled as a guest post.

January & Febuary image © Indianeye | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos
Visit tomorrow image © Renata2k | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

How do you really get to know your clients? 1

 in Guest Post  tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / Karen Williams / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / marketing / niche / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / sales / Self Discovery Coaching / Star Biz Conference / successful coaches

In today’s guest post, Karen Williams answers a question pondered by many looking to start, or grow, a coaching business.

A guest post by Karen Williams

How do you really get to know your clients?

by Karen Williams

Have you been told you need to niche? Perhaps you are reluctant as you don’t want to restrict your market or maybe you don’t know where to start? Even if you know your niche already, how do you really get to know your clients and what they want?

If you don’t get to know your clients, your message is going to get lost. They will be clicking off your website as soon as they arrive, they won’t get where you are coming from or perhaps they won’t find you in the first place.

If you’re not getting the results you want right now in your business, here’s 3 things to look at first:

  • Check that the language you are using on your website is pitched at the right level. When you create your website, your blog or any other literature, make sure you are using your client’s language and ask yourself ‘will my clients understand what I mean?’ Keep it simple. For example, you might want to use ‘say’ instead of ‘verbalise’.
  • How much jargon are you using when you are communicating with others – both in writing and face-to-face? For example, you might get a better reaction if you say ‘I help you to manage the way you feel…’ rather than ‘I help you to get in the right state’.
  • How clear is your message? I mentioned this in my blog recently, where I give suggestions about how to master your message to get the right response.

So how do you actually reach your clients and find out what they want?

I was talking to a client this week and I simply asked him, ‘who do you know in this field who can help you?’ and when he reeled off people he knew, I suggested that he take them for a coffee. Talking to people who are either in your target client group, or are connected to this group, is a great first step to finding out what they want.

If you already know some of your ideal clients, why not do a survey to find out what their problems are and what you can do to help them? I regularly survey the people on my contact list by using Survey Monkey. I also ask questions via my social media contacts. When you do this using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative questions (i.e. to get some figures and more lengthy responses), you can start to understand the dreams and challenges of the group and the actual language they are using.

Lastly, check out your competitors. Even if you have chosen the most unique niche, there are probably other people doing something similar to what you do. Find out what they do well, what you can model and what you can do differently to meet your client’s needs.

There are a lot of coaches in the industry doing something similar to what you do. To be successful you can’t be the same as everyone else and need to stand out from the crowd. By doing your research, you’ll quickly understand what makes you different, how you can be distinctive from everyone else, yet still give people the results that they desire.

About Karen Williams

Karen WilliamsAs a business coach and mentor, author, speaker, and firewalk instructor, Karen Williams, from Self Discovery Coaching, works with coaches and solopreneurs who are breaking free from the corporate world and want to create a successful business. She helps them to develop the foundations for a successful business, stand out from the crowd and enjoy every step of the way.

Karen is the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, which reached #1 in the Business charts on Amazon and has just released her second book, How to Stand Out in your Business, which you can order now.

Karen is also running the Star Biz conference on 3 and 4 November, with 8 expert speakers and a firewalk experience. In this unique two day event, you will discover what makes you outstanding, how you can express this uniqueness in your business, and leave with a 90 day step-by-step plan to transform your business and double your clients.
Top Image: © Tatiana53 | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

UK conference for coaches and solopreneurs

 in live event / Resource  tagged Karen Williams / resource / Star Biz Conference

I’m really excited to tell you about the Star Biz conference. It is a fabulous live event that Karen Williams, who has wrote several superb guest posts for the site, is running and I wanted to share it with you.

Karen has brought together 8 Superstar Experts who will be revealing their business secrets to you. This two day extravaganza will be showing you the simple and powerful techniques to follow in their footsteps, and get extraordinary results in your own business.

Discover what makes you outstanding, how you can express this uniqueness in your business, and leave with a 90 day step-by-step plan to transform your business and double your clients. On top of that, you will have the chance to walk on hot coals!

This is a sample of WHAT the speakers will cover:

  •  Write your own rules for your business to live on purpose and in profit
  • Be super-confident in your ability to transform your business with ease
  • Learn how you can boost your brand and stand out in a crowded market place
  • Get practical skills and knowledge to ignite your message, marketing and mindset
  • Find out how you can write your book and stand on stage, with a message that people can’t wait for you to share

This event is taking place in Farnborough, Hampshire (just 30 minutes from London).  You can find out more about the event and book your discounted ticket here.

