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FROM THE EDITOR It’s been an amazing ride since we published our first edition. Of course, we had the usual celebrations of Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but I have also managed to fit in my own wedding. A huge shout out to my gorgeous new wife, Lisa Fleming. She has helped birth this magazine and has pushed me when needed and celebrated with me as we have grown.

Now, as a newly married man, I am looking at 2016 and all that we can achieve together in this year with a euphoric optimism only offered to the truly happy. I know Coaching Life has a long journey ahead and it may not always be a smooth one, but I invite you to join us and share the fun, learning and experience of Australia’s best coaches.

This month’s theme is Focus and we have compiled a myriad of focus related article from Australia’s best Sporting, Business, Life and Specialty coaches. For such a simple theme, the interpretation has been delightfully broad but has seen a combined theory of collaboration. From dealing with the distractions of Social Media to the laser focus of Powerlifting, this is edition if filled with information for coaches of all persuasions.

As a new company, our focus for this month has been to grow our readership (which now includes you) and engage more directly with you. Coaching is our life but this magazine is intended to be your magazine and we are focused on finding and meeting your needs. We want you to be part of the Integrated Coaching Community and for that, we need your thoughts and opinions.

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Help us to support you by completing our 10 question survey on the Coaching Life website. This simple act will enable us to better deliver the content you want in the way you want to receive it.

From day 1, the focus of Coaching Life has been one of collaboration and knowledge sharing. I took on this project because I truly believe that as a supportive community, coaches can change the world. If you share this belief, subscribe, follow us on Facebook, fill in the survey and share this magazine with every coach you come across.

Happy Focused Coaching

COACHINGLIFE February 2016 ISSUE 2 Coaching Life is published 11 times a year and is your authoritative source for information on coaching in sport, business, life and anywhere else you find a coach.

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CONTENTS

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12 SPORT COACHING 8 From professional athlete, to invalid, to Head Coach.

Andy King has a unique perspective on focus.

Andy King, Head Coach, Surfing Australia

12 What does the most recognised coach of hockey know

about focus? Coaching Life interviews Ric Charlesworth and gets the answers.

Ric Charlesworth OAM, Hockey Coaching Legend

16 Social Media, Technology and Focus. How Tennis

Australia is combatting emerging distractions.

Nicole Pratt, Head of Women’s Tennis & Australian Fed Cup Coach

18 From the Backyard to the Baggy Green, coaching is

a focus key area for Cricket Australia’s pathway to number 1. Matthew Betsey, National Coaching Manager, Cricket Australia

22 Where is your focus right now? How to use Kaizen to

beat the gremlin on your shoulder.

Dean Kinney, Head Coach, Golf Australia

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26 Ever seen Powerlifting? Then you have seen focus.

Daniel gives his tips on creating laser focus.

Daniel Inderwisch, Coach, Powerlifting Australia

30 Here are 10 ways to improve focus in your coaching environment.

Corey Slade, Coach, Australian Wing Chun Federation

34 COVER STORY From training with sharks to

treatment by Chinese burn. After 20 years at the top, Ironman Legend, Wes Berg shares his story.

Wes Berg, Ironman Coach

BUSINESS COACHING 38 What do small/micro businesses really need to focus

on? Founder of Flying Solo, Robert Gerrish, shares his insights. Robert Gerrish, Founder, Flying Solo

41 If you want to start the day focused, make sure you

finish the previous day correctly. 15 tips for ensuring you finish each day properly.

Jim Prigg, Founder of Knowledgemaster

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51

58 54 70

44 44 What does your board focus on? We explore the traps

62 Do you have a personal brand? What do people say

for losing corporate focus.

Di Percy, Director Vogel Percy

48 You love coaching, but without profits, it’s not a

business. Here are five pillars to turn your business into a profit making machine.

Dr Greg Chapman, CEO , Empower Business Solutions

51 Are you focused on moving towards your future or away

from your past? Choosing the right focus can make all the difference. Alex Couley, Director International Centre for Leadership Coaching

54 Future Focus. 3 tips to ensure 2016 is your best year yet

and really focus on growth potential.

Michelle Pascoe, Founder, Optimum Operating Procedures and Services Pty Ltd (OOPS)

LIFE COACHING 58 What is important to you and where should you focus

your efforts for balance? Play on the abundance wheel and see where you land.

Scott Epp, CEO Abundance Coaching

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about you once you leave the room? Finding your direction can give your coaching true focus.

Lauren Clemett, Personal Brand Specialist

66 Can you use the web to expand your practice? How to

cut through the chatter with your unique message.

Lorraine Hamilton, Market Positioning Coach

SPECIALTY COACHING 70 5 Tips from a PR Coach. We get top tips for you to get

noticed in the market place.

Jessica Evans, PR Coach

72 Is your career in focus? How coaching can highlight the

cause of procrastination and get you your dream job.

Kelly Kozaris, Career Coach

75 THE LAST WORD

Some final words of inspiration from our contributors.

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ANDY KING Head Coach, Surfing Australia DR. RICHARD CHARLESWORTH OAM Hockey Coaching Legend NICOLE PRATT Head of Women’s Tennis & Australian Fed Cup Coach MATTHEW BETSEY, National Coaching Manager, Cricket Australia DEAN KINNEY Head Coach, Golf Australia DANIEL INDERWISCH Coach, Powerlifting Australia COREY SLADE Coach, Australian Wing Chun Federation WES BERG Ironman Coach

SPORTS COACHING » www.coachinglife.com.au

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ANDY KING WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU SUDDENLY LOST YOUR HEARING AND ALL SENSE OF BALANCE? COMMUNICATING, WALKING, EVEN STANDING WOULD SUDDENLY BE A CHALLENGE. ANDY KING DEALS WITH THIS DAILY BUT USES CONSISTENT FOCUS TO CONTINUE.

I

started walking, talking and surfing all at the same time. At 3 I was riding the waves off the ferry in Gunnamatta Bay. My father moved out from Manchester and was obsessed with the water and surfing. Considering he was an Englishman, he surfed really well and was a big member of the surf community. At the alley in Cronulla, South Sydney, there was a grass patch

by Joe’s Milk Bar where we all hung out.

I spent most of my days on that grass patch and I didn’t really know anyone outside my family that was not part of the surfing community. We were lucky enough to have world class surfers like Gary Green that we watched and learned from. There was a hot-bed of talent there when I was growing up.

From 1996, I had a professional career, so for 8 years I travelled the world, surfing. Life was going really well and in 2004, I scored the highest 2 wave score in Newcastle. Two weeks after that, I had a run in with a bunch of footballer’s who were abusing my girlfriend. After receiving a punch, I fell

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By Andy King

and my head hit the gutter ending my surfing career. With that one punch, I went from an elite athlete to an invalid and spent the next seven months in total silence. I fractured my skull and smashed both my saccules, so as well as being 100% deaf, I also have no equilibrium. So when I am getting off a plane, if the roof is rolled, I will stagger because I cannot box the room with my eyes. This has led to a few run-ins with the federal police because I look really drunk.

I now have a cochlea implant but I chose to only get a single implant, as I am hoping that technology will develop an internal implant. At the moment I have to take the external part off in the ocean, so I am completely deaf when surfing. Darkness is also a real challenge because my vision is where I get balance from now.

Seven months of silence is a great way to work out where your life went wrong.

I took responsibility for my actions that night and that has been part of my www.coachinglife.com.au

SPORT

Coaching is pretty personal and a lot of my sessions are individual.

While every athlete has a goal with plans and strategies, each athlete will process information completely differently.

recovery. I chose to walk across the street, when I should have gone home and I have empathy for Stephen Taylor who denied his responsibility. He ended up going to court and it completely ruined his life as well. He was just trying to impress his mates and I was just trying to protect my girlfriend. He was charged with aggravated grievous bodily harm and had to serve 1,000 hours of community service. Two lives were changed that night but if it happened today, he could have received 10 years.

It changes you when you go from an elite athlete, to an invalid with a nurse helping you go to the toilet.

I don’t tend to worry what anyone else thinks now. When you go from complete independence, to complete dependence, you actually get a lot of freedom. You have no fear of risks because you don’t have far to fall from the gutter. While that can sound good, sometimes I have to be careful because I can offend people being too brutal with the truth. www.coachinglife.com.au

BACK TO THE SURF The first doctors told me that I would never go back to the water, but it was Dr Phillip Chang, Victor Chang’s son, who performed the cochlea operation and he encouraged me to go back to surfing. Nowadays, I use a special floatation vest when I cannot touch the bottom because when my eyes are closed, I don’t know where the surface is.

After the injury, I was approached by Red Bull who wanted to run a surf program. I got to work with their junior athletes, start travelling the world and use the network that I had developed as an athlete. In four years I had five athletes qualify for the world tour. As I travelled with them, my main role was to make their journey challenging and supported. My biggest impact was making sure they were comfortable and acting as a sounding board. Results followed when I took care of their health and wellbeing.

In 2008, I moved to Los Angeles

and lived with Andy Walsh who was my performance director. Andy is an absolute genius and took the program that I had created, tripled the funding and added amazing technology, psychologists and nutritionists. My time with Red Bull and Andy was the most defining point in my life and he is still my mentor today.

After 7 years, Red Bull moved towards a more cultural feel and I felt my time with them was done. I saw the National Coach job vacancy in July 2013 and what was most attractive, was that it came with AIS support. I am extremely patriotic and knew that I could make a big difference to the sport of surfing for Australian athletes, so I took the role and moved from LA back to Casuarina.

I work with a fantastic coach, Clancy, who does the development work with an amazing technical eye. He has strengths where I still need work, so I constantly learning.

Consistent Focus is my Life The first three years following the COACHINGLIFE

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to see the body language and this definitely translates to coaching.

You have to understand your own drive. Most world champions and gold medallists are troubled humans to some extent. accident were exhausting as my brain remapped itself. Every time I got up, moved or did anything, I had to concentrate so I didn’t fall over. I was forced to focus on everything and it’s something you have to be consistent with. I still have to do certain exercises daily to maintain my ability to stand up and walk, etc.

One of the key things I have to focus on is conversations. I have to lip-read a lot and have learnt to read people’s body language so that I can tell if someone is engaged. I’m a pretty confident person, so when I go into a room for a meeting, I design the room so I can see everyone’s face. I need to be able

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I hate the word disability. The fact is, my other senses are heightened and I have gained other abilities. With my personal insurance, I had the option to go on benefits for the rest of my life, but it would have capped what I could have earned and restricted my future. There is no way, as a self-centred professional athlete, that I would be in my current situation.

Coaching is pretty personal and a lot of my sessions are individual. While every athlete has a goal with plans and strategies, each athlete will process information completely differently.

I have learnt that you cannot use a blanket style of coaching. I have to engage individually, hear their feedback individually and find their individual situation. Every athlete is working towards a world title, but for their own reasons, using their own personal drive.

I think that most supreme athletes are a little troubled and they have harness that to drive them.

Whether their goals are family, financial or performance related, each person

has their own reason to achieve.

You have to understand your own drive. Most world champions and gold medallists are troubled humans to some extent. There is something burning in them, to prove something greater than themselves.

I see that women in our sport are really connected to their family. They usually have multiple male role models with the fathers being really involved. Athletes that have been really successful are those that have had that freedom like Steph Gilmore. She is super competitive but manages to do it using grace and flow and has managed to keep her personality. In contrast, Layne Beachley really believed in women’s surfing and had to fight tooth and nail to get recognised in the sport. Every surfing girl is in debt to that woman.

Now there is a shift in journey with money and professionalism, so the athletes don’t have to do it all themselves. This is creating its own challenges with parents pushing too hard. Surfing is an expression of art and if parents are pushing too hard, then these creative abilities can be lost. www.coachinglife.com.au

SPORT

Men’s surfing is changing fast too. It’s all encompassing and to win a world title, you have to consistently reinvent yourself. The focus is never fixed and you have to keep creating new things.

They focus on how to entertain people and get their edge. You cannot win a world title the same way twice. Mick Fanning is coming up to his fourth world title and everything changes for each title. His training, his mind-set, even his body size is reshaped for each title challenge.

Focus is a daily journey for all of us My focus as a coach? I want my athletes to compete and enjoy what they are doing, then, on this, we build skills for the rest of their lives. I want them to be a complete person first before we focus on world titles. Each athlete is different, but they can all be a complete person in themselves. The focus shifts daily, so my role as a coach is to keep on top of that. I know what the end game is and how we are going to get the but focus is a daily journey for all of us.

Andy King is a former top 35 WQS surfer and was Head Coach of the Red Bull Surfing Program for seven years working closely with three-time ASP World Champion Mick Fanning and fellow World Tour competitors Julian Wilson, Adriano de Souza, Michel Bourez and Tiago Pires. Brought up in Cronulla and coming through the ranks of the Cronulla Boardriders Club, Andy was ranked 27 on the WQS when a career-ending injury in 2004 bought his competitive days to an end.

Andy was faced with two options – either let the incident box him in as a victim or pick himself up and give back to the sport that had given him so much. A role as a mentor became available with Red Bull and Andy played a key role in creating a smooth pathway for juniors through the WQS to the ASP World Tour. With four of his surfers qualifying for the elite level of the sport after progressing through his program, Andy spent four years on the World Tour as a mentor and coach for the surfers before joining Surfing Australia in 2013.

SURFING AUSTRALIA – COACH’S CODE OF ETHICS • Respect the rights, dignity and worth of every human being • Ensure the athlete’s time spent with you is a positive experience • Treat each athlete as an individual

• Any physical contact with athletes should be appropriate to the situation and necessary for the athlete’s skill development • Refrain from any form of personal abuse towards your athletes

• Be fair, considerate and honest with athletes

• Refrain from any form of harassment towards your athletes

• Be professional and accept responsibility for your actions

• Provide a safe environment for training and competition

• Make a commitment to providing a quality service to your athletes

• Show concern and caution toward sick and injured athletes

• Operate within the rules and spirit of your sport

• Be a positive role model for your sport and athletes

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RIC CHARLESWORTH I

recently caught up with Dr Richard (Ric) Charlesworth, a name known around the world for his excellence in coaching Hockey and considered one of the Australia’s greatest coaching minds. If you ever wanted to know pick the brains of the coach’s coach, read on.

CL: What do you focus on when starting to build a team?

If you are building the local under 15’s, the school team, the state or National team, you come to it with a different amount of knowledge as you have different quality players. But philosophically, you try to build a team that utilises the skills of the players you have rather than fulfilling any predetermined view you have as to how the game should be played. You don’t always have the right mix of skills unlike the national coaches who will have gifted players to work with.

You need to find out who you have and what they can do. Then, if there are big deficiencies, you have to work on those

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areas, but essentially you have to find a way of playing that fits with your players rather than fit your players to a way of playing. If you have years to build a team then it’s a little bit different, but mostly, as coaches, we don’t have that time and there will always be areas that you need to either pay attention to or avoid.

Find a way to fit the game to the players you have.

Coaching is much more than just a training session. There is a lot of logistical stuff that you need to get on top of. As you start to improve then you can use video and other experts to gain a sense of how the team should play.

You make a mistake if you are not expansive in how you want to go about it. If you have a pretty narrow view, then you don’t do justice to the players or give them the opportunity to take risks and expand their game. You have a duty to do that, especially with young players.

CL: How do you get players, certainly younger players, to focus after a mistake?

Right from the beginning you have to set the expectation. Things will go wrong. Expect that and see it is a learning opportunity. You have to have the view that it is about learning and developing. The reason that you become good is because you make lots of mistakes and you learn from them.

Mistakes are your friends in a way.

3 TYPES OF MISTAKES There are three types of mistakes.

There are mistakes that are made because we are careless, there are mistakes made because we are not good enough and mistakes made because we are trying something too hard for us. If we don’t have the skill, then we want to practice so that we can get it. If we make mistakes because we are careless, then we want to avoid those. But if we are trying something that is too hard, then these are good mistakes. Mistakes of commission www.coachinglife.com.au

SPORT rather than omission. We encourage kids to try things and go for it. You can be passive or assertive and we want them to be as assertive much as possible and willing to try things.

We all make mistakes, but it’s not about fixing the blame, it’s about fixing the problem.

We always encourage them and then if they make an error, we can learn from it and do it better. Then when they do better, then we need to be there on the spot providing support and encouragement.

The most important thing for the tone of the training session is the coach’s voice. You need to be out there continuously, at the point of error and the point of success.

Set the scene. It won’t always work but this is how we get better. We all make mistakes, but it’s not about fixing the blame, it’s about fixing the problem.

CL: When working with a new team, how do you divide the time between team building and skills training?

When it comes to training, I am a “game sense” guy. You need to put things into context and the context is the game. It doesn’t have to be full field. There are lots of different ways to create the game context. You can have lots of small games that help to put the skills into context. Game where they get more touches than they normally would. That’s where they put their skills in context.

www.coachinglife.com.au

The most important thing for the tone of the training session is the coach’s voice. You need to be out there continuously, at the point of error and the point of success.

Of course, you will have skill development focus in the training but I would expect this to be about 20-30% at most. The rest of the time is devoted to putting the skills into context of the game.

You could play with two goals at each end so they can decide where the danger is or you play with a square with a goal on each side with two defenders and two attackers to help learn spatial awareness. You can overload either the defenders or attackers for emphasis.

There are all sorts of the techniques you can run games to make it interesting and fun, but at the same time they are learning spatial awareness which is probably the most important skill. Where am I on the field, what things are available.

For individual sports, the emphasis is different. If you are going to teach someone to run, then you better put them in races sometimes to get the context. Some sports are about repeating exactly the same action again and again to develop perfect technique and routine. These are different to invasion ball games which is where I spent most of my time.

When it comes to invasion ball games, the principles are all the same. You get hold of the thing, you try to keep it, you get penetration and try and score. If you lose it then you try to force errors and get it back again. Once you have it back again, you keep it, work for penetration and try to score. If you are missing any of these elements then you are not going to be very successful.

These principles work any invasion ball game such as basketball, football, netball, basketball, hockey or any of those games.

How you divide you time as a coach depends on where you are and what your team needs but essentially you will be working towards these key principles.

CL: Was there a particular coach that you learned from?

You learn from every coach you work with and every sport you watch.

Everyone’s got something to offer.

I read a lot and look at what other people do and experiment in your game. Watch and listen to you players, they are great innovators and they will come up with new ways of doing things. In Hockey there have been

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SPORT some dramatic changes. The rules have changed, the equipment has changed, the skills have changed which means we have to constantly adapt and find new ways.

In the 1970’s I was watching Ron Barresi and people like Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff in European Soccer.

