Posts Tagged ‘coaching’

Create a Regular Free Coaching Call

One of the things that may hold some people back from working with you is that they are not sure your coaching style would be a fit for them.

Your website copy may sing, but how are they to know that your coaching will be as compelling?

The solution is to have a standing free coaching call every month to let people get to know what your coaching style is like.

There are two ways to do this:

1) Have an open-ended, any-question-is-good format, like Pam does with her Escape from Cubicle Nation calls (sample here)
2) Have a topical call like Michele does each month, using topics that you know would be relevant for your audience.

We recommend choosing a regular time, for example the first Tuesday of the month, so that people get used to the event. Here is how you do it:

1) Select your call date and time
2) Draft up a super simple web page that explains what is on the call
3) Set up a specific mailing list for this class (we recommend either AWeber or Constant Contact for your mailing list needs)
4) Mention this call in your next newsletter, and in every one thereafter
5) Tweet about your calls the day before, and the day of the call
6) Mention the call on Facebook
7) Mention it on the confirm message when people sign up for your ezine
8) Tell everyone about it when you speak live at an event
9) Hold the call, and record it
10) Share the recording with your list

Pam and Michele do things a little differently. Pam only shares the recording with people signed up for the call. Michele shares the recording with everyone by posting it on Facebook and Twitter.

Either way works. The important thing is to give people a taste of your great coaching skills.

If you don’t get a lot of people signing up at first, that is OK! Pam has coached one person for an hour on the free calls, and people listening to it afterward said it was really valuable.

We look forward to your questions about free calls!

And as a special gift to you, we wanted to share an hour-long recording we did about seven things you can do to get your coaching practice growing.

Download it here.

P.S. We are just about to launch the Fall sessions of KickAss Mentoring and Career Invention Certification. We will give you guys first crack at registration. Look for a special email this week with details. Whoopie!

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Bill Gates Suggested I Contact You…

Cold calling ranks lower than “clean my teenager’s toilet” on most entrepreneur to-do lists.

Yet sometimes you need to reach out to people who have never heard of you to promote a workshop, or build a new alliance, or spread the good word about your new product.

A way to immediately warm up a cold call is to ask connected people in your network if they know any people or organizations you should talk to.

It can be framed as simply as:

“Hey Bill (Gates of course) — I am going to be delivering a workshop in New York in June. Is there anyone you think would be valuable to talk to about the event?”

Most people will respond back quickly with something like “Sure — make sure you reach out to Angela at the Kiva Foundation,” or “Anita from 85 Broads would be a great person to talk with .”

They may even offer to make the introduction. But if they don’t, don’t worry. You can still use that connection to preface your cold call (or the more modern cold email or cold Tweet):

“Hi Anita! My name is Pamela Slim and I am delivering a workshop about entrepreneurship in New York in June. Bill Gates suggested you may be a good person to connect with, given the reach of 85 Broads. Would you have a few minutes to talk in the next week? My email is ___ and my phone is ___. Thanks and I hope to catch up soon!”

By having a known person refer you to a valuable contact, you will feel better, they will feel safer talking with you since you are friends with someone they know, and you are much more likely to get a warm embrace rather than a cold shoulder.

Go warm up your cold calls — they are often the entry into vast new markets!

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What is the meaning behind your business?

Coaches can often get caught up in a long, detailed explanation about what coaching is, and isn’t, or how it is different from therapy.

For some clients, completely unschooled in coaching ways, this can be a useful point of clarification.

But in the end, no one really cares about the definition of coaching.

What they care about is what happens to their life as a result of it.

Pam’s “link sugar daddy” Guy Kawasaki asks the question like this in his excellent book The Art of the Start: “What meaning are you making in the world beyond making money?”

Why are you a coach?

Why is it important to the world that people overcome obstacles, or change careers, or lose weight, or improve their relationships? What happens as a result?

If you answer this question, and use it as the anchor for your business, you will radiate focus, clarity and power. Your clients will feel your energy and will gravitate towards working with you.

No one wakes up in the morning eager to buy coaching.

Everyone wakes up in the morning eager to make meaning with their life.

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Pitch a story

Howdy Marketeers!

Given today’s date and hour, Pam’s tip for this week is:

Don’t travel alone with toddlers!

Wait, that is not marketing related at all. But it does relate to Pam’s decision to fly solo with her two kids to visit family in the Bay Area. She intended to do work in the evenings, but that idea was scrapped as she collapsed in exhaustion at the end of days chasing kids around non-childproofed grandparent homes.

All is well and she is back at home in Phoenix. On to the real marketing tip of the week:

Pitch a story to your local paper.

Newspaper reporters today are looking for new and interesting stories to share with their readers. There are fewer people on staff to research articles, and they appreciate good story angles.

Here is a good way to find a good story to pitch:

1. Read the section that you want to appear in for at least a week.
2. Notice the topics, and the reporters covering them.
3. Think about what would make a great story. It doesn’t have to be about you!
4. In fact, it may be better if it isn’t about you.
5. Outline the story idea with a brief note to the reporter:
“Hi (name), I noticed that you recently ran a story about X. A great follow up
may be to feature (person) or (topic), especially since there has been great interest
in (topic) in mainstream news lately (or that (topic) is of great interest to our
community lately).”
6. Offer yourself as a resource to introduce them to the featured person, and to comment on the story. You could say:
“I am a trained life coach and am happy to provide background information
or additional sources.”
List your complete contact information, including email and cell phone number.
Pam has a media page that lists bio, prior press and story angles here.
www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/press
If the reporter or editor doesn’t bite the first time, don’t sweat it! They will appreciate that you took time out to think of a good story angle.

To get a sense of the kinds of stories and sources reporters are looking for, sign up for Help a Reporter Out and review the queries.

www.helpareporter.com

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What’s Working?

The Kick Ass Mentoring definition of marketing is “the stuff you do to get your phone to ring.” Pretty heavy academic theory, huh? :-)

Thinking about marketing as all the activities you do to generate calls from prospective clients helps to demystify marketing, and — for some people — makes the whole thing so much easier.

And since the Kick Ass Secret To Happiness is “do more of the stuff you like and are good at, and less of the stuff you don’t like even if you’re good at it” (well, it’s actually Michele’s Secret, but she’s graciously lending it to us), now is the time to look at your current marketing efforts and ask:

What’s working? What’s making your phone ring, and your email ding?

How can you do more of what’s working, and less of what’s not?

And if nothing’s working, can you think of one thing you can do today to make your phone ring?

(Stuck? How about go on LinkedIn and find one person who is a connector type in your local community and ask them to coffee.)

Inventory your current marketing activities and rank them 1 to 5 with 1 being highly effective in getting your phone to ring.

Do more of those. Today.

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Start With The End In Mind

Wow – the enthusiasm around Kick Ass Mentoring is awesome! We’re so glad you’re here and know you’re ready for this week’s tip:

Start with the end in mind.

That’s it.

You make your marketing purposeful when you frame it around what you want to get as a result of connecting with your people.

So let us ask you:

A year from now, what would you like to be able to say about your business?
How will your clients be different?
How will your life be different?
How will the world be different?
How will your finances be different?

Create your picture, and you are much more likely to see it come to life.

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