How does your mindset affect your business?

 in Guest Post  tagged behaviour / business / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / deciding / doing / emotions / executive coach / feelings / Jim Rohn / Karen Williams / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / mindset / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / Robert Collier / Self Discovery Coaching / state / success / The Secrets of Successful Coaches / Thought

Coach and author Karen Williams shares her expertise and knowledge in today’s guest post and asks:

How does your mindset affect your business?

by Karen Williams

Let me share with you one of my beliefs. I believe that you can have all the marketing and business knowledge you need, but unless you have the right mindset, you’ll struggle to make it in terms of running a successful business.

Our mindset has an incredible affect on what we do and how we do it. It is more than just belief and confidence, it is about the way we approach a situation, our outlook, our mental attitude and the way in which we think. It is about the language we use to talk to ourselves and others, as well as the thoughts we have in our head about a problem or a solution.

Think about it now. Have you been with someone where their mindset has not been at its best? Perhaps they have been feeling down, depressed or concerned about something. Or maybe they have been feeling unsure or frustrated. Now that’s not to say that we always have to be on top form, but noticing your mindset, your thoughts and your actions is the starting point of understanding how it impacts on your success.

Let’s think about another person you know who has a positive mindset. Someone who always sees life with the glass completely full, has energy and enthusiasm, and a zest for life.

Where do you fit?

How do you feel about that?

If you are like most people, you are probably somewhere in the middle. Some days you will be feeling fantastic, and on other days, you will want to stay beneath the duvet. So with my comment in mind that your mindset affects your success, what can you do to recognise your state and do something about it when you need to?

The first step is to recognise how you feel every day and be aware of your emotions and feelings. If you are feeling negative or frustrated, what can you do to change your state? I know that sometimes you’ll want to wallow for a while, but think about how you will feel when you’ve broken the pattern and done something else instead? One of the strategies I follow is the premise that motion changes your emotion, so physically get up, do something different and return to your task later.

The second step is to be aware of what you could do differently to retrain your brain. In a nutshell, we have thousands of thoughts every day and we need to decide what to hold onto and what ones to ditch. Our beliefs often inform the thoughts we have, which inform the feelings we have about the beliefs, then this influences our behaviour and the consequences. You then have a choice on whether you create a vicious circle or a virtuous circle. If you keep thinking negatively, which creates negative behaviour, you will enter a downward spiral, but if you break the pattern, you can create a virtuous circle. These, by their very nature, then create more happiness and wellbeing.

The third step is to be aware of the impact that other people’s behaviour has on you. You could say that it is your choice how another person’s behaviour can affect you, it is often difficult to put this into practice, especially if this behaviour is pessimistic. Generally negativity breads negativity, so it can be difficult to break the pattern. But there are things you can do about it. The late Jim Rohn said that “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. So ensure you spend your time with inspirational people whose goals, aims and intentions are bigger than your own. When you do this, you’ll raise your game, achieve more, and get the support to step through your comfort zone quicker and more easily than you could do by yourself.

Before I move on, I’d like to give you something else to think about.

Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?
Answer: five
Why? Because there is a difference between deciding and doing!

With this in mind, what are you going to decide to do differently going forward? Are there new strategies and habits you need to put into place? Only you can decide to have a success mindset. Then when you have chosen this mindset, you will be focused on abundance rather than lack, success rather than failure, so can you see now how it can make a difference to your business?

You’ll be the one achieving results, getting more clients and generally feeling inspired and inspirational! Doesn’t this sound like a great place to be?

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out” ~ Robert Collier

About the Author/Further Resources

Karen Williams runs Self Discovery Coaching and is the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, which reached #1 in the Business charts on Amazon. Having interviewed 24 top performance coaches, Karen has learnt from the experts how to create a successful coaching business. Since just 10% of coaches make it in terms of running a successful business, she gets frustrated when she sees coaches who are amazing, but don’t have the business skills or confidence to make a difference. Karen’s big vision is to enable more coaches to reach more people and help them to live a happier and fulfilled life.

You can download Karen’s 38 Success Mindset tips at http://www.thesecretsofsuccessfulcoaches.com/successmindset/ and follow Karen’s current Ultimate Blog Challenge – 31 posts in 31 days so I make this number 32!

You can also follow Karen on Facebook and Twitter.

Become A Confident Coach 2

 in Guest Post  tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / confdence / contract / executive coach / experience / Hannah McNamara / Karen Williams / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / Michael Neill / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / Self Discovery Coaching / The Secrets of Successful Coaches / toolkit

In this week’s guest post, Karen Williams shares her thoughts and expertise about becoming a confident coach.

Become A Confident Coach

By Karen Williams

As an experienced coach, mentor and the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, I often work with new coaches who struggle to have the confidence to become known and get clients.

They may believe they lack the confidence to coach. They may be scared of their abilities or lack of experience, worried they will get stuck or are not yet ready to tell people what they actually do.