I followed people like David Parkin and Wayne Bennet because of their approach. Of course, Frank Murray taught me a lot as my coach in Western Australia and was coaching the men’s team while I was coaching the women’s team. Merv Adams was our coach in the national and state team when couldn’t beat the sub-continental teams, India and Pakistan. He was the first to say that we could do it and this is how we go about it.

I was influenced by many people.

Some were better motivators, some were more tactical and some created a better team environment. Each coach had a different flavour.

Then in the 1980’s we started counting things. Before then we would go to the pub and talk about the game. We were coaching by anecdote but now with video we can analyse the game in detail. Even junior teams now video the matches and a few times a year, we look at what happens in the games and review this with the players.

CL: What is your internal focus for coaching?

When working with a new team, you want to get them fit and you want to find out what they can do. You want to set the scene. This is the environment in which we are going to work. Not everything is going to be easy and mistakes will be made but together we will find a way forward. I start by creating a platform of defence and then build attack on that base.

The two main things you have to do is make it fun and interesting, otherwise they won’t keep coming back. The second thing is to have energy. You’ve got to have your own energy. I got to the stage coaching the national team when I thought, I don’t know if I have

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the energy anymore. I could have been coaching into Rio but there were other priorities for me and I thought, “I can’t do justice to this”.

As a coach, you have to be there 100% of the time. As a rule of thumb, I recommend allowing for double the contact hours for a proper commitment. You have to prepare for the training sessions beforehand and then review what happened afterwards.

When you are coaching, you have to present, alive, energetic and set the tone.

CL: Where do you see the focus of coaching going in the future?

In order to do well you need speed, strength, endurance, skill, tactical nouse, cooperation and resilience.

When things go wrong, they have to keep going. You want to develop all of those things but where possible you want to do a lot of those things together. You can get them fit while they are learning skills and training tactics.

If you combine the right type of training you want to spend time on skills, time

on analysis of past performance so they don’t keep making the same mistakes.

We had a period in Australian Sport when there was a lot of emphasis on sport science and physiology and this is important but I think you better have a strategy that fits your players. You want to provide an environment where the players can express themselves and where they own the tactics.

Building cooperation and understand how they interlock together. They can be individuals but they need to play for each other. The team that cooperates better will be the more successful team. When you’re a kid you’re just thinking about personal gratification and sometimes you have to sacrifice your personal ambition for the team. This comes back to the players approach and increasingly there is a need for specialist coaches in a team and Human Behaviour might be the next specialist area. This is an area we need to better at in sport.

Understanding human behaviour, what’s going on in the brain impacts on how training works. www.coachinglife.com.au

SPORT For example, I think that teamwork is a morale issue. Teamwork is about doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons. Mostly we know the right thing to do, but don’t necessarily want to do it. You have to develop that in your team. Good teams need good citizens.

Most people in business now realise that culture trumps strategy. You need guidelines and strategies but once the game starts, ten minutes into the game you may have to change it. You have to be able to fix things in real time. If your players cannot do that then you’re in trouble.

CL: What has your coaching journey been for you?

I was an accidental coach. I first started when I was 17 in university, coaching the Under 14’s. Eventually, I coached the under 21 state team, I coached the club team as Captain/coach. In 1975, at 22 I coached the state team because the coach was ill and we won.

That was my informal introduction to coaching.

In 1992, I made a lifestyle choice to leave Federal Parliament and return to practicing medicine. At least that was my plan. At the time, I was coaching his daughters under 14 team and in October 1992, I got a call from the girls who had returned from the Barcelona

Olympics. At that stage I only had a Level 2 coaching qualification but I applied for the job which was my first job interview. I got the job and in the first year as national coach, I got my level 3 qualification and wrote a paper on designer games which is still relevant today. It’s about designing training that gives us the skills while getting fit. We had almost no running unless it related to the game. We just trained with the stick and ball.

What has the coaching journey been to me? Instead of going to work in a shirt and tie, I go to work in a t-shirt and shorts and for 8 years I worked with a group of amazing women that were very skilful and ambitious.

The wonderful thing about coaching is that it’s about helping people reaching their potential.

It’s not that same as playing but it’s a very satisfying thing to do. I don’t think there is a player that came along knowing how good they can be. My job is to stretch them, so they expand their horizons and become much better than they thought they could be.

For me, it’s been very satisfying way to spend your time. I want the team to do well, but it’s really satisfying to see the individual succeed. I think I have a

pretty good relationship with the players I have coached. When you are coaching you don’t, but subsequently it’s one of the nicest things about the job.

CL: Do you regret not practicing medicine more?

I used the things that I had learnt studying medicine; the physiology, the sports medicine, the psychology.

All those things that were part of my training and still use today, but you make a choice in life. I was working in general practice and had already decided that I wanted to do something else when the political chance came along. After a decade in Federal Parliament, my plan was to go back into medicine and another thing opened up. I think the interesting thing about life now is that, unlike in our parent’s time, when you could have one job for life, you are continuously retraining. I’m now doing some work with the AFL and Sports Commission. I work at my son’s school in the hockey program and am writing my new book.

I never thought there would be a living in coaching but now there is a pathway for people. I think you do what your best at and services are going to be an important part of the new economy.

There are now many ways in which you can make a living from coaching.

HOCKEY AUSTRALIA’S COACHING APP ENABLES HOCKEY COACHES TO PROVIDE BEGINNER TO ELITE PLAYERS WITH IMMEDIATE VISUAL FEEDBACK DURING TRAINING SESSIONS AND COMPETITION. • Records video in HD with selectable frame rate • Full speed control on playback including frame by frame and slow motion.

• Dual mode video overlay video for comparison and coaching analysis • Screen record of all modes with annotations and voice over for coaching instructions • Zoom control on recording and also on playback • 19 Reference videos • Speedometer to measure ball speed from a video recording • Produces coaching reports to share over email, dropbox, youtube or facebook www.coachinglife.com.au

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NICOLE PRATT I GREW UP ON A SUGAR CANE FARM NEAR MACKAY AND WAS INTRODUCED TO TENNIS WHEN MY DAD BULLDOZED A COURT IN THE DIRT NEXT TO THE HOUSE AND PUT UP A WOODEN PRACTICE WALL. MY PARENTS ALSO PLAYED FIXTURES ON THE WEEKENDS SO I WAS ALWAYS AROUND THE TENNIS COURTS.

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ad (George Pratt) was a pretty good junior in Queensland and won the local championships for 20 years in a row. He went to one of the Harry Hopman camps with Rod Laver and Lew Hoad but decided to work rather than pursue tennis.

While everyone in the family valued the sport, I was the first in my family to really grab it with both hands, winning state championships and nationals.

I played until I was 34 and retired in 2008 and really just fell into coaching with Casey Dellacqua as my first player.

I was working with the WTA on their new tour structure in Miami when Casey’s fitness trainer approached me. Casey was struggling a bit and needed some tennis input, so we started as a trial and before I knew it, I was a full-time coach.

Coaching was something I knew I always wanted to do after retiring.

When I could, I would help my peers and often dive quite deep into the tactical side. I loved the finer details of strategy, game plan and management,

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so I was always offering advice to upand-coming Australian players.

At 15, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport for four years. One of the first coaches I worked with was the infamous Ray Ruffels, who was really the first coach to head up the AIS program in Australia. Ray taught me to take a chance and give opportunity on talent rather than results alone.

My other main coaching influence, while I was living in America, was the Italian, Lorenzo Beltrame. He was always passionate and a real tactician of the game. I really gravitated towards these coaches and, on retirement as a player, wanted to give back to the sport that had given so much to me.

STAYING FOCUSED When I was growing up, I would stay focused by setting lots of small process-oriented goals that would help me stay on track and in the moment.

I think being in the moment is vitally important to focus. Not thinking about www.coachinglife.com.au

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Coaching was something I knew I always wanted to do after retiring.

When I could, I would help my peers and often dive quite deep into the tactical side. what has happened before or what will happen after.

For example, I would set a goal of seeing how many balls in a row I could hit against the practice wall without making a mistake. When you practice wall is made out of wood on a dirt court, that’s quite a challenge. Once I got tired of doing that, I would then see how many volleys I could do in a row.

On the court, I would focus on getting my first serve in or, if I had made too many mistakes, I would focus on hitting every ball cross court and if they hit a winner then so be it. There are many mini goals that I would use to stay focused every day.

To keep myself focused as a coach today, I still use these techniques and set mini goals for myself, my players and the organisation. I focus on what I want to achieve, what’s important to me and try to maintain balance.

Focus is critical to achieving success in any area or expertise, so I now pass these techniques onto my athletes.

I get them to set mini-goals on and off the court. Even small discipline skills like keeping eye contact during a conversation. Not only are we trying to be a tennis coach, we are trying to teach them life skills as well.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND FOCUS As the head of Women’s Tennis, I still work with the younger players in a camps and one of the biggest factors www.coachinglife.com.au

for distraction and lack of focus for kids today is social media. According to a recent Nielson survey, teenage girls send over 4,000 text messages per month. I don’t think that is too dissimilar for the adults either. It’s a major distraction across the board in every different field.

With the players I am working with, we shut down all social media access for them one week prior to the event. We take it off the phone but we understand it is important to their brand, so we have strategies to ensure this is still maintained.

After having social media removed, one athlete admitted that she felt addicted to it. So then we created ongoing strategies and boundaries around using social media.

Tennis Australia are working towards simple guidelines like not checking social media after a match. It helps athletes stay on track and focus on what is important. They appear less distracted and have more mental energy for longer periods of time. On tours and development camps, there are no phones allowed at dinner or lunch. To have focus you have to have energy. After education about the boundaries, it’s about respect to your coach and sport.

Former Australian No.1, Nicole Pratt is Tennis Australia’s Fed Cup coach and head of women’s professional tennis.

In 1991, she won the Australian Open Junior Championships and won her first WTA title in Hyderabad in 2004. Contesting 18 Australian Opens, her best Grand Slam was in 2003 when she reached the fourth round. In 2002, she made the third round at Wimbledon and the US Open, achieved a career-high singles ranking of No.35 (June 2002) and won five ITF singles titles.

In doubles, she reached the semi-

Even at the club level, I would recommend putting down the phone at least an hour prior to a match. We also know that looking at a screen prior to bed affects the quality of the sleep which impacts recovery, energy levels and focus.

TECHNOLOGY AND FOCUS Not all technology is bad for focus though. Tennis in Australia now uses far more technology on and off the courts.

Vision is really important to the younger players, so we record every training session. We have a screen on court so the athlete can immediately see for themselves the thing they are trying to improve. There is even a mobile application for training monitoring which tracks a player’s workload and wellbeing to help guide the coach.

We also code every match so that we can quickly see all 30-0 points or all forehand error points at the touch of a button. Recording every match for the last 5 years, Tennis Australia now has a database with over 1,000 professional matches that we can draw on for role modelling.

Use of technology in tennis may still be a long way off other sports but in term of vision and analysis, coaching in Australia is leading the world. finals of the US Open and the last eight at the Australian and French Opens. Reaching a doubles ranking high of No.18 (September 2001), she captured nine WTA doubles titles and nine ITF. Nicole represented Australia at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics where she reached the third round.

With over 10 years commentating for Fox Sports, she has developed a unique perspective on tennis coaching and is currently coaching Daria Gavrilova, currently ranked at 36 in the world.

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By Matthew Betsey

CRICKET AUSTRALIA’S FOCUS IS TO BE AUSTRALIA’S FAVOURITE SPORT – A SPORT FOR ALL AUSTRALIANS! OVER 1.2 MILLION PEOPLE A YEAR PLAY CRICKET IN AUSTRALIA AND BENEFIT FROM THE BUZZ OF HITTING THE BALL, TAKING A WICKET OR GRABBING A CATCH, AS WELL AS ENJOYING THE CAMARADERIE OF BEING PART OF A TEAM.

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o achieve this, Cricket Australia has a whole of pathway focus to increase participation. This will be achieved by inspiring kids and engaging communities as well as producing the best teams, players, competitions, coaches and officials in the world. From the Backyard to the Baggy Green, coaching is a key area to ensure cricket can attract young players to the game, retain players in the pathway and stretch the best cricketers so that being No.1 is inevitable!

From a coaching perspective, Cricket Australia has focused on the following five areas to bring the vision to life.

THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKET PATHWAY We want all cricketers to maximise their cricketing skills and enjoy a successful career. Beginning with our great MILOin2CRICKET and MILO T20BLAST programs for children and working through different representative levels to state and national teams. It is clear to all players that if they are good enough, there is a clear pathway for them to succeed.

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The Australian Cricket Pathway is based on the Australian Institute of Sport FTEM model (Foundation Talent Elite Mastery) to create a clear, attractive and aligned pathway for players and coaches at all levels to future proof cricket. The model is built on skills & capabilities that align to competition formats, coaching and talent identification to ensure positive and enjoyable cricket experiences.

This is a National Approach with Local Implementation that encourages Local Innovation.

Guiding principles of the Australian Cricket Pathway: • FOUNDATION SKILLS ARE CRITICAL • INDIVIDUAL’S SKILL IS ASSESSED THROUGHOUT • PROGRESSION IS BASED ON SKILL LEVEL • HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT • LEARNING IS NOT LINEAR • PREMIER CRICKET IS CRITICAL www.coachinglife.com.au

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The Australian Cricket Pathway is easy to communicate to players and parents through consistent game formats and provides coaches with an understanding of what players need to progress through developmental stages. Coaches are supported through resources and tools provided at each level.

To further support coaches across Australia, we are training coaching facilitators, connecting with past players through a partnership with the Australian Cricketers Association, locally delivered community workshops and recognition through Coach of the Year initiatives.

THE AUSTRALIAN WAY COACHING PHILOSOPHY The Australian Way Coaching Philosophy has been developed to unite and inspire coaches across Australia to focus on all players being able to ENJOY, DEVELOP, COMPETE and SUCCEED at every level. The Australian Way is best summarised by Sir Donald Bradman in his book “THE ART OF CRICKET” (1958) where he suggests when coaching (and developing players more naturally), we should tell players what we want them to do, not how to do it.

We want coaches to foster game based learning that is underpinned by the basics. The basics are important and we need to get them right early as each player will have their own way of scoring runs and taking wickets.

The Australian Way philosophy links all components of the Australian Cricket pathway through five (5) key areas; 1. COACH APPROACH - e.g. Role of the Coach 2. SCORE RUNS - e.g. Batting & Running Between the Wickets 3. TAKING WICKETS - e.g. Pace bowling, Spin bowling, wicket-keeping, catching & throwing www.coachinglife.com.au

N R E H T U O S E H T R E D N U SS I STAND CCORACHOAPPROACH CEED C U S PETE M O C ELOP V E D ENJOY

A CLEAR, ATTRACTIVE AND ALIGNED PLAYER AND COACH PATHWAY WITH LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS THAT ARE FUN, SAFE AND HIGH QUALITY. ATTRACT, RETAIN AND DEVELOP CRICKETERS AT ALL LEVELS WITH A FOCUS ON THE BASICS TO DEVELOP CRICKETERS HOLISTICALLY.

4. PREPARING TO PERFORM - e.g.

Physical, Mental & Nutrition preparation 5. LEADING THE GAME - e.g. decision making, game awareness, strategy and tactics Ultimately, coaches are encouraged to coach the basics in the context of SCORING RUNS and TAKING WICKETS

COMMUNITY COACH SUPPORT Community coaches have significant responsibility and influence the lives and sporting development of our cricket community and are the face of our great game at every oval on a Saturday morning in the city or in the country!

At a local level, coach support includes in-services to support MILO in2CRICKET and MILO T20 Blast program coordinators, the online

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“Introduction To Cricket” courses for junior club cricket coaches and mobile applications to deliver support direct to coaches mobile phones.

This support includes developing basic skills for mums and dads to manage a group of kids and is the starting point for coaches. Cricket Australia also works with State and Territory Associations to deliver Community (Level 1) and Representative (Level 2) coaching courses.

FEMALE COACH ENGAGEMENT 2015/16 will see the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL).

This will provide a visible pathway for females and more opportunities for young talent to connect to our national programs through the National u15 and u18 carnivals.

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We are very committed to providing female role models in the coaching pathway and arguably the most important coaching happens at the community level.

(male & female) across both the male and female pathway to ensure being world class is inevitable!

Cricket is focused on ensuring that the game reflects the community and provides opportunity for the development of female coaches which is a key “game changer” in terms of how cricket is opening the doors and being inclusive across Australia.

Two key focus areas are;

Shelley Nitschke who will be Assistant Coach to Ryan Harris for the Cricket Australia XI Male u17 team competing in the U19 Male National Championships.

2. Ensure females are provided opportunities to deliver coach education

In 2015, Cricket Australia is conducting a number of initiatives to increase the number of females coaching including providing the opportunity for 500 females to attend fully funded, Community (Level 1) courses as well as High Performance Coaching opportunities including

As part of our Coach Development Program, we ensured that leaders across Australian Cricket are facilitating learning with our coaches including Belinda Clark (Senior Manager of the National Cricket Centre) and Christina Matthews (CEO of the WACA) Further, we have set aggressive targets to ensure more females are engaged in Community Coach Development - we aim to be World Best!

Ashleigh Barty (former International Tennis player – Junior Wimbledon champion) who will coach the u15 Cricket Australia XI team (with Julia Price) in the Female National Championships and

We are very committed to providing female role models in the coaching pathway and arguably the most important coaching happens at the community level. We strongly believe in developing our players and coaches

1. Increase the number of female cricket coaches in Australia

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Elite Coach Development The Australian Cricket Elite Coach Development Program aims to identify and develop future elite coaches in Australia so that Australian Men’s and Women’s teams, supported by the most comprehensive Coach Development system in the world, can be number one in the world in all formats.

The program will; • identify and develop the best coaches • provide a clear pathway for elite coaches • develop world class cricketers … and has four key areas for developing coaches;

COACH PROFILING AND EVALUATION As a part of being a coach in national or state High Performance programs, Cricket Australia has developed a Coach Profile and Evaluation tool through its Athlete Management System (AMS). Each coach is able to complete a profile of themselves so that they can reflect on their own coaching, they are then able to complete a 360-degree evaluation. www.coachinglife.com.au

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THE ELITE COACH (LEVEL 4) DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM This targeted program is for current elite coaches who are employed within the Australian Cricket system as full-time employees and already have High Performance (Level 3) coach accreditation. The program is driven by national program staff and engages the best coaches to share their knowledge and experience e.g. Ric Charlesworth and Wayne Bennett in 2015.

THE HIGH PERFORMANCE COACHING PROGRAM The Cricket Australia (CA) High Performance Coaching Program is registered with the Australian Sports Commission as part of the National Coach Accreditation Scheme (NCAS) and is facilitated over a 12-month period including pre-residential tasks, a one-week residential course and post residential tasks including a

coaching diary, regular mentor sessions culminating with an exit job interview.

COACH MENTOR PROGRAM In support of coaches who are working in the High Performance pathway in their states, CA are providing coaching mentors that work with coaches based on their coaching profile and their development plan.

Cricket Australia provides this support at ALL National Championships (male & female) and for the Australian Country Cricket Championships, the National

Indigenous Cricket Championships, National Indoor Cricket championships and for the National All abilities teams.

While not everyone can fulfil the dream of representing Australia, it’s good to know there is a clear route from the backyard to the baggy green.

So even if you’ve never held a bat, are desperate to get back into it or have a passing interest, there’s never been a better time to start playing Australia’s Favourite Sport.

Matthew Betsey National Coaching Manager, Cricket Australia (@MattBetsey) Matthew is currently engaged by Cricket Australia in the capacity of National Coaching Manager. Matthew leads the National Coach Development team to ensure Cricket can attract, retain and develop coaches who help instil The Australian Way to unite and inspire the nation - from Backyard to the BaggyGreen!

During his time with Cricket Australia, Matthew has completed secondments to the Champions League Twenty20 tournament as an Operations Manager in 2010 (South Africa) and 2011 (India). He also managed the inaugural National Indigenous team tour to India in 2012 and has delivered programs on the sub-continent, UAE, the West Indies and America’s region and across Asia. In 2015, he completed the prestigious Business of Entertainment Media and Sport program at Harvard Business School.

www.coachinglife.com.au

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GOLF, KAIZEN, FOCUS IN MY ROLE AS NATIONAL GOLF COACH FOR GOLF AUSTRALIA, AS WELL AS COACHING CLUB GOLFERS AND BEGINNERS ON A DAILY BASIS, I AM CONSTANTLY CHALLENGED BY THE QUESTIONS; “WHAT SHOULD I FOCUS ON WHEN I AM PLAYING GOLF; WHEN I AM HITTING MY SHOT AND IN BETWEEN SHOTS?”

By Dean Kinney

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he psychology of golf, other sports and life itself, really boils down to that one word, FOCUS and where is it, at those critical moments in time.

The great Gary Player, who won 163 times world-wide, including 9 majors and is only 1 of 5 players to win all 4 majors recently said; “On a scale of 1-100 I would say my confidence was usually about 105. It all comes down to what you focus on. You have the choice to focus on something that is constructive or destructive.”

Focus is therefore a choice that needs to be decided on prior to performance and practised both in the practise and competitive environment. It is a trait that the best golfers are all renowned for.

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The best golfer of all time, Jack Nicklaus is one such golfer, famous for his immense level of focus. He once said “I never hit one shot, even in practise without a clear picture of exactly where the ball was going to finish and the ball flight that was required to get it there”.

Ben Hogan, nicknamed the “hawk” for his steely glare, was so focused on his own play during the U.S Masters that he did not even notice his playing partner having a hole in one on the famous 12th hole. Hogan, after a birdie of his own, walked to the next tee to take the honour with his tee shot and commented “you know that is the first birdie I have ever made on that hole” without the slightest recognition of his opponents amazing feat. www.coachinglife.com.au

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“What should I focus on when I am playing golf; when I am hitting my shot and in between shots?” of elite performers. Guy explained during a recent round of golf that he never understood why he achieved so much in his sporting career, being the world champion in 3 different athletic disciplines, until he started training other successful people from all walks of life.

Research in psychology conclusively shows that performance is enhanced when a person sets high but achievable goals and focuses on them with passion and determination.

Annika Sorenstam, arguably the greatest female golfer of all time, learnt this from her legendary coach and teacher Pia Nilsson, who was her mentor as she grew up in the Swedish National program. Nilsson instilled the idea of specific powerful goals for each session, round, tournament and season. Nilsson’s passion was to “change the belief structure” so players could stretch their potential to new levels. She encouraged Annika to believe in a vision called VISION 54 (a vision that it was possible to birdie every hole) and this guided Annika’s training and FOCUS in every session.

Annika believed in that possibility and broke down each component of the game in detail and researched with Pia and her team on how she could be the best in every area. To shoot 54, you must be the fittest, strongest golfer, the most mentally strong, the best driver of the ball, the best putter, have the best emotional control, etc., etc.

When Annika shot 59, the first and only women to do so in a PGA event, she www.coachinglife.com.au

thought of it just as one step closer to a 54.

At a recent High Performance Camp, I arranged for Olympic Champion Herb Elliot (a very keen golfer and now successful businessman) to address the athletes. His engaging and inspiring speech enforced the notion that mental toughness was the most important attribute to develop to succeed in both sport and life. He encouraged the thinking that he focussed on 2 specific concepts that guided his life.

• To better himself every day • To win The winning was always the secondary goal and was an outcome of doing the first. He trained improving his mental toughness every day, explaining that every person in every field he has ever known had the little voice in their head telling them they didn’t deserve it, or were not got enough.

“They were just like me”. The focus and discipline they had at the expense of all else was a common theme.

From 7 time world champion surfer, Layne Beachley, to Madonna, to top businessmen and women, they all were incredibly focussed and determined individuals to better themselves every day in every way.

Interestingly, he said they all have the little “gremlin” as he calls it, sitting on their shoulder, telling them to cut corners or that they are good enough.

He said that the little gremlin can NEVER WIN. He will never be quiet forever but you learn ways of quietening him more often and more quickly through training. The training was always way harder than the race. In fact he used to be to get incredibly nervous before training in anticipation of how tough it would be.

This philosophy is the keystone to the success of the national golf program. It is known as KAIZEN. It is the GOAL OF CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT REGARDLESS OF PERFORMANCE.

Never letting that little voice win was the key to mental toughness and to bettering yourself. Certainly a clearly defined FOCUS.

Poor performance or poor shots create curiosity and hence greater motivation on improvement. Not frustration or anger.

Guy Leech, World Champion Ironman also sees this as a defining trait

This FOCUS is the underlying theme in everything we do.

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I recently returned from a trip with the national team on an international tournament in Abu Dhabi. Coming into the last day we were 15 shots behind the leaders and were a man down due to illness, meaning all of the team members scores would count toward our final total. At a team meeting prior to the round we spoke about the focus and mindset we would need for an optimal performance. Being an individual sport, each athlete had the chance to reveal how they were going to produce their best.

Player 1 wanted to know exactly what he had to do, what the other teams were doing and how his team mates were going. Player 2 said he did not want to know or see anything. We devised a game plan for him to keep him more in the present. The game involved him breaking the 18 holes up into 6 lots of 3 holes. His goal was to shoot 1 under or better for each 3 hole

stretch and then forget about it and go onto the next 3 holes. One player ended up shooting 64 (8 under par) and the other shot 81 (9 over par). Can you guess which player was which?

Player 1 shot 81. He learnt that for his optimal performance he must focus on the things he can control and ask the right questions to focus his mind.

Questions in your head direct this focus. Powerful questions create images. Powerful images create the focus necessary for optimal performance. The right questions are very powerful, just as poor questions will produce unsupportive images that will lead to poor focus and poor results.

Questions like; • What is my strategy for this hole?

• What is my Target?

• Where is my focus right now?

These are all questions that keep you committed to moving forward onto the next performance.

FOCUS is therefore a critical component of elite performance and the best way to learn to focus is to ask yourself the right questions.

Dean Kinney National Coach, NSW High Performance Manager.

Golf NSW, Golf Australia.

POWERFUL QUESTIONS CREATE IMAGES. POWERFUL IMAGES CREATE THE FOCUS NECESSARY FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE. 24 // COACHINGLIFE

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WE HAVE CREATED A PLATFORM FOR YOU TO COMMUNICATE WITH COACHES OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES. FROM ‘COACHES TO BE’ TO ‘COACHES WITH EXPERIENCE’, COMPANIES AND TEAMS LOOKING FOR COACHES AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. Our readers tell us they are keen for information on how to maintain health and wellbeing, advance their craft and enhance their lifestyle. Now you can be part of this conversation by advertising in COACHING LIFE, the premier magazine for coaches of all disciplines in Australia.

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With over $1 Billion being spent each year in the US, Australia is rapidly following the trend with over 250,000 coaches already.

If you want to reach this growing market, download the media kit from the website or contact the office for more information.

WWW.COACHINGLIFE.COM.AU/ADVERTISING As well as national coverage via newsagents and subscribers, we also have strategic contacts for distribution with the following organisations.

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FOCUS

By Daniel Inderwisch

MY PERSONAL JOURNEY; BEING INVOLVED IN SPORT MOST OF MY LIFE; HAS LEAD ME TO ACHIEVE MANY GREAT THINGS. I HAVE LEARNED LIFE CHANGING LESSONS ALONG THE WAY AND OVER THE COURSE OF TIME, THESE LESSONS HAVE CARVED ME INTO THE VERY PERSON I AM TODAY.

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y the age of 10 I was at a nationally recognised level in competitive swimming and right by my side was my late father, the man I looked up to and learned from.

He was there for my brother and I, no matter what sport we were into, or what role he had to play to be there with us.

To him it didn’t matter if he was just timekeeping pool side in the sweltering North Queensland sun or being the local soccer coach for 6 consecutive years. It didn’t hurt that we won the local season championship trophy for 5 of those years.

My father believed in me and didn’t let anything become an excuse. As a ‘smaller statured’ person it could have been easy to settle for less, but my father always had a way and a reason to turn what could have been a

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weakness into a strength rather than an excuse. He encouraged me to turn it, quite literally, into a strength.

In 2014, I placed 5th in the GPC National Titles with successful attempts of a 225kg Squat, 150kg Bench Press and 212.5kg Deadlift. To date this has been my highest achievement in the sport of Powerlifting and my most memorable, leaving me with a total of 587.5kg at 81.2kg in body weight. I currently hold the Sub-masters under 75kg National Bench Press record in the Global Powerlifting Committee of 142.5kg. These achievements that have taught me many lessons in life. Lessons that I love passing onto whomever I have the privilege of coaching. It is not the titles that mean the most to me, although I appreciate and enjoy them. What means the most www.coachinglife.com.au

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Powerlifting, for me, is not just about training the physical body, but also the mind. We have all heard the saying “you are only as strong as your weakest link”. to me are the obstacles that I overcame to achieve them.

We see people on competition day get on the platform and make their lifts, but rarely do we stop to consider the journey that had to go on in order to get to that point. One of the greatest makers or breakers of any person in any competitive arena is their mindset.

The right or wrong mindset will dictate the results they achieve. I am a firm believer that the achieved results come www.coachinglife.com.au

from a 60/40 equation. 60% of your lift will be made by the mindset you have and the other 40% will be the body’s trained ability to complete the lift. You can be an incredibly strong person and have no physical reason for missing a lift, but if your mindset is weak then chances are, you will miss the lift.

Powerlifting, for me, is not just about training the physical body, but also the mind. We have all heard the saying “you are only as strong as your weakest link”. Through my years of competing, I have witnessed nerves completely overtake people and ultimately affect their lifting ability on the day. They then walk away discouraged, feeling like they didn’t achieve, when in fact their physical ability was never in question. It was simply the inability to take control of their minds.

The ability to calm your mind and thoughts while not letting your surroundings get you all worked up takes an incredible amount of selfcontrol and focus. That’s why I take on the job to train my clients physically and mentally. Preparing them for the

battles in the mind that they will come up against. Running them through scenarios that may happen and supporting them all the way.

As a coach, I always think long term and try to see the bigger picture. I like to get to know my clients and understand their strengths and weaknesses. With that knowledge I can tailor their programs to give them their desired physical results and challenge them in ways that will cause mental growth as well. I like to stimulate selfbelief in my clients and really stir them up on the inside, challenging them to “believe” that they can achieve greater than great results.

I currently have a client who I have worked with for the past 5 months.

She had only been lifting weights for 6 months when she first came to me asking for help. At that stage, her confidence was extremely low. Her lifting had come to a halt and she was frustrated and discouraged. She was ready to go find another gym thinking that would solve her problems.

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I began getting to know her, finding out her goals and offered to do her a program. A couple of months into the program, she was still mentally struggling with lifting, watching women around her thrive and achieve new PBs (personal bests) regularly. I could see she was not in a good state. I then offered Personal Training sessions in which I helped her make changes and then stood watching, cheering her on, helping her strengthen a solid technique in all lifts, remaining strong from start to finish, tightening everything, locking her core, all things that are incredibly important for any lifter to do.

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Three months after we began the Personal Training sessions, something clicked inside of her and her whole approach to the bar, the weights, the goal changed. It was like she went to sleep one night and woke up completely different. Her mental strength, her focus, had grown. She was no longer looking at the bar with a defeated mindset but rather a dominant mindset.

This is not just an isolated incident.

Strength sports are becoming increasingly popular with females and I believe this is due to the confidence and self-esteem that carries over from

training in the gym into every day life situations.

My number one goal in coaching others is to see them actually believe in themselves and their potential. In order to achieve this, I first have to earn their trust.

In preparation for this article I was speaking to a client of mine and her words blew me away, so I asked if I could use them. Here is what she said. “My greatest achievement in Powerlifting to date has been learning to trust. Trust means reliance on the integrity, strength and ability of a person. I have learned to completely www.coachinglife.com.au

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trust you and in doing so it has given me the ability to focus on all you set me to do, knowing that if you say I can do it, then I can do it”. Powerful words from a woman that had little confidence in herself at the beginning.

Coaching is a personal commitment that cannot be taken lightly. We live in a busy world and everyone is time poor, so I make it my utmost priority to design programs that suit each individual’s personal circumstances. I ensure that each time they enter the gym, they have enough time to complete the session for the day and make every lift technically sound. To have that focused time is paramount to the results they achieve.

Powerlifting is so often looked upon as an individual sport, but it is far from that. Being a great Powerlifter requires a great support network behind you.

Every lifter who steps onto the platform has had people watching, supporting, encouraging and believing in them.

Whether they get the lift or miss the lift, their people support them, with either cheers of congratulations or hugs of compassion. They have an understanding of the hard work, dedication and obstacles they overcame to be there in the first place.

I have learned a lot through my competitive lifting career; a big lesson is that timing is everything. There are so many small components that need to come together in order to make a great lifter and to produce the “perfect” lift.

I have never met one person that was identical to another and I have never coached one person the same way I have coached another. I am challenged with each new client I obtain that I do my absolute best no matter if they are 15 or 75 years of age. They deserve and get my utmost respect, committed attention, focus on their situation and the goals they wish to achieve. I have learned to give and enjoy the process of watching people thrive.

When I resigned from my fulltime job of 15 years in order to fulfil my dream of coaching, it was a risk, but one that had to be made. I have never felt this peaceful about making such a big decision. Not just for myself but also for my family. I have found the purpose is back in my life and it is truly liberating to do what I want and to call it my job.

We are all a product of our environment.

How is your environment changing you?

Daniel is a member of Powerlifting Australia (PA) and a full time coach at Brisbane North Barbell. He is particularly proud of the environment they have created where anybody of any age or lifting experience can come in and feel comfortable. Our community is not restricted but rather empowered.

POWERLIFTING AUSTRALIA THE AUSTRALIAN SPORTS COMMISSION RECOGNISED GOVERNING BODY OF POWERLIFTING IN AUSTRALIA AND FIT2B, A LEADING REGISTERED TRAINING ORGANIZATION AND CERT III/IV FITNESS PROVIDER, HAVE MADE AVAILABLE A POWERLIFTING COACHING COURSE FOR SPORTSPEOPLE, TRAINERS AND COACHES. LEARN EFFECTIVE STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING TECHNIQUES VIA A COURSE THAT IS UNIQUE BECAUSE IT IS – • Fitness Australia approved and gives you 14 CEC points.

• The base for Australian Sports Commission recognition as a Level 1 Powerlifting Coach.

• Completed in a compact 2-day time period, or can be customized for your gym, club or group.

• Led only by international level Powerlifters and Powerlifting Coaches.

Go to www.powerliftingknowledge.com for more details.

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WING CHUN -

TRADITIONAL KWOON CULTURE CREATING A FOCUSED, EFFICIENT LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR MUTUAL BENEFIT, WELLNESS, GROWTH AND COMMUNITY.

IMAGINE A PLACE THAT WAS OPEN FOR TRAINING FOR LONG HOURS. WHERE YOU COULD JUST ROCK-UP AND LEAVE WHEN IT SUITED YOU, BASED ON YOUR SCHEDULE, YOUR PERSONAL PROFICIENCY, MATURITY AND MOOD ON A GIVEN DAY.

By Corey Slade

F

irst let me paint a picture for you in respect to a typical Wing Chun Kung Fu training session as we ‘Coaches/Leaders/Older Kung Fu Brothers and Sisters’ aspire to and as demonstrated by our late Grandmaster, Chu Shong Tin during his 60+ years of coaching.

Imagine a place that was open for training for long hours. Where you could just rock-up and leave when it suited you, based on your schedule, your personal proficiency, maturity and mood on a given day. The closest place I can think of is a 24/7 Health Club Gym. The difference here is that the floor supervisor is generally more akin to a community elder who guides the participants as often as not indirectly using the combined wisdom and power of the resident group. Newcomers are always introduced and welcomed by the lead coach of course but it’s common

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from this point for them to be delegated to work with the more junior ranks. In this way the lead coaches’ energies are guarded (not expelled entirely on every new person that walks in the door) and directed/rewarded to the more senior/proven attendees. This also allows the lead coach to roam more freely, observe and gain a balanced perspective of newcomers and indeed the entire group and their needs. From time to time based on observations the coach may see a need to draw the group in together to explore an idea or entertain a certain theme or simply to practice a form/kata.

Essentially from day one you are not only being coached toward better Wing Chun skills but also to become a better communicator/partner/ person/ community member!

Stay long enough, train often and you will work with brothers and sisters at all levels including the lead coach. This www.coachinglife.com.au

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method of coaching guarantees that everyone’s skill and understanding is progressively challenged every single session based on your personal needs.

The guidance provided is based upon the student’s greatest need/weakness and only changes when the partner identifies a greater need.

This way of training is a fundamental training platform only and is by no means the be all and end all, but it does, in my experience, address more problems than it creates in the long term. Initially we may have been drawn to Martial Arts and Self Defense for practical reasons. In time however we understand that, essentially, the most important reasons for continuation are for personal wellness and joy upon which we can build personal growth.

Without personal growth we couldn’t sustain our service to the community.