I had a session with a new coach a few weeks ago and one thing she said to me was that she was expecting an inquisition and it didn’t come. We were just having a conversation – although, a constructive one at that. You don’t have to be formulaic, following the GROW model (although the principles are great), you just need to be or do what your client wants at that particular time.

When I interviewed Hannah McNamara for The Secrets of Successful Coaches, she said to me:

“It’s actually got nothing to do with you and your abilities; it’s what that client needs at that given time. Sometimes they need to be coached, sometimes they need to be taught, and sometimes they just need to offload. And they don’t want someone saying, ‘So what are you going to do about it?’ They just want to hear ‘Oh God, that sounds awful.’”

I love this philosophy. It is not about enforcing our thoughts or ideals onto our clients but being there for them. But on the other hand, I also advocate that sometimes we need to be tough too. If a client wants to achieve an objective but is putting up barriers in the way or is not doing what they say they will do, we have the right to challenge them supportively, to help them to achieve it or to check that this really is their goal.

When I talked to Michael Neill about running a coaching business, this was his advice:

“Be an amazing coach. It starts with your ability to make a difference. If you can’t do that very well, work on your coaching, not on your business. One problem is that a lot of coaches don’t get that coaching is a business, but there are also a number of coaches who don’t seem to get that effective coaching is at the heart of the business. They put all their energy into marketing and getting a website, building their newsletter, raising their profile, but they are not very good coaches yet. First, learn how to change lives – then you can figure out the marketing.”

Very pertinent, I’m sure you will agree. Many coaches, when they qualify, will concentrate on the business skills; but they need to become great coaches too.

So if you want to become a confident coach, here are my six top tips:

1. Learn how to be a great coach

This is more than getting a coaching qualification. Get practice in asking questions, listening to others and building rapport. This can be in a coaching situation with a client, or it can be just in day to day conversations with other people.

2. Get experience

When I qualified, I didn’t have a clue how to market myself as a business. So to become a great coach, I asked in a forum whether anyone wanted pro bono coaching and got 2 clients this way. This gave me the opportunity to further my experience and as one of these became a paying client, this kick-started my business too.

3. Develop your toolkit

You don’t have to attend all the different types of training available, but having a toolkit of resources will help you and your clients greatly. This starts from you and your own skills, and you can build on these with the knowledge you have, the information you can share and the resources you have at your finger tips.

4. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong

Sometimes you just need to put yourself out there and go for it. And don’t worry if you think that you will get something wrong. To be honest, your client won’t know what you were going to say and if you mess up, they probably won’t notice. And if they do, what is the worst that can happen? Learn from it, get it out of your system, and then move on.

5. Contract with your clients

One piece of advice that I give my mentoring clients is the importance of contracting with your client in the first place. Get their permission and find out how they want you to bring them back on track, whether they want you to make suggestions and explore your mutual expectations too.

6. Just do it!

Whether you want to visualise a great coaching session, use affirmations, act ‘as-if’ you are a confident coach, or just get on with it, this is the next step.

Here’s to being a confident coach!

About the Author/Further Resources

Karen Williams is a qualified coach and NLP Master Practitioner. She has been running Self Discovery Coaching since 2006, specialising in helping career changers and those facing redundancy to find a job they will love. She also works with new coaches to enable them to create a successful business and turn their passion into profit.

She is the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, which is based on spending time with 11 inspirational performance coaches and sharing their strategies for success. Her book was published by Matador this spring and is available on Amazon or via her website www.thesecretsofsuccessfulcoaches.com.

Karen has also created a great toolkit for coaches with the Self Discovery Success Club to enable them to have the best techniques for both themselves and their clients. You can get a month’s free membership when you buy a copy of her book.

2010 guest posters 1

 in Guest Post / site news  tagged 5 Ways toMake your Coaching Business Successful / Andy Lucas / Angus MacLennan / bennefits / Biographies For Coaches / business coach / business coaching / Chris Morris / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching welcome pack / discover your passion / Dr Colin Clerkin / executive coach / Frederique Murphy / Free resource / get it done / How You Act Is What You Will See Or Read / Jeff T / Jeff Weigh / Judy Rees / Karen Williams / leadership coaching / Lenny Deverill-West / let's talk about context / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / listening / Liz Scott / marketing for coaches / Michael Neill / networking for coaches / Nicky Kriel / note to my younger self / once upon a time / performance coaching / personal development / questions / Richard Nugent / Stever Robbins / Sue Sharp / Terri Carey / The Evolution of a Coach / The power of parrot-phrasing / The Secrets of Successful Coaches / The source of personal power? / Transformative Coaching / What would you see as the credits roll ...?

The Friday Guest post on Coaching Confidence is taking a break over the festive period. (Want to be a guest poster in 2011? visit HERE)

Instead, today you will find a list of all the guest posters since we started the feature with links to their respective posts.