It’s easy to be critical of such an informal coaching methodology, particularly within the ‘Fitness Industry’ where training generally is all about how much you can get done in 45-60 min’s. I’ve also experienced authoritarian based coaching or should I say ‘Instructing’ whereby the Instructor runs every movement by the numbers like on a military parade ground. Don’t look sideways and don’t talk to anyone unless it’s the Instructor!

There are definitely benefits to such training styles, for example a highly standardised knowledge transfer, and arguably quick learn times. However, this approach works best when mixed with other coaching styles to allow a collective contribution and experience where interpersonal skills are developed alongside the physical.

10 WAYS TO FOCUS YOUR COACHING ENVIRONMENT Don’t wait for inspiration to strike.

Become the best coach you can and www.coachinglife.com.au

treat that separately and as seriously as mastering your specific sport skills.

I don’t just mean going and getting a certification either. Commence every training session as a coach, willing to serve the needs of others. Willing to really reflect on the best approach for the efficient transfer of knowledge based on the student’s personality before your own desire to impart your way or what’s trending! The fringe benefit here is (and it’s a biggy!), as you learn to convey concepts and techniques to others, your own understanding and potential application improves beyond that achievable by mere physical repetition alone.

PRAISE EVERYTHING – EXPECT NOTHING! No ‘ifs, buts or maybes’. I originally came across this approach working with children having a generally shorter attention span and more primitive co-ordination. But after some years coaching, I feel it maybe equally appropriate to apply the concept to everyone. If you coach for a long time, you realise that your expectations can get the better of you sometimes, leading to frustration, even judgment and resentment. If you want a long, less stressful coaching career, then use the old SANDWICH analogy of Praise (positive), Constructive feedback, Praise again. Try to expect nothing and ‘MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS’. This may also work the other way in that if your expectations are too progressive for a student then they may develop ‘Student Guilt’ whereby they discontinue

Don’t wait for inspiration to strike.

Become the best coach you can and treat that separately and as seriously as mastering your specific skills. due to their perceived failure or shortfall in your eyes.

LISTEN. When growing up, we received formal education on reading and writing but not how to listen. Yet, when it comes to serving others (coaching), listening is probably one of the most important skills to have. You need to learn to listen with real focus, suspending all of your judgements and opinions. You also need to be listening not just to the words but also to the non- verbal signals such as body language.

BE PRESENT. Prepare yourself by cultivating mind/body integrity prior to every coaching session. In this way you will be truly open minded and present well in your approach to session and any potential challenges. Even if you are a senior or a hands off approach type of coach, this should not be ignored.

If nothing else, it conveys leadership and earns student respect. Specifically, this means strategic and logistic preparation. A well-considered lesson COACHINGLIFE

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Many people associate coaching with helping, which clearly it is. At the same time if the coach never rocks the boat, it just becomes another nice chat. plan, theme, techniques, possible directions etc. Mentally and spiritually it means using visualization, breathing and self-awareness on the journey to address your own stress. Physically - on early arrival perform CV warming, Joint and muscular mobilization through light stretching, foam rolling and mindful movement.

Return yourself and student to the beginning/basics often if there is a plateau or impasse developmentally for it is (at risk of sounding cliché) ‘WHERE GREATNESS IS FORGED’. Along the same lines, don’t pressure yourself or feel pressured to progress a student if they haven’t grasped something to an acceptable level for fear of boring or

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losing their interest. Try looking from a different perspective or calling for others’ suggestions if stumped as a coach. This may seem like a coaching weakness at the time but will earn respect from the student as they witness you putting their needs before your own ego with a team approach.

IDENTIFY ‘DOMINANT MOVEMENT PATTERNS’ that underpin what you’re trying to have your students achieve for your given sport. A Martial Arts (DMP) example would maybe include the foot or bodywork required to gain a more advantageous position but would not contain the finishing movement such as a strike or submission. Then engineer a variety of drills, exercises or even better, games (fun things are always better absorbed) that can be performed safely in the warm-up period that encourage maximum repetitions.

In this way you’re leading students specifically to the main body of your planned session creating a perfectly safe physical preparedness (reducing likelihood for injury). This all whilst providing a more effective vehicle to roll out potential subsequent layers of technique.

Understand that aside from the ‘Sport’ skills, it’s your responsibility as coach to also impart, import and/or allow the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills at training sessions.

After all, most participants in most sports are not going to the Olympics.

Try a 5 min chat, sharing your own experiences or those of others that can benefit a student. For instance, how to deal with a certain problem in their life away from sport. In this case, drawing a distinction between ‘Failure at school or with a job application’ vs ‘Failing to try’ will be invaluable. Be careful not to jump on your soap box too often. Invite others 1st and enjoy a fresh perspective (be the student), continually evolve your thinking.

Edify those students with strengths in certain areas in front of others and admit their superiority comparatively to your own skills. Apart from conveying your own security, this encourages all students to observe and identify for themselves their own strengths and weaknesses and those of their peers. It will assist them to become increasingly inter-dependent rather than dependent or independent. www.coachinglife.com.au

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Use the 80/20 rule of coaching whereby a student is contained within an envelope of 80% success (max) and 20% failure (max) for most of the training session. Psychologically, the student is not crushed and is buoyed by regular success but is also challenged enough so as not to be bored. However sometimes when you are certain they have enough personal resilience/intrapersonal skill, have them crushed!

From a Self Defense perspective, this is very important to prepare them for

COREY SLADE Australian Wing Chun Federation Practitioner and Coach.

Master Fitness Trainer, Functional Movement and Lifestyle Coach.

Club Owner.

A challenging childhood and a sports career stopped by injury propelled Corey toward military life

potentially real life situations. They then start learning to manage the ’in’ and ‘post’ fight emotional issues.

Constructively Challenging is about not holding back but at the same time not destroying the relationship. Many people associate coaching with helping, which clearly it is. At the same time if the coaching never rocks the boat, it just becomes another nice chat. Playing back contradictions is a great way of constructively challenging. For example: I hear you want to test for a new belt

but at the same time you seem to be resisting the commitment to train your forms/kata which are a mandatory requirement to grade successfully.

Ultimately, I believe we should always try and allow some less formally structured training time within a session. This will allow students to unpack the teaching, to explore, make mistakes (they shouldn’t be treated like robots), and invite creativity, intuition, natural movement and responses.

within the Royal Australian Air Force and martial arts training. Since those early days, he’s committed to improving not only his own, but the health and wellness of others.

His current professional attention is directed toward developing a successful method of passing on effective self-defense knowledge, specifically to children and women.

THE WING CHUN WOODEN DUMMY is the most popular form of wooden dummy.

The Wing Chun wooden dummy uses an arm and leg configuration designed to cultivate fighting skill and chi simultaneously. The first versions of the Wing Chun wooden dummy were originally placed in the ground while the more modern, wall mounted design was created by Yip Man in Hong Kong to fit the needs of living in an apartment.

The Wing Chun version has three arms and one leg, which represents an opponent’s body in various positions and the lines of force the body can give out. The wooden slats on which the dummy is mounted has a springiness that is similar to a human opponent’s involuntary reaction and allows the user to practice absorbing energy into his/her stance. Due to this springiness, this type of dummy is considered an “alive” dummy. Therefore, the older version of the dummy without mounting is commonly called a “dead” dummy.

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LIVING IN BANKSTOWN, WESTERN SYDNEY, I FIRST JOINED THE ELOUERA SURF CLUB AT 4 YEARS OLD. BOTH MY DAD AND MY ELDEST BROTHER PLAYED FOOTBALL FOR ST GEORGE AND MY SISTER PLAYED FOR THE RESERVE GRADE NATIONAL BASKETBALL TEAM, SO SPORT WAS ALWAYS PART OF OUR LIFE. MY MUM HAD 35 YEARS OF NURSING AND WAS THE ELDEST OF 10, SO SHE RAN THE HOUSE WHILE MY DAD WAS THE YOUNGEST OF 10 WITH A TWIN BROTHER, SO HE HAD TO FIGHT FOR EVERYTHING.

IRONMAN FOCUS

By Wes Berg

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Life is about winning the way you’d lose and losing the way you’d win.

W

hen I was very young, my Dad taught me that there is only going to be one winner and life isn’t just about winning. He’d say “Life is about winning the way you’d lose and losing the way you’d win. If you’ve done your best, then you’ve done enough.”

Life is about winning the way you’d lose and losing the way you’d win.

My younger brother died in an accident when I was 8 and my family needed find a place to grieve and recover, so we moved out to Meroo Meadow which is close to Shoalhaven Heads on the South Coast of NSW. It was a huge change to go from a small house in Western Sydney, to a vast, beautiful countryside with cows, pigs and chooks. We raised and ate our own stock and were completely selfsufficient.

That region has a very vast stretch of coastline with a lot of open and wild conditions. Wanting to surf with my mates, my parents insisted I go through Nippers and get my awards and gain confidence in the water. I joined the Shoalhaven Surf Club and met Greg Miller who became my best friend. His mother, Geraldine was my first ever coach. The nucleus at Shoalhaven Heads included myself, Geraldine Miller as coach, Greg Miller and Drew Cancross who both competed in the Ironman series and Lilly Miller, who received the most accolades of our squad with Australian medals. The Millers made such a huge impact on my life that my daughter is named Miller out of respect for all they taught me about life and coaching. www.coachinglife.com.au

Geraldine Miller was amazing, achieving dux of her school and then dux at New South Wales University; she was the first female Australian surfing coach and first ever female level 3 coach in surf-life saving. She didn’t really swim and had never paddled a board, but I learnt everything I know from Geraldine. At the age of 18-19 she worked with us to set up a training program and by the age of 22 we were running the program with her overseeing it. This included work on the mental state, neurological state, nutrition and actual conditioning, she was an amazing, tough coach.

Geraldine was so tough, we called her “Killer Miller” and we had a camp called “Camp Kill Yourself” where the sessions were super hard. The first goal of the camp was to get us away from where we normally trained, so we travelled to places like Yamba, Byron bay and Scotts Head. We also got to share the training with the local clubs, inspiring them to lift as they watched how we trained, then joined in. She taught me that “Racing should be performance based rather than results based.” She would be more disappointed if we pulled back on ourselves rather than the results we achieved.

In 1989 I was training by myself at Shoalhaven Head Beach and I swam through a wave, when I found a shark between my arm and my body. I had a scratch on my ribs from where it had thrashed against my body, so I got out.

Geraldine said “Well the shark’s gone now, get back in the water. You tell me, do you want to get first or second?”

At the end of 1993, I was surfing at Jones Beach, Kiama Downs when I caught a left-hand wave. I got sucked into the fall of the wave and landed on a shallow sandbar, on my board and the fin went cut through the top part of my triceps. I spent the next 6 weeks in Wollongong hospital with my arm over my head, taking different steroid COACHINGLIFE

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treatments because you cannot stitch muscle. After 6 weeks, the muscle still wasn’t taking, so the doctor came in and gave me a Chinese Burn on my arm. It burst all the blood vessels in the injured area and while the pain was immense, it finally started to mend.

My career as an Ironman came from there. I had raced before then but I was always at the back of the pack. My rehab involved paddling in the river and building up the strength in the arm. Two years later I made the Ironman series.

Board became my strongest leg.

Working as a conditioning coach with the surfers was a very different world.

With Andy Irons, Joel Parkinson and Jack Freestone, I had around 4 million dollars’ worth of athletes in the gym at the same time, I had to protect them from injuries but still get them to surf at their highest capabilities. Certainly a stressful job but an amazing thing to do.

Looking at the difference between ironman and surfing. As an Ironman, you create your environment. The gun goes and you do all you can to get out around the cans. It’s all about teaching people to sit up and breath; to focus on technique and be efficient. Ironmen go through the waves where the surfers use the waves.

As a surfer, you could be the first heat of the morning and be waiting for the conditions and be waiting for two hours. You need a wave and have to score with only a minute thirty to go, then you need to be able to perform under pressure and fatigue. We do a lot of work on visualisation to help prevent emotion overriding their performance.

These days I don’t just about coach surfing and ironman. I also coached Cory Teunissen, who just finished second in the world Wakeboard championships and Mikey Mendoza, a Skateboarding protégé who is probably

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the best street skater in Australia. Then there is Jonny Durand, who is the world hang-gliding champion who went for two world records last Australia Day. I had to teach him how to swim better and how to get out of his harness in case of a water landing because the boats cannot keep up with him.

It’s amazing to come from a small country town to now working with these incredible athletes.

While all these athletes are different, there are some common themes.

Number one, you have to get the work done. Number two, you can never want something for them more than what they want. They need to be invested in what they are trying to achieve. The third thing is that the more you can educate them; the more you make yourself redundant, the better. I cannot be everywhere with everyone, so I am trying to pass on what I know.

We create programs where the athletes are involved from the very beginning with the focus on hard work, smart work and mental capacity.

Competition is tough and we don’t want them to crumble, so if we can set up a simulation where they can experience decision making under pressure and pain, then when they get there in competition, they have been there before. I put my guys in a lot of positions and taunt them with quotes, sayings and motivational signs, that puts them in the environment that they are going to compete in, so that when they arrive, they relax and just do their thing.

Coaching goes through cycles and is becoming more scientific but at the end of the day, hard work just has to be done. With the AFL and Soccer guys, coaching is being broken down to small groups, where a coach will work with only 5 athletes, so they cannot hide in a squad. Many sports are going from one coach, to assistant coaches, to a

Wes Berg is the Ironman’s Ironman with 20 years of competition under his belt.

Originally coached by Geraldine Miller, perhaps the first ever female elite IronMan coach, he has competed with every great IronMan including Trevor Hendy, Dean Mercer, Guy Andrews and Phil Clayton. He coached Joel Parkinson to world champion in 2012 and now coaches the younger IronMan and IronWoman competitors as well as skaters, wakeboarders and hang gliders.

bunch of coaches in the AFL and NRL. Nowadays a head coach can focus on the team as a whole but of course, it comes down to funding. We are lucky enough to be a self-funded club and Surf Life Saving Australia is doing a great job engaging younger kids, developing different pathways through all aspects of Surf Life Saving.

I still love competing; crossing the line beating these 23 year olds who fear me and say “why am I still racing, because I am so old.” None of this would have been possible without my wife, Jade. She was one of the highest paid females in the IronWoman series and stopped racing in 2000 because the Uncle Toby’s series folded. She understands what is required and the whole family supports me every step of the way. www.coachinglife.com.au

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BUSINESS COACHING » ROBERT GERRISH Founder, Flying Solo

JIM PRIGG Founder of Knowledgemaster DI PERCY Director Vogel Percy DR GREG CHAPMAN CEO , Empower Business Solutions ALEX COULEY Director International Centre for Leadership Coaching MICHELLE PASCOE Founder, Optimum Operating Procedures and Services Pty Ltd (OOPS)

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THE BIG OPPORTUNITIES WITH SMALL BUSINESS

By Robert Gerrish

AN EARLY PIONEER OF COACHING IN AUSTRALIA, ROBERT GERRISH WAS ON THE INAUGURAL BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL COACH FEDERATION AUSTRALASIA GAINING HIS PCC ACCREDITATION IN 2000. IN THE SAME YEAR, SERENDIPITY PLAYED A PART IN A VALUABLE PROFILE ON ABC 4 CORNERS THAT LED TO AN IMMEDIATE AND DRAMATIC EXPANSION OF HIS COACHING PRACTICE. AH, THE POWER OF MEDIA!

W

ith a background in marketing and a desire to narrow the focus of his business, Robert drew on the distinct commonalities of his favourite clients and secured the ‘solo entrepreneur’ niche with the launch of Flying Solo: Australia’s community for solo and micro business.

With this group as its distinct target market, the business has grown to a major online presence and is today home to a community of over 80,000 with a further 40,000 connecting across social networks.

Flying Solo hosts the nation’s busiest small business discussion forums; runs regular webinars and events; broadcasts a fortnightly podcast and features a team of handpicked expert contributors covering daily topics from marketing and finance, to productivity and wellbeing.

These days Robert has two business partners and together they work with a small team of editors and admin support crew.

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Every couple of years, Flying Solo surveys its community to determine what issues are keeping them awake at night. This not only helps them plan their publishing and other activities, it also highlights some obvious gaps for the small business coach.

know what’s going on here, don’t we?

At the root of a failure to attract clients (and thereby grow our income) is invariably a lack of true understanding in who the business is trying to reach and what our offering actually does for that person.

While his own coaching practice may be in hibernation, Robert is committed to the constant pursuit of initiatives to help Australian solo and micro business and was delighted to supply his top tips to engage and support the solo business owner.

Recent research by CB Insights in the U.S, confirmed that of the high number of tech start-ups who fail, the single biggest reason is the lack of a market.

To succeed, we have to know who our customer is and what we do for them.

D’oh!

As you’ll read, the opportunities are huge. Here’s Robert’s summary of the latest survey’s key findings:

Coaching tip: Work with clients to ensure their message is being heard

They want more clients Well that’s hardly a surprise is it? Ask any small business what they want more of and I’ll wager the response comes down to, ‘money’, ‘customers’ or ‘time’.

As coaches - and I still think like one, even if I’m not working as one - we

In my experience this calls for the use of super clear and engaging language and the ability to talk in terms of outcomes rather than processes.

No one cares if we’re coaches, consultants, mentors or any other kind of practitioner, what they care about is ‘what can we do for them’. This concept is a challenge for many a coach. It’s the same for small business at large. www.coachinglife.com.au

BUSINESS

As Madonna famously remarked in an interview on ABC in the U.S, when outed as a woman who couldn’t cook: “Do I have to do everything”.

interests at heart. Holding on to a dream can have more resonance than powering to a goal.

Help them get focus and clarity and both sides win. You get a new client; they get more customers.

They’d like more hours in the day Don’t we all? The bad news is we’re stuck with 24 hours, so the challenge is how to get more done in less time.

Of the 1.8 million or so solo/micro businesses in Australia, the vast majority work from a home base and many juggle business alongside family and other activities. So it’s little wonder we’re under time pressure.

Working by yourself, while wonderful in so many ways, has one humungous downside and that is that it lacks any semblance of accountability.

Coaching tip: Focus on the benefits of accountability (and choose your language carefully) Not everyone wants to grow a large business and indeed the majority of Flying Solo’s audience are purely looking to create a smart, enjoyable, lifestyle business.

Maybe don’t push the ‘achieve your goals fast’ wording too much. Instead think about a positioning that promises a means of using time more effectively, with much greater focus. Draw the picture of a working day that is balanced, calm and clear.

Be the person who has their best www.coachinglife.com.au

They’re sick of wearing so many hats Somewhat related to the previous point, small business owners are overwhelmed and the situation isn’t likely to get better any day soon.

The demands of tech, the explosion of content and the birth of the ‘everyone’s got something to say’ era, means that our attention is being spread very thin as we grapple with more distractions and ‘must dos’ in our life and business.

Not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter? Don’t have a blog or a podcast? Like seriously...OMG!!

As Madonna famously remarked in an interview on ABC in the U.S, when outed as a woman who couldn’t cook: “Do I have to do everything”.

Of course she doesn’t and nor do we.

Such is the level of angst around rapidly expanding action lists and the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) phenomenon, far too many soloists are simply paralysed into a totally unproductive state.

After all, when you’re facing an inbox with scores of unopened emails and little red flags appearing on all your gadgets, it’s just too tempting to disappear down some rabbit hole of distraction. Ooh, what is that crazy cat doing in that YouTube video??

Coaching tip: Help people recognise their priorities

At the inception of a business or the commencement of a new project, the path is often clear and the vision strong. A few months or years in, however, and it can all get a bit murky.

Small business owners invariably wear too many hats either because their lack of direction undermines their ability to say ‘no’ or they fail to delegate tasks that can readily be done by others.

By getting back to basics, a coach can help create a means of making the right judgement: • Will taking this action help me on my journey?

• Will spending time doing this work, stop me from doing more important work?

As we say in the introduction of our bestseller Flying Solo: How to go it alone in business, ‘Lives that are imbued with purpose and lived fully don’t happen by accident.’

Increasingly solo business owners are reaching out and working with buddies, mentors and coaches, but the vast majority do not. We need your help, please speak up and get our attention.

The summary of Flying Solo’s 2016/2017 Understanding Micro Business Survey will be published early in the new year. To get your free copy, become a member of Flying Solo. Basic membership is free and comes with a stack of goodies.

Head to www.flyingsolo.com.au/join COACHINGLIFE

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IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS EVEN MORE COMPANIES REPORT THE SAME CHALLENGES

Support for ‘flexible working’ in

93%

of companies reported employees

waste 2+ hrs a week* on manual or repetitive tasks in the last 12 mths

This is a huge increase from the 67% who felt the same way 12 months ago.

* Research conducted by Tech Research Asia, 2014-15

Our latest research across Australia’s major industry sectors reveals that organisations are struggling with automating manual tasks and digitising paper based processes. Plus the need to address Mobility has become more pressing than ever.

STAY AHEAD WITH WORK 3.0 Canon has three clever solutions that enable your staff to work in a more engaged, productive and mobile way.

Mobility

M

Send, retrieve, print, collaborate and share information remotely and securely from anywhere – in real time.

Automation

A

Automating manual tasks, like invoice processing and data entry will free your staff to get on with growing your business.

Digitisation

D

Electronic and paper-based information can be digitally captured, processed and stored, for everyone to share securely.

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15 RULES FOR FINISHING OFF THE DAY

By Jim Prigg

EVER NOTICED HOW SOME PEOPLE ALWAYS SEEM TO START EACH DAY FRESH, ENERGISED AND ORGANISED? WHY IS THIS SO? PERHAPS THE WAY THEY FINISH OFF THE DAY BEFORE IS AN EXCELLENT WAY OF LOOKING AT EACH DAY ANEW BECAUSE THERE IS NO MESS (PHYSICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL) TO COME BACK TO FROM THE PREVIOUS DAY. NO MESS. NO STRESS.

L

ike any good idea you need some positive aspects to concentrate on so you can make it work.

We share these tips, tactics and techniques to get you started.

1. CLEAR, CLEAN-UP AND TIDY YOUR DESK. By clearing your workspace it will enable you to start the new day with a clean slate in all respects. There is not the drag of looking at untidy, unnecessary and worrying paper or unfinished projects. You don’t have to go looking for “stuff”. It will save you time. You don’t carry yesterday’s mental baggage. You will have a sense of freshness to tackle the new day’s work load

2. TRY TO HAVE ONLY ONE WORKING ITEM OR PROJECT ON YOUR DESK At any one time, focus your attention on that one activity that needs to be www.coachinglife.com.au

completed. A simple working folder of jobs in progress puts all your work under consideration in the one place that is easily accessible and tidy.

3. THROW UNNECESSARY PAPER IN THE BIN Get into the habit of removing rubbish and unwanted paper from your desk each day. This will also assist your ‘clear desk policy’. Generally if something is on your desk for more that 30 days you really can question its relevance. If you do require it for future reference simply scan it and store it an appropriate place on your computer.

Remember to label it properly so you don’t lose it in jumbled electronic filing system

4. PUT FILES AWAY EACH DAY Keep files off your desk unless you are working on them. Store them in a well organised online facility. It is not good from a security perspective to

have valuable company information on display. The same goes for computer files.

5. ADJUST YOUR PRIORITY ON TASKS FOR THE NEXT DAY. What may have been B minus task today can become an A double plus task tomorrow. So check the urgency and time frames of tasks that need to be completed at the end of each day.

Reallocate them according to urgency and necessity according to your rating and those of your superiors or teams.

6. CHECK THE TIME OF YOUR FIRST APPOINTMENT THE NEXT DAY If you know what your first commitment for the day will be, you can plan to be ready for it. This also allows you to book travel time to that appointment if it is off site and any preparation you may need to do beforehand.

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7. START YOUR “TO DO” LIST FOR THE NEXT DAY BEFORE THE END OF TODAY Priorities change over a day. Carry over important tasks from your current day’s list, add new tasks for the following day and delete those you have completed.

Make adjustments to your priorities list as the day unfolds. That planning will certainly save you a few valuable minutes both at the end of the day and the next morning.

8. PUT YOUR READING FILE IN YOUR BRIEFCASE Start a reading file. Carry it with you to read on your way home, on public transport, while you are waiting for an appointment or while you are in a queue. You can get through your reading a lot easier if you carry it with you and make the most of each opportunity to read and reduce.

Particularly with I-compatible electronic devices

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9. WASH YOUR COFFEE CUP OR EMPTY YOUR WATER BOTTLE Start each day afresh by cleaning up the night before on domestic issues. It is scary the amount of time you can lose by getting caught up in conversations in the tea room or at the water fountain, isn’t it?

10. SWITCH YOUR PHONE ON TO VOICEMAIL IF APPROPRIATE If you are not going to be in the office until later the next morning, let people know. This will allow any early morning callers to leave you a message. Have you noticed there is a difference between time management and hiding from colleagues or clients

11. YOU MAY LIKE TO CHANGE YOUR VOICEMAIL MESSAGE IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE IN THE OFFICE THE NEXT DAY This lets callers know where they could reach you at an alternative number

or the time frames when you will be reachable. It will save you a lot of time and “telephone tennis”

12. GET THOSE FINAL EMAIL MESSAGES AND MEMOS OUT TONIGHT, NOT TOMORROW. Rule number one of creating positive business momentum is to have other people being busy for you, not the other way around. 15 minutes tonight sending information can save you 30 minutes tomorrow morning

13. SWITCH OFF YOUR COMPUTER, SCREEN AND PRINTER Be environmentally friendly and save power and money where you can.

It also helps the efficiency of your technology to give it a rest.

14. REMIND YOURSELF OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DAY Take a few minutes to remind yourself www.coachinglife.com.au

BUSINESS

Rule number one of creating positive business momentum is to have other people being busy for you, not the other way around. 15 minutes tonight sending information can save you 30 minutes tomorrow morning of what you achieved in your day.

Mentally check off what you have achieved. You may like to record it in a journal or diary. Celebrate your successes. If you don’t congratulate and reward yourself, then chances are neither will anyone else take the time.

There is nothing wrong with bathing in the glow of your own personal achievements each day.

you have to make a decision about relative importance, your own sanity and time management. Learn to enjoy your non-work times with your friends, your family, your pets, your hobbies and own special forms of relaxation.

Attention to those aspects of your life can have an important bearing on your job satisfaction, effectiveness and efficiency.

15. WHEN YOU SWITCH OFF, SWITCH OFF!

Activities:

Let go and go home. Leave work at work if you can. Ask yourself this vital question; “If that email or memo is not answered tonight will the world as I know it change?”. Sometimes

1. Identify those points that you need consider and then implement.

2. Discuss with your team any changes that you need to make that this checklist has uncovered for you.

This article is reprinted with permission from Jim Prigg CEO and founder of Knowledgemaster Pty Ltd. Knowledgemaster is an online resources company that delivers practical sales and soft skills tips, tactics, techniques. Learn more about winning business programs and courses by calling Jim on 03 5232 1500 mobile 0408 520453 or jim@knowledgemaster.com.au .

TRAIN WITH THE INSTITUTE OF EXECUTIVE COACHING AND LEADERSHIP We are Australasia’s premier organisational coaching and coach training company. In business since 1999, we have trained over 4,500 professionals via our Accredited Coach Training Program (ICF ACTP).

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We are headquartered in Sydney and offer coaching and coach training throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

For more information: www.iecl.com +612 8270 0600 coach@iecl.com www.coachinglife.com.au

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EXECUTIVE COACH: GETTING GREAT FOCUS

By Di Percy

GETTING GOOD FOCUS IS ONE SKILL. FOCUSING ON THE RIGHT THINGS INVOLVES COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHALLENGES Thinking about writing this paper, three questions turned up for me that I want explore with you. Here are the questions: 1. Focus as a day-to-day function of life can be relatively easy. But is it the right Focus? And how do we know?

2. Personal truth and our life purpose are not as easy to keep in Focus, but vital for leaders and coaches. How do we find and maintain Focus on our deeper purpose?

3. Why are some organisations taking the initiative to train leaders in Focus, Attention and Consciousness?

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THE WRONG FOCUS CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE Tom, the CEO of an ASX 100 company came to us in dire circumstances.

Despite the best efforts of his stellar executive team and super competent Board, the company had slipped into serious loss of over $150m. Spending time with Tom and his team it became apparent they were all highly charged and focused on their own department.

However, as a collective they were unfocused and uncoordinated. The result of focusing on the wrong thing (solely their own area) was now a disastrous and unsustainable financial loss for the company.

As developmental advisors, we concentrated on building the executive team’s collective focus. The team included Tom as CEO. Because this was a crisis, we got them to focus on their close-up target. Where do they want to be 2 years from now? (Yes, 2 years is not quick but realistic). We asked the team to imagine what this felt like: how well they’re leading; what they are doing and saying, who else is there, how the

Board regards them, what new deals are coming up, how well they work as a team … all the time feeling fantastic.

Then the team set a single collective goal for the next 2 years. They made significant changes to the team. A few months later a major team member decided to leave (his true focus was elsewhere). The team set up ways to maintain their focus on their collective goal.

The outcome? They far exceeded their goal and turned around the company within 18 months. A brilliant team effort with clear focus.

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT FOCUS AS A LANDSCAPE? Like Tom’s executive team, we all have the whole landscape of life ahead of us, no matter what our age, responsibilities or how great or small our achievements.

What we choose to focus on in this landscape will set our path and mindset for the future.

It is as though we are the Director of Photography on a film. What is the right www.coachinglife.com.au

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focus that sets the scene – is it to be a close-up, a mid shot or a long shot? All serve different and significant purposes.

These three camera shots represent three levels of focus – close up is the next 18 months to 3 years; mid shot is the next 7 to 10 years; and the long shot is end of life. When I work with a client I generally start with the long shot because that is the ultimate destination.

Once we know our destination we know where we’re going. The long shot clarifies where and how we want to end up, what matters, and who we want to become. Then we work backwards from there to the present time. It’s a moving experience.

By unfolding and knowing our destination, our life’s purpose emerges.

It is our grounding and primary focus, unique and inspirational to each one of us. Once we glimpse what that uniqueness is, we keep it fresh and in focus.

HOW FOCUS WORKS IN A NUTSHELL Being clear about purpose is a vital element of focus. It is the Why of focus and its goal, task or target. Without purpose we run out of energy pretty quickly and the task can turn into drudgery. Having purpose is uplifting and generates conviction, a powerful driving force and attractor to assist momentum and progress.

Neither purpose nor conviction on its own are much use to anyone else. To share something of value we need to add contribution, the action and giving out that arises from our purpose and conviction. Contributing adds the glue that makes purpose and conviction stick.

Without Focus we become aimless or open to anxieties.

Chris was owner of a start-up training company, keeping five training consultants busy. His goal was to run a brilliant national training company specializing in productivity.

He imagined top quality courses and happy participants feeling confident, www.coachinglife.com.au

with fantastic techniques to help them achieve their best productivity at work.

coaching focus is coaching as a state of Being.

Over time, Chris began to focus increasingly on the lack of funds and cash flow and what was not working.

Eventually this became his sole focus.

He was stuck on negative detail. His anxiety was sky high.

Knowing, Doing and Being1 are not personality types. They are preferred or habitual inner states that can be brought to awareness and through practice, chosen at will. Focus is central to each state - to Know, to Do and to Be.

Chris was not seeing what was working and the forward steps taken. His purpose and uplifting goal was gone, inaccessible. He sweated over what to say to prospective clients, but his anxiety came through and he came across as desperate. Prospects backed away.

Other entrepreneurs encounter similar negative setbacks. Lack of cash flow is common initially. The one single element that makes the difference between going under and making it, is what we focus on. Being aware of what we focus on plays a big part. This requires ability for “meta attention” or paying attention to our attention.

SO, AS COACHES, WHAT DO WE FOCUS ON? When coaching Executives and Directors, we need to stay on our toes.

We could take this to mean staying informed about economic, national and world affairs, especially knowing what is going on in the client’s industry.

What we know, relevant to the client is important for coaching.

Some coaches put more effort into their coaching technique. We can make sure we do all that is expected in terms of the best coaching techniques plus back it up with sound administrative systems.

This is all good method and business procedure that ensures we seem proficient and skilled. Here, what we do (and the way we deliver it) is in focus.

There is a third area of coaching focus that is more immeasurable and has received the least attention. But that is changing. Companies as diverse as Joie de Vivre Hotels and Apple, have got it, applied it and love it, claiming greater focus, success and happiness within their organisation. The third area of

BEING

FOCUS DOING

KNOWING

AS A COACH, WHAT IS YOUR PRIMARY FOCUS – KNOWING, DOING OR BEING? You know the story; to reach master quality at each of the three levels of attention takes about ten years’ practice. We have really made it when we can access all three levels simultaneously. Think about that. It’s an integration of body, mind, spirit – thinking logic/recalling intellect; actionintelligence; fully present awareness/ inner truth; and then integrating the three states with discernment and wisdom. That’s dancing in the light of consciousness.

TRAPS FOR LOSING FOCUS While focus is uplifting and can ignite energy, the other side of focus is elusive.

We can slip off focus without realizing and expend much time and energy on peripherals that lead wild goose chases.

For instance, Andrea, a spirited coach, became anxious about an upcoming interaction with her client’s Board, fearing she had over-stepped the line responding to an aggressive director on behalf of her client. In the weeks leading up to the Board meeting, Andrea spent a lot of time thinking about the meeting. She felt she was highly focused. In fact, her focus had slipped from her client and the actual coaching circumstances to managing her own COACHINGLIFE

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anxiety and catastrophic thoughts about possible outcomes and ways to deal with them.

Here are some other traps that can claim our attention away from the focus: • Dealing with what’s urgent and not getting to focus on what’s most important (see Covey’s famous Time Management Quadrant)2 • Putting out fires – disrupting our focus.

• Over-analysing – being overly thorough is another clever way of losing focus. Close attention to all the detail is like only studying the close-up shot, the content. Then we lose track of the context, the environment and ground.

• Getting hooked by our own shadow – e.g. getting stuck in being the hero, victim, martyr, fool, etc … you get the picture.

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• Waiting – expecting others to do their part and progress things toward the goal. We may be waiting for something that never happens. Take back focus by taking the lead.

It’s natural that focus moves around.

Life doesn’t stand still and the scenery changes. That is why having the reference of that long shot is so important, it is where we set our bearings. Revitalising the inspirational experience of our long shot, of personal purpose, instantly focuses and regenerates heart, mind, and spirit. www.vogelpercy.com.au e. di@vogelpercy.com.au 1. The idea of “do, have, be” comes from Pierce, Penny, “The Intuitive Way”, Grange Books, 2002 2. Covey, Steven, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (25th Anniversary

Di Percy is a corporate mentor, strategic advisor and author, and as Director of Vogel Percy has long experience assisting many of Australia’s top businesses in transformational change. Di has developed many leading coaches and is the Founder of OD Australia.

Edition) 2013

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HOW TO TURN YOUR COACHING BUSINESS INTO A PROFIT MACHINE

By Dr Greg Chapman

SO YOU HAVE BECOME A COACH. YOU EVEN HAVE A CERTIFICATE THAT PROVES YOU ARE ONE… TA DA! YOU KNOW LOTS OF NEAT STUFF ABOUT YOUR CHOSEN FIELD AND YOU’RE REALLY CERTAIN THAT YOUR EXPERTISE CAN HELP OTHERS. SO WHY ISN’T YOUR PHONE RINGING OFF THE HOOK AND WHY IS YOUR INBOX FILLED WITH SPAM RATHER THAN EMAILS FROM PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE YOUR CLIENTS?

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O

n the other hand, perhaps your day is filled with appointment after appointment (that sounds great if you are in the first category) but you end up rushing around helping everyone but yourself, with not much to show for it in your bank account at the end of the month in spite of all that effort.

If either situation is your experience, it’s time to learn how to turn your coaching practice into a profit machine.

Are you taking home the wage you deserve? At the end of the week, at the end of the month, at the end of the year, is there enough left to justify all your hard work?

Working harder is not an option for most coaches. They are already putting in the hours, but they probably suspect that these hours are not as productive as they could be, and that they should be Working Smarter, not harder. In fact working less hours may be a better approach, if those hours are spent doing the right things.

To be a successful coach, you need to treat your work as a business rather than a profession, albeit a business that delivers coaching services.

There are five pillars for the success of a coaching business, a formula if you like. www.coachinglife.com.au

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THE FIVE PILLARS FOR COACHING SUCCESS. 1. Planning Your Coaching Business Start with the end in mind. What do you want your coaching business to look like in 5 years’ time? How does it look now? Analyse the profit structure of your business. Will it achieve your goals? Is your business really profitable? Does every sale to a new client make you money? Often there are hidden cross subsidies that drain your profits. Make sure you know what your profit objective is so that you can build your desired wage into your invoices and ensure every sale truly adds to your bottom line.

This process involves looking at each of your client types, and the different services you offer, and analysing each to ensure that all contribute to your bottom-line. From this analysis, a plan can be developed that will refocus your coaching business into the most profitable areas. This would include how you deliver your services, as well what support will be necessary to achieve your plan. Without support, you become the chief cook and bottle washer who does a bit of coaching on the side. www.coachinglife.com.au

Working harder is not an option for most coaches. They are already putting in the hours, but they probably suspect that these hours are not as productive as they could be, and that they should be Working Smarter, not harder.