I’d like to take this moment to thank all these posters for taking the time to share so generously. I’d also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

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The secrets of successful coaches 5

 in Guest Post  tagged Allison Marlowe / Blaire Palmer / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / Dawn Breslin / Duncan Brodie / executive coach / Gladeana McMahon / Hannah McNamara / Karen Williams / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / Marian Way / Michael Neill / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / Self Discovery Coaching / Steve Marriott / success / Suparna Dhar / Suzy Greaves. / The Secrets of Successful Coaches

In this weeks guest post Karen Williams shares her experience and knowledge about running a successful coaching business.

The secrets of successful coaches

what stops coaches from running a successful business?

By Karen Williams

In 2006 I trained to be a coach. After experiencing coaching to help me to refocus my stuck career, I realised that I found my true vocation and started my training with one of the UK’s leading coaching organisations. When I qualified in the November, I set up my business, Self Discovery Coaching. Like many new coaches, I expected clients to come to me as I knew I had a great service to offer to them, but I quickly I realised that I didn’t have a clue about how to run a business.

“The difference between someone who is or is not successful is that total self-belief.” ~ Dawn Breslin

Rolling on a few years, I established a reasonably successful career coaching business, but still felt something was missing. I was also noticing that there were great coaches out there, but many lacked the business know-how to develop a successful business. Many were returning to their previous profession or getting consultancy work to supplement their coaching income.

“Success takes bravery, courage or something. You do things that frighten you; you feel the fear and do it anyway.” ~ Blaire Palmer

I started some research and I found that many coaches were struggling with the same problems:

  • Getting, finding and retaining clients
  • Deciding on a niche
  • Getting the marketing message right
  • Managing their time
  • Being frustrated by lack of funds
  • Demotivation due to lack of clients
  • Taking action rather than waiting for everything to be perfect
  • Having enough self belief and confidence in their skills

So in 2009, when I had to carry out my modelling project for the NLP Master Practitioner qualification, I knew exactly where to start. I decided to model the mindset behind a successful coaching business and had the great opportunity to learn from some coach business owners and model what works for them.

“Success means being the best coach I can be and leading a life that is in balance, in keeping with my values” ~ Suparna Dhar

I realised that I was learning some key principles from each of these people. I had the enormous pleasure of interviewing 11 successful coaches and business owners such as Michael Neill, Gladeana McMahon, Duncan Brodie, Hannah McNamara and many more. So I decided to turn my research into a book, and The Secrets of Successful Coaches was born (out early 2011).

“Success does not require a positive mindset, but enjoying success does. If your coaching business is not a part of your wonderful life, what’s the point?” ~ Michael Neill

So what are their secrets of success?

  • They run a business that they are passionate about, based around their values.
  • They have a strong self belief and a winning mindset, focused on a clear business vision.
  • They have quickly learnt that they have needed the business skills to make their business a success.
  • They have a clear long term vision about their business and take daily steps to make it a success.
  • Most of them have a clear niche that enables them to focus on their ideal customer and how they can help them.
  • For those who don’t have a niche, they create amazing successes with clients that they love to work with.
  • Much of their business is built on referral and recommendation, so they are each great coaches as well as business people.
  • They have great networks that they have developed and many work with other experts in their field to further develop their strengths.
  • They have a good support network, such as a virtual assistant, IT support, a cleaner, associates, and web designer.
  • They have a coach, mentor, supervisor or all three to further develop their business.

“Success is also about being with other people and seeing them grow and develop, and having the satisfaction of having had some part in that, however small.” ~ Gladeana McMahon

So what are you going to do to create your successful business?

In November 2010 I created a mentoring programme for people who are in the early stages of setting up a coaching business. If this is you, you will have a dream, goal or plan, but will find it hard to know where to start. You will probably feel overwhelmed by the volume of information out there and not know where to start. I see creating a business just like baking a cake and you need to know what ingredients you need and in which order to place them in order to make your business a success.

To find out more about the business mentoring programme for new coaches, just email me or call 023 9200 6418 and I am offering a discounted strategy session for the first 5 people who contact me.

About the Author/Further Resources

Karen Williams is a qualified coach and NLP Master Practitioner. She has run a successful career coaching business since 2006 supporting individuals to transform their career and find a job they will love. She also runs a business mentoring programme for new coaches who want to turn their passion into profit.

She is the author of the upcoming book, The Secrets of Successful Coaches and you can find out more about her research and free reports at www.thesecretsofsuccessfulcoaches.com. You can also download free podcasts with people like Michael Neill, Suzy Greaves, Allison Marlowe and other people interviewed for her book which will be available early January.

You can also find Karen on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.