While you may do all the coaching, that doesn’t mean you should undertake all the other tasks in the business yourself. There is also a lot of low cost technology available that will automate many of your non-core functions so that you can dedicate more of your time on business development and on the delivery your coaching services

2. Marketing Your Coaching Business Without marketing, you will have no clients. You may be the best coach in your field, but if no one knows about you, your practice will be empty.

Alternatively, if your marketing is poorly focused, you will end up with clients you don’t want, the type whose first question is about your fees.

The purpose of your marketing is to find and attract the clients who want to buy,

what you want to sell, at the price you want to charge.

The first step in this process is to identify your Points of Difference. What is it that your best clients value most about what you provide, and how does this set you apart from your competitor coaches? If you can’t differentiate your services from your competitors, you will just be competing on price. Of course, one way to fill your coaching business with clients is by being the cheapest, but that just attracts the wrong kind of client, and you will end up working yourself into the ground generating profitless turnover from your practice.

With these points of difference in mind, who in your marketplace most values them? These are your best buyers; the 20% of your clients that produce 80% of the value for your business.

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In order to attract more of these best buyers, coaches should use all four marketing channels: Advertising, Public Relations, Word of Mouth and Cold Calling; to attract clients. Relying on a single channel to market to your clients, means missing out on many opportunities.

The key is to use multiple strategies that will predictably fill your marketing funnel. Once these strategies have been developed, a marketing plan can be created which you can delegate to others to implement for you. Your role then is just to measure the results of the plan making any required adjustments as your market changes, so that you have a sustainable stream of enquiries.

However, it’s not enough to have enquiries, it’s also essential to have a sales pipeline to turn enquirers into clients. This is a step-by-step process of increasing engagement and commitment with the potential client.

It’s a system that, when combined with your marketing, delivers a sustainable stream of paying clients who value your service and are happy to pay your fees. Your sales pipeline should be systematised, and automated wherever possible, so your involvement is limited to the point where you close the sale.

3. Systematising Your Coaching Business Without systems, your coaching practice will always depend on you.

All coaches have the same 24 hours in a day, it’s what they do with them that sets them apart. Too often, when coaches give work to others to do, they find they mess it up, and then they end up spending twice as long fixing things themselves, so they become micromanagers, if they delegate at all.

However, with systems in place, they can train others to perform the noncore work, ensuring consistent quality and client satisfaction.

In the event you wish to engage others to perform coaching on your behalf, systems are essential so that your

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coaches can be trained to deliver in your unique style, maintaining your points of difference.

Without these systems, your business cannot grow, but systems on their own will not guarantee delivery to your standards without reporting.

Reports provide accountability, quality control, and ensure that your coaching business can run without you. As a coaching business grows, the owner/ head coach does less coaching, reserving themselves for just their top clients, with the rest of their time split between growing their business and managing their business by reports

4. People in Your Coaching Business As more people become involved in your business, more time must be spent on performance management to ensure that standards are met and goals achieved. This requires the development of People Systems so that everyone knows their role, and what a good job looks like. Performance measurement is just part of the reporting process so that the owner knows that a good job is being done even when they are not there. This makes it possible for their business to run without them.

5. Driving Your Coaching Business In large business, there are structures in place to drive performance.

Shareholders appoint a board to represent their interests. The board

appoints a CEO who, together with the board, develops strategy, policies, and goals for the business. The CEO is then tasked with managing the organisation to implement the agreed strategies and policies. The board reviews the CEO’s performance and holds them to account.

Only the very largest coaching businesses have a board. In most cases, it’s just the single owner/coach, who is therefore, the shareholder, the board and the CEO. Who holds the coach to account? This requires a lot of discipline, and even the most disciplined of coaches can fall into old habits, miss the big picture or even just get tired. In spite of this, in front of staff they must remain energised and motivate everyone with their vision.

While hiring a board is out of the question for almost all coaches, there are alternatives. Many coaches have their own coach, someone more experienced, someone who is where they would like to be in five years.

Another option coaches choose is to join a Mastermind Group. This could be with other coaches, but a group with business owners from quite different sectors can be even more powerful offering very different viewpoints.

Whichever approach you choose for your coaching business, education is always essential to stay at the top of your field and to be the CEO of your own coaching business.

Dr Greg Chapman is the CEO of Empower Business Solutions and author of the award winning and best selling book “The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success”.

Visit www empowersolutions.com.au and download a free copy of his Mission Statements Made Easy Too.

www.coachinglife.com.au

BUSINESS

ARE YOU MOVING TOWARDS YOUR DESTINY OR AWAY FROM YOUR PAST?

By Alex Couley

IN READING THE LAST EDITION OF COACHING LIFE, I WAS PARTICULARLY STRUCK BY A COMMENT IN STEWART’S EDITORIAL PIECE. IN TALKING ABOUT THE CHALLENGE OF UPHOLDING STANDARDS WITHIN OUR PROFESSION, HE SAID THE ANSWER IS TO EDUCATE AND I COULDN’T AGREE MORE.

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y professional life has been primarily centred around mental health services. A heavily regulated field. No matter if you are a psychologist, a psychiatrist, mental health nurse or social worker, you will be accredited against a set of national standards. You are required to reregister on a regular basis and as part of that process you are expected to demonstrate a level of ongoing learning. But even with this level of regulation in my decades in the field, I have seen hundreds of poor practitioners. Staying up to date with your professions latest advancements is an active not passive process.

As coaches we are extremely privileged to be invited into the world of another person. Our impact can potentially be enormous. I don’t care if your speciality

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is business coaching, life coaching, sports coaching or any other niche area with this privilege comes responsibility.

Part of that responsibility is to stay at the forefront of understanding what works and what doesn’t for your clients.

I believe that coaching is both an art and a science. The science gives us the answer to why we do what we do and the art is how we do that. With all of this in mind, I want to share with you some of the concepts that I believe are key for us to grasp and implement.

Focusing is indeed a crucial skill and all those who have been very successful will attest to its power. But just focussing is not the answer in itself. The scientific evidence strongly demonstrates that what we focus upon makes a major difference, it effects how we are able to move forward. To COACHINGLIFE

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assist our clients in achieving optimal results we must understand the subtle but powerful differences in approaching this skill we call focussing.

The human motivational process is often assumed to consist of concepts such as internal versus external motivation. That is accurate but it is not the whole picture. Far more important is understanding that there are two clear and distinct mechanisms at work here.

APPROACH FOCUS VS AVOIDANCE FOCUS The Approach system assists us to focus upon a desired outcome. An easy way to grasp this is, what do you want to move towards. Do you want to be the most productive team in the organisation, do you want to be the CEO or do you want to work in the company’s head office in New York?

When you focus upon an Approach goal you can stay connected to these goals for much longer than avoidance goals. This is the science behind concepts like, “it’s the journey and not the destination that matters”. Knowing that Approach orientated goals strongly connect with positive emotions is very important.

But so often we as humans focus in the opposite direction, what we want to move away from. This is the Avoidance system. I don’t want to get fired, I don’t want to work with Billy anymore, I don’t want to be late every day, etc.

Whilst all of this is valid it is harder to stay connected to avoidance focussed goals. Avoidance orientated goals activate negative emotional responses.

Negative emotional responses sit at the heart of what we call stress. If you are seeing the signs of stress in yourself, your client or your team, this is a sign that avoidance motivation is at work.

At this point I would like to introduce you to two of my ex clients. They were at opposite ends of a spectrum.

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Rebecca established her business thirteen years ago. In the beginning she was very passionate, working very long days to get the business off the ground. But because of her passion this felt effortless. Now more than a decade later she was still working extremely long days but it was tough.

It had become simply about keeping the business afloat. Rebecca’s passion was gone. When she asked to work with me, she said the goal of the coaching assignment was to assist her to rid herself of these long working days.

Robert was working for a large financial institution. He was well paid and very well respected in his field. When he asked me to coach him, he said that he had decided to set up his own business because he was bored with his current role. He couldn’t foresee a point where he could move internally within his organisation (i.e. promotion) and just wanted to get out of his current role. He had no idea what business he would set up but knew it would be an escape from the boredom. Having said all of that, he felt too tired to put in the necessary effort to make this transition.

As coaches we can assist our clients to define goals in an Approach oriented way rather than an Avoidance orientation. This applies to teams as well as individuals. Are you designing goals towards what you want more of or are they about what you want to move away from? This may seem like a simple word play but the research is clear, it will make a positive difference.

Most of the research into emotions in the last fifteen years has fallen under the umbrella of Positive Psychology.

Positive Psychology has often been misrepresented and misinterpreted.

The science of Optimal Functioning is a better description of the field. It is not about being bubbly and cheerful every moment of every day but simply about being the best you can be in the moment and understanding what

The human motivational process is often assumed to consist of concepts such as internal versus external motivation. impacts upon that. This again is as relevant to teams as it is to individuals.

Emotions are a major player in our ability to perform well. We know that memories of emotional experiences are regulated in part by the Amygdala, a small set of neurons located deep in the brain.

Brain imaging shows that the Amygdala responds very differently to the experience of positive and negative emotions. Negative emotions appear to interfere with our ability to solve problems in a constructive manner.

Conversely when the Amygdala is exposed to positive emotions it assists us to be see challenges as opportunities rather than difficulties. In a positive emotional state, we become more creative.

This takes us back our earlier discussion about Approach versus Avoidance goal orientation. This additional piece of information builds upon the idea that you will stay more connected to Approach goals. Because they activate positive emotions, you are also more likely to find creative pathways to success. Conversely setting goals about moving away from what you don’t want will dampen creativity and innovation.

So back to Rebecca. I guided her to see that what she was describing was what she wanted less of and not what she wanted more of. Working long days had become her habitual way of being and wasn’t even the real challenge. The real challenge was to finds passion again. www.coachinglife.com.au

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We addressed this by moving away from the discussion about the hours and spending time exploring the question “What do you want more of?” Rebecca

would look like. After a few sessions, it became clear to Robert that if the business venture tapped into that well of motivation that he had earlier in life,

Simple isn’t always easy”. Staying focused upon an approach mechanism and not drifting to avoidance takes practice but it’s worth taking that science and making it part of your art. became excited again when we hit upon the idea of opening a new subsidiary of her business. The hours no longer mattered because there was a reason to commit to them. Three years later she now has three successful businesses.

Robert also needed to explore his aspirations through a different lens.

We spent time talking about how invigorated he was early in his finance career and what was it that made him that motivated. We moved on to look at what he would want back in his life from those days. What business types would provide this and what the ideal day

the energy to get the business off the ground would be less of a challenge. We identified a business type that made it easy to create that discretionary effort.

Four years down the line, Robert is enjoying life as an independent financial consultant and mentoring others to establish their own businesses.

The science also tells us that where you work, your physical location, is important too. The environment plays a role in your ability to focus. Even if you think that you are focusing upon the task at hand, sometimes your brain isn’t. Despite the popular myth that we don’t only

use 10% of our brain’s capacity, it is constantly ticking away. There is no part of it that is idle. It is checking out the space in which you are operating. It is looking for danger, for new opportunities and even just for novelty.

So often the recommendation is, if you are looking to focus then find a space with limited distractions. This is very good advice but still not the whole picture. We also need to accept that our brains cannot focus 100% of the time. The latest research by a team led

by Vadim Axelrod at the Gonda MultiDisciplinary Research Centre, Bar-Ilan University, Israel is demonstrating that periods of daydreaming actually increases productivity, so it is ok to take a break from focussing, let your mind wander and then return to the task.

Renowned coach Marshall Goldsmith said “Simple isn’t always easy”. Staying focused upon an approach mechanism and not drifting to avoidance takes practice but it’s worth taking that science and making it part of your art.

As coaches we need to be seen to walk the walk and talk the talk. Are your goals Approach orientated?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex Couley is a leading expert in coaching, Alex is a Founding Fellow of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard University, an affiliate of the Institute’s Coaching leadership forum and he sits on the Harvard Business Review’s advisory panel on coaching. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Business Wellbeing, University of Wollongong.

Alex’s was a mental health clinician for 35 years and was one of the first none psychiatrists to complete the Australian Mental Health leadership Program, through Melbourne University. He has trained more than one thousand workers in the latest interventions in coaching methodologies, positive psychology and mental health across most states in Australia.

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DOES 2016 NEED TO BE THE SAME AS 2015?

By Michelle Pascoe

WITH 2015 BECOMING A FADING MEMORY, IT IS TIME THAT WE FOCUS OUR ENERGY INTO CREATING THE BUSINESS THAT WE WANT IN 2016.

NOW FOR SOME THIS MAY MEAN REPEATING WHAT YOU DID WELL IN 2015, HOWEVER, FOR MANY IT IS ALL ABOUT TWEAKING, REVIEWING AND ASSESSING STRATEGIES, SYSTEMS AND WHAT WE REALLY WANT FROM OUR BUSINESS.

3 TIPS ON HOW TO FOCUS ON FUTURE GROWTH POTENTIAL

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inally after twenty one years of business I am taking my own advice that I give to my clients, to make the time to look at my business and to make sure I tick off my To Do List, research and even surpass my targets while still being able to function happily as a wife, mum and a nanna.

Spring cleaning the office recently I found some notes at the bottom of a draw which I had obviously put there to not lose, however, they became buried under equally if not more important paper work and therefore the great

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ideas that I had scrawled across the paper are still there on the paper and had not been put into practice. To be honest this has happened a few times over the years and there is nothing worse than finding that note from ten years ago that has the idea that could have made a big difference in your business. However, it is not too late.

So in 2016 I am going to make sure that the notes don’t get buried but instead become a 12 month plan with each step to be ticked off and a reminder to celebrate the wins. www.coachinglife.com.au

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The foundation of my plan will be what I love best about being a Coach and may I suggest you make this a priority for you. Write down what the key aspects that you enjoy, describe the client in words so you clearly create a “client demographic” that you are going to focus on.

Like you over the years I have enjoyed working with a variety of clients but I must say the work that I do in the Hospitality Industry is something I am truly passionate about. Coaching individuals and teams who work on a 24 hour roster is enlightening as many of them only have a brief hand over and the teams they are leading are quick to try divide and conquer. My work involves them looking at their values and how the role that they hold impacts on their team and peers.

COMMUNICATION

Coaching an individual from when they first join the industry through to a management role is truly fulfilling.

It’s that moment when they begin to believe in themselves, they appear to walk taller, take more care in their personal appearance and shine from within. It’s coaching those that you can see have the potential and because of what I do through coaching they transform into a person who is self confident and well deserving of their new role.

This also goes for existing clients. If a client feels that you are “constantly busy” and can never speak to you when they want to (within reason) then they may start seeking out another Coach.

So to create a coaching business in 2016 that you are truly passionate about as well as long term growth for your business, what do you need to do and put in place? With time being so precious let me suggest that you just FOCUS on three key areas: • COMMUNICATION • TECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN INTERACTION • DELIVERING ON YOUR MARKETING PROMISE www.coachinglife.com.au

Telephone, Writing, Website and Face to Face. Each communication must be focussed upon the client, their outcomes and what you can deliver.

How often do you miss calls? Is there someone who can answer the telephone (professionally) that your clients can speak to? There is less chance of losing a prospective client if they speak to someone instead of leaving a phone message.

It is great to be busy but don’t let it interfere with all the great work that you do by pushing clients away because they can’t reach you.

For some the website has become a supplementary “Business Development Manager”, with some Coaches believing that the prospective client can learn all about them and what they offer online before they speak to them. This is true in part, however, the website is an overview of your business but it can’t replace you actually talking to the person (or skype due to long distance) and answering their questions, well before the “sales pitch kicks in”.

Coaching is all about connecting.

Marketing is a constant changing process in business, as are your clients. They maybe the same

demographic but the way they find out about your service has changed and websites and apps are the “First impression” of your business.

When was the last time you did an audit on your website and perhaps even your competitors? It’s easy to say “I’m going to do a blog or post those photos or update the information on Page 3” but actually writing it down in the 12 month plan to be performed on a certain day leaves no room for out of date or incorrect information.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN INTERACTION Repeatedly we are told; we need to immerse yourselves into social media = facebook, twitter, linked in, blogs, newsletters, e-zines, published articles, you tube clips and podcasts.

Whether you do some or all, more importantly is doing it right consistently and then measuring your marketing returns.

Choose the social media channels of your current clients and pick out the top three channels and FOCUS upon them.

If you want to change your client base do the opposite!!

For many of us keeping up with the trends in technology is very time consuming and not our true passion.

Undertaking an online course or a seminar on “How to” may assist you, however, if you have the ideas and not the time then engage someone who can.

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The hiring of a Virtual Assistant or somebody to come into your office is not always easy for many Coaches who have worked “solo” for many years. is, if the experience is delivered in an unfocused manner, chances are there won’t be ongoing business from a client or referrals to others.

As a Coach you ignite the potential of others now take the time to nurture and rekindle your inner flame. Love every moment in your business.

Research shows that there is a buying cycle that differs on experiences as well as for people.

The hiring of a Virtual Assistant or somebody to come into your office is not always easy for many Coaches who have worked “solo” for many years. It is important that the person that you do hire lives and breathes your values and understands the culture of your business and how it connects with your clients.

Unfortunately after many years of experience of employing staff and VA’s, it is not an easy task and sometimes you have to make the decision to “fire as quick as you hire”. There has to be the right fit for you, them and most importantly your clients, especially if you have been “solo” for a long time.

Before starting out on this journey ask yourself: • What are the core values of your business and do they underpin the organisational culture of your business?

• Do you have an interview and induction program when engaging someone to speak on behalf of your business?

DELIVERING ON YOUR MARKETING PROMISE The foundation of all businesses is the experience that is provided to our clients and it’s the feeling that they have before, during and after the interaction.

No matter how good the marketing

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your job as a Coach is to figure this out: • Who is your target market?

• What does your brand stand for – what do you want your business to be known for?

• Are you and your staff passionate about the business?

• Do your values underpin the organisational culture?

• Without passion and commitment you are not going to be any different from your competitor.

People are our business – without clients coming through our doors (so to speak) there is no business and in many circumstances without staff choosing to work in our business – there is no business.

Surveying your current clients is a great way of finding out what their perceptions are of your business, of you and your staff, feedback on your marketing and where your strengths and weaknesses are.

At OOPS our clients have been able to forecast their growth and add to their product mix from what they have learned from the Surveys and Facilitated conversations that we have conducted for them on their behalf.

Make 2016 your year of success and fulfilment in life and business. Focus on your needs and true passion.

MICHELLE PASCOE Michelle Pascoe lives and breathes her passion for customer advocacy, mystery shopping and team motivation through coaching. She is an experienced businesswoman and specialist in every aspect of service operations and processes and their impact on the customer experience.

In 1994 she founded one of Australia’s most respected Hospitality training companies, Optimum Operating Procedures and Services Pty Ltd (OOPS) which now employs over 60 people. She recently launched her second book The VIP Principle – Discover How Guest Experiences Drive Long Term Growth. www.michellepascoe.com

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SCOTT EPP CEO Abundance Coaching LAUREN CLEMETT Personal Brand Specialist LORRAINE HAMILTON Market Positioning Coach

LIFE COACHING » www.coachinglife.com.au

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GETTING YOUR LIFE PRIORITIES IN FOCUS IS IT TIME FOR YOU TO START GETTING YOUR LIFE ON TRACK? IN OVER 5000 HOURS OF PROFESSIONAL COACHING AND MENTORING I HAVE DISCOVERED THAT ONE OF THE MOST SUBSTANTIAL AREAS THAT PEOPLE STRUGGLE IN, IS FOCUSING ON THE RIGHT THINGS AT THE RIGHT TIME. PEOPLE ARE CONFUSED, DISTRACTED, SCATTERED AND NOT ALIGNED. IT’S TIME TO GET YOUR LIFE PRIORITIES IN FOCUS.

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By Scott Epp

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personal life was busy with raising 3 active boys, preparing for my wife leaving for New Zealand for 5 days and a pre-planned sailing trip.

The deadline of completing this article comes at a very busy time in our business with seminars, new clients and the current BAS to complete. My

Maybe you can relate to this, because you have a fleet of competing things that need to get done but seemingly little time to complete them. You feel overwhelmed by the demands of balancing your work and personal life. The “do” type people are making lists and trying to check off what they can and the “free flowing” people are stretched because they’re not free flowing enough. Hey, life is busy. I get that. There is a competition every day for the items that get a space on the podium in our mind. This competition is more real when we experience the firestorm of choice that is so present today. Perhaps this is you right now.

i, my name is Scott Epp. As the founder of Abundance Coaching I am privileged to partner with people as they become their authentic, amazing, best in life and business.

Right now, I am in the first of two time blocks that I committed to writing this article and I am focused on only one thing. I am focused on putting words to the draft that I formulated three days ago, that will ultimately be the article that you are reading right now.

Stewart, the Editor-in-Chief of Coaching Life asked me early last week to write an article on Focus for this issue and I agreed, because I felt that it was a priority to get my message about focus out to Australia and the world.

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People don’t know their own strengths, skills, character, core values, purpose and life priorities.

You may be thinking. That’s all fine Scott but I have a hard time focusing because I have a lot going on in my life and there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done.

Through coaching and mentoring hundreds of amazing people over the past 6 years I have concluded that the real problem is that people generally do not have effective strategies that will help them focus on what matters the most to them. People don’t know their own strengths, skills, character, core values, purpose and life priorities.

More often than not, I see people spontaneously reacting to life’s situations and circumstances. The results of reacting to circumstances is sometimes necessary, however, if it is our only play, it is like the Rugby League forward who only runs and never hands off or passes. The forward becomes predictable and ultimately a liability to the entire team. A good coach will instill strategies and plans for this forward (and the rest of the team.)The good coach will even proactively study the other team and implement effective plans that will lead his charges to success.

Let’s take this into the real world now.

Let’s take Phil for example. Phil is an executive who became my client one year ago. He had a lot of things going for him. He was quite successful with www.coachinglife.com.au

his career. He had a young family and was very bright and optimistic but was at a point in his life where he did not know who he was or what his core values were. He didn’t have direction or focus on very many things in his life.

He found himself caught up with people that constantly complained about life.

He had limiting beliefs about how he looked, how he led his team at work amongst other things. Maybe you can relate to how Phil felt about his life.

So here is what Phil and I did together that transformed him into the authentic amazing man he is today. First of all Phil decided to take the big step by recognising that he needed to change and that he couldn’t do it alone. Let’s face it – if you want to focus on getting new results you need to humble yourself and ask for help. Getting a great life coach is the perfect place to start. No one is a silo and none of us are meant to figure out everything alone.

Phil decided to begin his epic journey with me and that was the first day of his life transformation. Phil started to envision his new life; he even made an entire 3 meter long wall in his home a vision board. Together we changed Phil’s physiology and mindset as we worked on his declarations that he would speak powerfully over his life every day. Phil got into a morning ritual which included quality time with his

wife and son, taking care of his body, declarations, meditation, visualisations and planning his day. We worked on conquering Phil’s inner stories that kept him from getting the real results that he wanted in life.

Phil went through our Abundance Coaching Core Values Discovery© Process and we started implementing effective strategies to maximize his life by using his core values. Phil found out what his strengths, skills, character and life languages are. This all led him to discover his true life purpose and meaning in life. Phil’s new outlook on life centers around him being his true self and this empowers him to live his life purpose with passion and abundance. Phil focuses on the priorities that matter the most to him. He is consistent with his morning routines and rituals. Weekly I keep him accountable to achieve his most important goals. In the past 12 months Phil has undergone a life transformation and the inside and outside results are outstanding. He just received a promotion and a very significant raise at his work place. Phil is more connected to God, he has a better relationship with his wife and son and he is happier and more confident than ever. As his coach I would consider Phil’s greatest accomplishment is how he knows himself and his focus on his life’s priorities.

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Some people may think that the process that Phil went through was significant but in actuality the highlights of what I mentioned above happened in just a few coaching sessions that were laser focused on him moving forward.

So how about you? Are you ready to get the results that matter the most to you?

Do you have 5 minutes to get focused on your Life priorities?

We created the Abundance Life Wheel four years ago to help clients focus life priorities and has had over 10,000 plays since then.

If you’re ready to find out your personal life focus, then here is how you start.

Go to: www.abundancelifewheel.com and play your Abundance Life Wheel Game. My wife and I created this game so that people could get a fast snap shot picture of where they are at in life. You will see that you get to rate how abundant you against 14 life categories.

• Health and Wellness • Travel and Vacation • Family • Personal Development • Giving Back • Finances and Money • Friends and Relationships • Lifestyle • Career and Business • Fun and Adventure • Physical Environment • God and Spiritual • Marriage / Partner and Intimacy • Happiness in Life

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Now you will get to see how much balance, momentum and abundance you have in your life. Then choose 3 areas to focus on for the next month.

After you’ve completed your Abundance Life Wheel you need to set your Life priorities. Here is how you do it.

Your Abundance Life Wheel tells you where you are at in your life. With your print out in your hand you will be able to type out a list of the priorities that matter the most to you. This list will be from 1 – 14.

I recommend that you start by renaming them, so that they are more personal to you. For instance, I rename the ‘Marriage / Partner and Intimacy’ category to my wife’s name ‘Nicole.’

Once you have prioritised the 14 areas that are the most important to you the fun starts.

Take a blank piece of paper for each of your top 5 Life priorities, then answer these questions.

• Why is this priority important to me?

• Where am I truly at with this life priority right now?

• What are my goals / commitments and action steps for this Life Priority in the next 12 months?

If you commit to focusing on your most important Life priorities, you will get the results that matter the most to you.

It is your time to start focusing on the right things for you right now. Break the confusion get your Life Priorities in focus. After all, you are what you focus on the most.

Scott Epp C.P.C. (Certified Professional Coach) Corporate Trainer / Motivational Speaker Canadian born, Scott Epp, is passionate about helping people breakthrough their BIGGEST challenges so that they can live their life purpose with passion and abundance! He has been coached by some of the world’s most successful Performance Coaches including Andrea J Lee and Ted McGrath and now he has helped thousands of people to breakthrough and achieve success in life.

Scott is a Sydney-based Life, Business and Executive Coach who coaches his clients locally and globally. Scott is also a Corporate Trainer, Team Leader and Facilitator helping leaders, executives and teams with their mindset, beliefs, goals, actions, productivity and performance.

www.coachinglife.com.au

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU»

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IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN MAYBE YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO JOIN THE ELITE AND BE PUBLISHED IN COACHING LIFE. THE PROCESS IS PRETTY SIMPLE. YOU SUBMIT AN ARTICLE BRIEF AND OUR TEAM WILL REVIEW IT. WE THEN GIVE YOU OUR EXACT REQUIREMENTS OF WHAT WE NEED TO FIT IN THE SPACE WE HAVE. IF YOUR FOCUS IS ON SPORT, BUSINESS OR LIFE COACHING, WE HAVE AN AUDIENCE THAT WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU.

WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF BEING PUBLISHED? We cannot guarantee that your masterpiece will make it into the published version but we will also allow a number of exceptional articles onto the electronic and web version that don’t make it to print. This means that you have lots more chances of getting the recognition you deserve.

WHAT DOES IT COST? It costs nothing to submit a brief, but if you are accepted into the published magazine, it will cost you time to write the article. We don’t charge or pay for articles.

WHAT DO I NEED? Firstly, you need a great article that will be useful or inspirational to other coaches. Each issue of Coaching Life Australia is themed, so it is important to ensure you are addressing the theme from your perspective.

Articles are expected to be between 1,000 to 1,500 words though exceptions are allowed. Of course, if we need to trim or change your article, we reserve the right to do so.

If your article is accepted, then you will need to supply a print-quality photo of yourself, professional details and a signed release for your article.

WHAT DO I GET? If your article is accepted, you get recognition of your peers, family and friends as a published author.

WHAT ELSE DO I GET? As published author, you also get preferential treatment to any future articles you want to submit.

You may also be asked to help the team with surveys and thoughts as an industry leader.

COME ON.. WHAT ELSE? OK. You will also be added to a Private Contributors Group where published authors can discuss the upcoming issues and industry hot points.

This group will also have special access to upcoming Coaching Life functions.

I’M IN, NOW WHAT? Go to the Coaching Life website and complete the Submission Form www.CoachingLife.com.au/Submissions and we will be in touch.

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FIND YOUR FOCUS WHEN YOU STARTED YOUR COACHING BUSINESS A SMALL PART OF YOUR BRAIN WAS PROBABLY SCREAMING AT YOU FROM THE SIDELINES. YOUR AMYGDALA, OR FEAR CENTER, WAS MADLY TRYING TO TELL YOU NOT TO DO IT.

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t was formulating questions that began eating away at your confidence…what if I can’t get clients? Do I have all the right qualifications? Can I really do what I say I can do? Am I biting off more than I can chew? How can I prove I’m good at this without any runs on the board?

Instead of listening to these warnings, you did something superhuman. You took control of your own brain and you told it to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.

You became a coach, dedicated to helping others achieve greatness.

Congratulations!

Trouble is, your superhuman ability to control your own entrepreneurial brain came with some pretty strong kryptonite. It’s called ‘bright-shinyobject-itis’ and it’s the single most important factor if you want to be spectacularly successful.

When you take control of your own brain, you are more open to opportunity, constantly noticing any

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By Lauren Clemett

chance to coach that comes your way.

It becomes very tempting to help every ‘Mary in the dairy’ instead of focusing on one particular aspect of coaching that you can forge a decent niche in.

What’s so wrong with trying to help everyone? Isn’t that what coaching is all about?

When you open up to opportunity and jump at every potential client, you begin to suffer from the fear of missing out.

You take on anyone who shows even the remotest interest in your mentoring, regardless of whether they are the right fit for your particular style or if they can work in the way you really need them to. You sign on for contracts focusing on the money rather than the fulfilment you get from the work. Worse, you give away your time to the wrong prospects instead of concentrating on where your training will be of most benefit.

If you continue to let your opportunistic brain run your focus, over time it becomes more and more difficult to explain exactly what it is that you do www.coachinglife.com.au

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and why someone should choose you.

You forget why you became a coach in the first place and struggle to attract perfect clients you love to get results with.

The distraction your own entrepreneurial brain causes, matched with your natural desire to help people, increases the likelihood of you losing your focus and becoming just one of the many other coaches out there offering what seems to be the same services. And there are plenty of them.

Coaching is second only to IT as the fastest growing industry in the world and if you don’t have a point of difference, it’s going to be a hard road to success.

As a coach it’s vital that you become well known for doing one thing extremely well. To become sought after, not only based on your results, but through high quality referrals.

Word of mouth has always been the best form of marketing, especially when you sell a service like coaching, mentoring or training. It’s free, third party endorsement that creates a ripple effect for years.

So, what do you want people to say about you?

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once said that “a personal brand is what people say about you once you’ve left the room”.

Some coaches tend to change direction, side-stepping from one code to another, taking on anyone prepared to pay them, adding on more and more content to their programs to ensure there is something for everyone.

Constantly substituting your brand, your target audience, your product or your message will erode any trust you have built up in your industry.

So how do you find your focus and become the coach of choice?

It’s more about what you don’t do, than what you do. Big retails brand Kmart recently removed 70,000 products from their shelves and David Jones’s removed 120,000. David Russo, CEO of Kmart said “We were trying to be all things to all people and we decided to focus on doing something really well instead”.

If these big boys decided to focus on what they do best (and they know something about branding) isn’t that a pretty good sign you should too?

It’s all about direction.

If you did orienteering as a kid you’ll remember having a map and a compass. On their own, these items are particularly useless. A compass simply tells you where North is and a map gives you a pretty picture of the surrounding area. Unless you put them together, you aren’t going anywhere.

A compass has four points, North, West, South and East. You can use these to define your single minded purpose and find your focus.

I use this analogy all the time to explain the value of personal branding as a coach. The first step to focusing on what you want to become well known, well paid and wanted for. This is to find your true North.

A compass has four points, North, West, South and East. You can use these to define your single minded purpose and find your focus.

West is all about the What. What problem do you love to solve? What sort of work do you love doing? What sort of people do you love working with? What pain are these people in that you want to help them get rid of? What goals do they have that you can help them to reach? What values and motives do you share with them? What won’t you do?

When you want someone to endorse and refer you, what words do you want them to use? If you haven’t developed a focal point with your own brand, others will simply make up your message for you.

It comes down to what you want to be known for. If you haven’t decided on that yet, found your focus and defined your niche, how can you expect others to promote you?

Focus can be used as an acronym to help you stay the course - Follow One Course Until Successful. www.coachinglife.com.au

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In the 1970’s it was estimated that the human brain was exposed to 500 branded messages a day. Today it’s closer to 5,000, that’s four every minute. You have to cut through all those to get the attention of your potential client.

East is Execution, your how. How do you most like to work? How is your coaching program designed to work best? How do you get the best results? How do you like to work with others? How many clients do you want? How you want to get paid?

South is all about the $. What you offer in value in exchange for being paid. What transformation takes place when people work with you? What do you provide above and beyond what they pay for? What do you want to be valued for most? What’s your value proposition? Is it speed, growth, wins, strength, enlightenment…?

Then we come to North. Your true North is your why. Why did you become a coach? What drives you and makes you passionate about what you do? Why do you get angry? Why is injustice going on that you’d like to put right? Why do you want to be known for being this type of coach?

Once you know your true North and you’ve set your brand direction using this compass, it’s much easier for you to put together a MAP, a Marketing Action Plan, to implement your

own, highly effective marketing and promotion.

that makes you stand out from the rest, that’s when the magic happens.

Your compass keeps you on the straight and narrow. When those bright shiny opportunities arise, instead of jumping at them, you can consider if it fits with your brand, then decide if you should do it or not.

That’s when your reputation takes off and suddenly the ideal people you want to coach appear. They want exactly what you have and they don’t mind what they pay to get it. They know, like and trust you before they’ve even met you.

It makes it easy to keep your marketing message clear and simple. And this is vital if you want to stand out from all the other coaches.

In the 1970’s it was estimated that the human brain was exposed to 500 branded messages a day. Today it’s closer to 5,000, that’s four every minute. You have to cut through all those to get the attention of your potential client.

That’s where a personal brand can create an instantly recognisable message your prospect needs in order to understand your purpose. The one thing you want people to say about you.

What you want to be remembered for.

When you focus on what you want to be the best at, the one thing you want to be respected for, the single identifier

When you have focus you can set some extraordinary BHAGS - big hairy audacious goals for your business.

You can surround yourself with associates who support your work, form allegiances where referrals flow continuously and start to fixate on very large results with a tribe of fans supporting you.

With a single minded focus, even the loftiness of goals are achievable and people begin to believe along with you.

It just makes sense doesn’t it…If you expect to guide a team of sportspeople, business owners or those who need direction in life, they are going to choose a coach who already has their own clearly defined focus, because that’s exactly what they are looking to find for themselves.

Lauren Clemett is a Personal Branding Specialist with over 25 years experience in brand management with leading advertising agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather, Clemenger BBDO and for International Corporate AXA. She owns her own agency, the Ultimate Business Propellor and consults with professional service providers who sell the invisible.

She is the best-selling author of the Selling You series of practical guidebooks to personal branding available on Amazon and regularly speaks and holds workshops for coaches, trainers and mentors. www.ultimatebsuinesspropellor.com

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www.coachinglife.com.au

Coaching for Lasting Change a well framed conversation plus the best available tools provides the greatest possible leverage for change

FREE Transformational Coaching RESOURCES www.frazerholmes.com/coaching-tools

Frazer Holmes Coaching personal development experts

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www.frazerholmes.com Ph: 1300 132 544

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NARROW YOUR FOCUS TO SUCCEED ONLINE

By Lorraine Hamilton

AS A COACH WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS THE POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITY OF UTILISING THE WEB TO EXPAND YOUR PRACTICE. AND AS A SUCCESSFUL OFFLINE COACH IT CAN BE CHALLENGING TO STEP INTO THE ONLINE WORLD WITHOUT SOME PREPARATION.

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T

he opportunity is appealing. You can reach an entire world with your work, from the comfort of your home. Suddenly the pushy marketing tactics are replaced with writing, blogging and social media which appeals to the more introverted of us – or does it?

already embarked on your online adventure without the results that you had dreamed of, or are feeling truly overwhelmed with the amount of information being thrust at you to be an online success, then read on.

It’s a bit like stepping from the local pond into the ocean and whilst it is absolutely possible to take your practice global overnight, (in fact you should expect that), global does not necessarily mean full.

You see the truth is that if you take your offline message online, the very message that has served you so well in your offline practice, it is likely to be lost in the noise online very quickly. Whilst there is endless opportunity online, there are also an endless supply of coaches trying to tap into that.

If you are thinking about taking your coaching practice online, or have

So how do you stand out above the noise? www.coachinglife.com.au

LIFE

Let me share a story from my precoaching life to help explain. For many years I was a radio frequency engineer, and my job was to design cellular phone networks. The trouble with radio waves is that they are quite difficult to control and tend to cause interference with each other. And with the proliferation of mobile phones in today’s society, the likelihood of getting a clear phone call without some clever engineering is near impossible.

Every phone in a network is creating its own interference, or noise. It’s a bit like being in a room full of people chattering, how will you be heard clearly above the noise?

The way that it is achieved for modern communication is by giving each phonecall a unique code, so that when you initiate a phonecall the network gives you and the other party a special code that raises your call above that noise floor so that you can be heard without any interference. It’s a bit like being given your very own microphone in that busy room so that you can be heard by just the people that you want to speak to.

The way to make your online venture successful and efficient is to discover your unique ‘code’.

WHAT IS IT THAT CONNECTS YOU TO YOUR PERFECT CLIENTS? You may have heard of the term niche marketing before, and this is certainly the first stage to consider.

Your niche is the group of people who benefit from your work MOST, and who you enjoy working with. It’s the first stage of specialisation. Eg life coach, business coach, health coach, sports coach, relationship coach And it is this specialisation which is going to be your friend as you embark on your online adventure.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that the temptation is to cast your net wide in the hope of attracting potential clients, but remember everyone is talking at the same time and creating all that interfering noise, so the more specialised you become, the more unique the code.

The more effectively that you can cut through the noise and speak specifically to the people that you do your BEST work with, the more that they are going to ‘hear’ you above all the other information on the internet.

Let’s talk about that for a minute.

Surely if you make your code too unique, it’s going to repel so many people that you won’t have enough clients to make your online practice viable? Actually the opposite is true. The more effectively that you can cut through the noise and speak specifically to the people that you do your BEST work with, the more that they are going to ‘hear’ you above all the other information on the internet.

Remember, they are in information overload too, and want to find someone who can demonstrate a deep

What has that got to do with taking your coaching practice online?

Everything as it happens.

You see the internet is full of your ideal clients, but it is also full of your less-than-ideal clients as well, and you don’t want to waste your precious time and energy reaching everyone and then having to filter from there. (Besides, if you do try to appeal to everyone, you are very likely going to end up getting lost in the noise of everyone else.)

One of the joys of the internet is that it really does demonstrate how there is enough for everyone, but it can also be incredibly frustrating trying to find the people that you are meant to serve online in the vastness of the internet, and that can result in a whole heap of frustration, self-doubt and information overload. www.coachinglife.com.au

What is it that connects you to your perfect clients?

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understanding of the problem that they are experiencing. How many of those people do you need to find to fill your practice? Regardless of your answer to that question, it is a lot less than are online looking for you. I am certain of that.

The next stage in your specialisation process is to identify who you are a life coach, business coach, health coach, sports coach, relationship coach FOR. This is where I often see people miss a trick. They tell me that they are a life coach for introverts, or a business coach for startups, a health coach for women entrepreneurs, a sports coach for runners, a relationship coach for couples….

But that’s where they stop, and to be fair, in an offline practice, this can be enough in some markets, but it is not enough for an online coach to stand out above the noise.

The trick that they are missing is that the great likelihood is that within that group of introverts, women, startups or couples there are clients who are not a perfect fit. Those clients who are not coachable or not ready for coaching.

Those clients who are not a good match for your style. So why not be out and proud and call it? All it will do is filter the wheat from the chaff for you and begin to do the heavy lifting of your online marketing.

This is where it begins to get interesting. Now we are no longer just talking about niche marketing, we are talking about POSITIONING. And it is POSITIONING which is going to make your online marketing so much easier.

Let’s imagine that you have found your niche, and let’s imagine your niche as a multi-storey building. Each floor is jampacked with people who fall into your target market and they are potentially perfect clients for you. Each floor of the building houses people who all have something else in common though, and it is different for each floor.

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Let me explain using price as an example.

The lower floors of the building are full of people who are in your target market, they love what you do and they want to work with you. They can, or are willing, to pay you a small amount for your help.

In conclusion, when you are transitioning your offline coaching practice online, the more specialised your message for not only your target market, but the position within that market that best suits your offering, the more it will stand out.

The middle floors of the building are full of people who are in your target market, they love what you do and they want to work with you. They can, or are willing, to pay a bit more to get your help to solve their problem a bit faster.

And the top floors of the building are full of people who are in your target market, they love what you do and want to work with you. They can, or are willing, to pay whatever it takes to get you to help them with their problem.

Whilst each floor is made up of similar people, the unique ‘code’ for each will be a bit different. There is no right or wrong floor to choose, but the message that you send has to be specific for the people on that floor to be heard above the noise.

Another way to look at it is that if you are planning to use the internet to introduce products (lower floors), online group coaching (mid-range floors) and attract 1:1 coaching clients (top floors), then you are actually looking at three different types of clients (although some will transition through all your offerings.) And so your message should be tailored specifically to who you want to attract to each offering.

Lorraine Hamilton changes the

A rule of thumb I generally employ for my clients who are embarking on this journey is that if you already have a large following of your target market online then you can afford to work in the lower floors to have a more widereaching impact, but if you are just starting out online and have a small following, start with the floors at the top. It makes more efficient use of your time online and has the greatest payback.

demand, much to their delight.

rules of engagement coaches, consultants and creatives, so that they stand out from the crowd so uniquely and authentically that their competition seems to melt away.

An insightful and accomplished coach, Lorraine can zero in on what makes her clients unique, special and in

She has long held a passion for cars and you’ll usually find her zipping about in one of her collection sporting brightly coloured hair.

For more information visit www.lorrainehamilton.co.nz

www.coachinglife.com.au

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SPECIALTY COACHING » KELLY KOZARIS Career Coach JESSICA EVANS PR Coach

www.coachinglife.com.au

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5

TIPS FROM A PR COACH

By Jessica Evans

THE MESSAGES I RECEIVE FROM SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS USUALLY START THE SAME - “I’VE TRIED TO CONTACT A WHOLE LOT OF NEWSPAPERS GIVING THEM THIS GREAT STORY, BUT THEY AREN’T INTERESTED. HELP!” THIS IS THE MAIN REASON I STARTED MY MEDIA COACHING BUSINESS. I WANTED TO EMPOWER SMALL BUSINESSES AND GIVE THEM THE TOOLS TO GET NOTICED IN THE MEDIA.

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or small businesses and entrepreneurs, focusing on smart public relations is more important than ever and it can help drive customers to your business.

With endless opportunities to promote yourself, the key is to understand what makes a great story and how the public relations process works.

Contacting journalists is free, and with the fast pace of the media cycle, reporters across the globe are constantly looking for new content.

Public relations is not paid advertising, its unpaid editorial and that’s why it’s so valuable. Essentially because it is written by a journalist in a way that can powerfully effect an audience. Some business owners can be confused by this when trying to promote themselves.

Working as a journalist for many years, my inbox was always flooded with requests from public relations agencies wanting to promote their clients. Most of these agencies were being paid by big business clients across the country to deliver news to the media and get

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published. Out of all these emails, I might have responded to one or two because what they were putting forward wasn’t hitting the mark.

And all this adds up to money wasted for their clients. If you do it in the right way, getting published in the mainstream media lets your market know what you do and how well you do it. It is possible to ditch expensive PR firms and generate free publicity so that you can become an expert in your field.

HERE’S MY TOP TIPS TO GETTING PUBLISHED IN THE MEDIA:

A 1 IDENTIFY NEWS ANGLE

Effective public relations is about writing interesting and engaging content that people want to read about.

So when thinking about your business try not to write a summary or sales pitch. Instead think about how what you do could fit in to any emerging trends, upcoming community events or topics the media love to cover. www.coachinglife.com.au

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Good public relations is about finding the news angle, generating media interest and knowing what journalists want to write about. Start reading the newspaper yourself and start noticing what makes a story interesting.

A journalist’s number one priority is coming up with interesting and engaging content that will sell papers, boost ratings and get attention, not promoting businesses.

2

TARGET THE RELEASE TO YOUR AUDIENCE

You wouldn’t try and sell your product or service to someone who didn’t want to buy it. It’s the same as trying to target the wrong journalist to publish your story. Education writers write about education; business writers write about business.

So identify what publications your consumers are reading and contact the reporters at those papers. A great place to start is your local newspaper, as the journalists there are often in the early stages of their career and are hungry for a story.

A PRESS 3WRITE RELEASE

Before you start writing, I recommend that you get really clear about the news angle you have identified and ask yourself if it is interesting. Is it something you would like to read about?

If you find it a tad dull then chances are that everyone else will too.

When you are writing try to not make the press release all about you or your product. Can you can put it in broader terms about some emerging trends or provide some interesting statistics?

You can write your pitch in the body of the email – two to three sentences maximum and then either attach the media release in the body of the email or attach it in a PDF or word document format. www.coachinglife.com.au

Make sure your spelling and punctuation are in order and if in doubt – ask someone who works in the industry to look over it. Keep your sentences short and snappy when writing a media release. You don’t need to write more than a page. It’s more engaging and easier to read if it is brief.

The first sentence generally contains a hook to activate the reader’s attention.

Then it’s just a matter of filling in the information. The most important piece of information should be first, with the least at the end. If the journalist is interested in your story they will call you to arrange an interview on the phone, to see what photo opportunities are available or to request further information.

A HUMAN 4PROVIDE ELEMENT

Media outlets love stories about real people in the community especially if you provide someone who they can interview or take photos. You want to provide them with the right content to make it easier for them to publish your article.

If you have a real life case study that’s

happy to pose up for a snap and can talk about their personal experience, then you’re more likely to get attention.

TO 5 WHEN FOLLOW UP

Provide your pitch via email and let the journalist mull over it for a day. Then follow up the next day. Don’t constantly call as chances are they are busy and could be juggling many competing deadlines. If you do call – call in the morning not in the late afternoon when deadlines are due.

Of course, be polite and personable when you call. Most journalists spend much of their day chasing things up, meeting demands of editors or out on the road attending breaking news events. It’s hard work, fast paced and stressful. Always be respectful of the reporter’s right to go ahead with your pitch or politely decline as it will help your chances of getting something in next time. It’s worth asking them for feedback so you can improve next time.

If you follow these tips you will be well on your way to coming up with an attention-grabbing pitch that will land you in the media!

Jessica Evans is a media and publicity expert with more than five years’ experience writing for leading daily newspapers and media outlets in Australia. Her goal is to show people in business how to increase their media knowledge, amplify their brand, boost sales and stand out from the crowd.

She helps people dream big, become financially independent and take massive action to create real results in life and business. Jessica runs workshops and events across the country about media engagement.

For more information www.jessicaevans.com.au

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CAREER FOCUS

By Kelly Kozaris AS A CAREER COACH, MY CLIENT’S NEEDS DIFFER, WITH COMMON THEMES BEING CAREER CHANGE, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COACHING AND ALSO COACHING TO BECOME EXPERTS IN THEIR FIELD. THERE ARE ALWAYS PERSONAL COACHING TECHNIQUES BUILT INTO MY SESSIONS, AS SOME CLIENTS HAVE ROAD BLOCKS WHICH PREVENT THEM FROM OBTAINING THE RESULTS THEY DESIRE. THIS IS NOT ONLY COMMON FOR CAREER COACHING, BUT ALSO WITHIN BUSINESS, SPORT AND LIFE COACHING.

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ach client I have worked with, will have a “script” which will prevent them from reaching their full potential. A “script” is subconscious internal dialogue or behaviour which prevents a client from moving forward.

These beliefs may have started as a young child, or developed through adulthood. For example, a client script may be that they believe they are not confident enough to make a career change or obtain a promotion. My goal is to work on fixing these scripts with my clients once establishing a relationship with them. This can set them up for success, build a defined focus and outcome, and clear their mind from any negative thoughts preventing them from reaching their full potential.

Without focus, it is difficult to get a result. We can use certain coaching techniques to guide our clients on the right path, we can show them a blueprint to get there, but without focus, clarity and a desire to make change happen, our role as a coach will stop there. Within career coaching and specifically for career change clients, usually the client would need to provide the evidence that they must satisfy the requirements of a position to an employer. It is all about “knowing your market” principles. The career change process takes a tremendous amount of focus and dedication as it can propel a client out of their comfort zone. It may mean taking a pay cut or going back to study. Once certain behaviours are embedded, and when making a significant life change, it can cause www.coachinglife.com.au

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The two biggest issues in career change coaching are fear of the unknown and lack of confidence in ability. discomfort and uncertainty. These emotions may cause a client to retreat and go back to what is comfortable for them.

THIS COACHING MODEL EXPLORES 9 AREAS OF THE CLIENT

Procrastination can impact our clients’ focus and clarity. But, how do we stop clients from procrastinating when we they are meant to be doing something important and we know that they have certain goals and objectives to achieve?

In order to continuously develop ourselves professionally, we need to build momentum and be able to move our clients along to the next stage of possibility.

• FEELINGS

Procrastination can arise when a client is attempting to do something that they are not clear about, is not right for their skill set or they are too tired to attempt. This is where having focus for the client is crucial to get the results they want. There can also be a lack of alignment with their values, motivations and lifestyle. The impact of lack of focus can include withdrawing from their colleagues or becoming quite negative towards their role/company. This in turn impacts their performance and the cycle begins again, leading to negative effects on general wellbeing.

• VIBRATION • ACTIONS • FREQUENCY • VALUES • CONVERSATIONS • RESONANCE • BELIEFS • THOUGHTS The three pillars in the areas surrounding these topics are energy, emotion and mindset. These areas define the coaching focus for a client to explore. Each area can impact the focus of a client, and depending on their needs and resilience levels, be

life changing. I use this technique in partnership with affirmations. When affirmations are used consistently, they can change negative thoughts into positive thoughts, and over time, increases confidence which then develops greater focus.

If you wouldn’t do what you are doing for free, then you are on the wrong path As a career coach, I say to my clients, if you wouldn’t do what you are doing for free, then you are on the wrong path for a fulfilling and rewarding career. This statement often provides a light bulb moment, because often, we get so busy that we don’t focus on what truly makes us happy.

The time and effort that it takes to look into what you would love to do is worth every moment. It is a journey of selfreflection, a time to revisit your values and goals and start fresh. We invest lots of time into our health, fitness and social lives, but our careers and what we truly want sometimes gets forgotten.

When a client makes the time to focus on their self, they see a shift towards a more productive and fulfilling career and life.

The two biggest issues in career change coaching are fear of the unknown and lack of confidence in ability.

Using the Coaching Focus model can assist clients to work through these problems. The exact technique used will differ depending on the training of the coach and the needs of the client.

This technique was taught through my training with Thought Leaders Global. www.coachinglife.com.au

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As a career coach, I say to my clients, if you wouldn’t do what you are doing for free, then you are on the wrong path for a fulfilling and rewarding career.

GOAL SETTING AND FOCUS I see people wander through their life in a daze hoping for a miracle that one day they will have an “AHA!” moment and that their perfect career or life will miraculously appear in front of them. With each client I emphasize the importance of focus and discovery before their ideal path becomes clear.

To discover what we want, we start by identifying the limiting self-beliefs that are stopping us from reaching success, and create a plan to work towards our goals.

A client, let’s call her “Sarah”, is a clear example of trusting the process, focusing on the bigger picture and following my guidance to get to where she wants to be. Working in food science was a career she thought she always wanted to do. After many years working within food product development, she decided it wasn’t for her and contacted me for help. As we worked together over many months, utilizing the above techniques, finding out her motivations, values and exploring potential pathways, she is now on the road to a new career within nutrition and health and is looking at starting her own business in the future. She is happy, her lifestyle has changed, her relationships are better and she now wakes up every day knowing she is doing what she loves.

It is important to teach our clients to focus on the macro “bigger picture” ideal, rather than get caught up in the micro elements that become obstacles which can get in the way of an ideal

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result. Goal setting is important but more important is putting these goals into an action plan which accelerates the results. By mapping out a clear path, our clients can see the bigger picture and know the steps required to get there.

DEVELOPING THE POWER OF FOCUS In order to gain success in elements of our life, we need to be able to focus our mind and calm down its relentless tendency to constantly shift from one subject to another. When working with clients, it is imperative to have a clear mind. We are required to focus on the session and not get distracted by our own day to day thoughts. Every act that we take as coaches needs attention for successful client performance. We are not born with the power of focus.

Like a muscle, it needs training to be developed over time.

Concentration exercises like simply by focusing on each task you are doing throughout the day will turn an everyday action into an ability to improve your focus. In this way, you will not only strengthen your focus, but everything you do will be done better, more efficiently and even faster. In time, as your focus becomes stronger, thoughts will lose their power to distract you, and you will find that you can absorb yourself in whatever you do. This will increase your efficiency, improve your performance and allow you to enjoy whatever you do.

KELLY KOZARIS is a professional development and performance coach and trainer dedicated to the advancement of women in business. With over 9 years’ experience within human resources and coaching, Kelly works with professional women to advance their career and make them experts in their fields. Her qualifications include a Masters of Human Resource Management, Bachelor of Business and Commerce majoring in Marketing and Management, Accredited Elite Coach through Thought Leaders Global and Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Kelly is a speaker on talent, leadership and career development for women and has spoken at conferences including the HR Tech Fest.

www.coachinglife.com.au

THE LAST WORD… We all make mistakes, but it’s not about fixing the blame, it’s about fixing the problem.

Focus is a daily journey for all of us.

Enjoy, Develop, Compete, Succeed.

Your niche is the group of people who benefit from your work MOST, and who you enjoy working with.

Matthew Betsey

Lorraine Hamilton

Ric Charlesworth

Andy King

Focus is critical to achieving success in any area or expertise.

Let go and go home. Leave work at work if you can.

Jim Prigg

Nicole Pratt Being clear about purpose is a vital element of focus. It is the Why of focus and its goal, task or target.

Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Become the best coach you can.

To have that focused time is paramount to the results you achieve.

Di Percy

Corey Slade

The goal is continual improvement, regardless of performance .

Holding on to a dream can have more resonance than powering to a goal.

Robert Gerrish

Without passion and commitment, you are not going to be any different from your competitor.

Dean Kinney

To be a successful coach, you need to treat your work as a business rather than a profession.

Michelle Pascoe With a single minded focus, even the loftiest of goals are achievable and people begin to believe along with you.

Daniel Inderwisch

Greg Chapman If you commit to focusing on your most important Life priorities, you will get the results that matter the most to you.

Lauren Clemett

Coaching is both an art and a science.

Scott Epp

Alex Couley

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MARCH EDITION GOALS EDITION – SETTING, KICKING AND RESETTING Our next edition will explore all aspects of goals and how our top coaches use them to full advantage.

plus so much more!

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