ISSUE 14 / FEBRUARY 2015
THE
Successful Coach MAGAZINE
MATTHEW CHURCH PG.4
FOR COACHES ARPAN ROY PG.24
PART THREE
KEVIN GAMMIE PG.14
PREMIER PREVIEW! Exclusive peek into the opening chapter of Sharon Pearon’s brand new book: Disruptive Leadership.
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Kevin Gammie 14 RESILIENCE
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Dianne Kenyon 18 I HAVE LEARNT TO LOVE WHERE I’M AT
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DISRUPTIVE THE COACHING INSTITUTE
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Premier Preview OPENING CHAPTER OF THE BOOK
DISRUPTIVE LEADERSHIP
FROM SHARON PEARSON FOUNDER OF THE GLOBAL SUCCESS INSTITUTE
In collaboration with The Coaching Institute, we are proud to present to you the exclusive premier preview of Disruptive Leadership, the new book by author, coach, mentor, speaker, leader and successful entrepreneur, Sharon Pearson. Disruptive Leadership is a groundbreakingly truthful work on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to creating a high-performing team and cultivating a unique culture; developed over 14 years of experience in building one of the most distinguished Coaching Education Provider in Australasia... This is a never before seen extract direct from the book.
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THE PURPOSE OF LEADERSHIP We have a ‘Your First 90 Days as a Leader’ manual we provide to people in our organisation when they move into a leadership role for the first time. The manual doesn’t talk about making people follow you. It talks about being worthy of the ‘followship’. It’s up to you, the leader, to be the person your team needs you to be. Whilst the manual isn’t huge (compared to what I usually put together!), it’s enough to take years to master. And that goes for me, too. We’re all a work in progress. We’re all lifelong learners. We’re all here to be our best, and then find the next level. LEADERSHIP IS AN INSIDE JOB BEFORE IT’S ABOUT OTHERS. We need to know ourselves, see ourselves accurately, be egoless in our feedback to ourselves, and brutal in our commitment to being the leader our team requires and deserves. We get the team we deserve. The first purpose of leadership, I think, is to be a person who is clear on the vision, lives their values, and walks their talk. Our commitment to being the best we can be is the first responsibility we have as a leader. The second purpose of leadership is to inspire those around us.
Our team may have a challenge seeing the potential of an opportunity. They may have to see it before they believe it. That’s not leadership. A leader believes the opportunity’s potential until they see it. There are countless times when I’ve seen the potential of a situation and seized the moment. The feedback was, “Wow, how did you do that?” I share my thinking, but I know that until the team members can do it themselves, I have failed. The next purpose of leadership is to help create future leaders. This is one of the toughest paths we can take. The jump, from in-there-sleeves-rolled-up-doing-it-yourself to empowering others to set the example, is a challenging one to take. I’m constantly looking for moments when an idea from a team member can be carried, by them, to completion. In those moments, they learn to lead. Leadership, to me, is also building a place where high performers and innovators want to be, and have the space to fully express their skills. I don’t ever want to be the ‘micromanager’ who sits on their wings, waiting to catch them doing something wrong or tell them why we can’t do that. I want to be out of their way, and let them bring to life the ideas that are within them. I want us, as a team, to be so encouraging of experimentation and innovation that it’s normal to make mistakes, learn, improve and implement. This form of high-impact leadership encourages innovative thinking and empowers the team to ‘own’, not just their own performance, but the outcomes of the entire team. This leadership sees highpage 6
performing people as more than just doing their job. It’s time that leaders learned how to improve people’s ability to think. Many team members are highly capable individuals who will thrive on this approach. They want to work smarter, they want to be smarter, they want to succeed: they want to thrive. They want to feel genuinely fulfilled by what they do because it counts, has meaning and contributes beyond themselves.
Leadership is an inside job before it’s about others. SHARON PEARSON
A good day is not ‘getting through the day’. A good day is not ‘it can only get better’. A good day is one where the team member knows that what they did made a difference and they were capable, under pressure, of finding a way. Give your team that good day, and you will be amazed at what’s possible. One hundred years ago people were paid for their ability to do physical labour. The dominant management model was masterservant, to get more from the labourer for their efforts.
Leadership is communicating to people thier worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves. STEPHEN COVEY
Today, management is about creating a space for innovators to thrive, for excellence to be the norm and for high performers to shine. If you can create a culture where the very best people want to come and play, and give them the space to disrupt the status quo, a new level of excellence and innovation will emerge. The innovations are happening. Right now. In great companies that dare to think this way.
A great leader’s courage to fulfil their vision comes from passion, not position. JOHN MAXWELL
IT’S YOUR TURN. Extract from the book Disruptive Leadership by Sharon Pearson. Pre-order your copy at
www.disruptiveleading.com/book page 7
WRITTEN BY
MATTHEW CHURCH Coach and Mentor at The Coaching Institute
Indispensible THE
COACH
5 Steps to Create Your Remarkable Year of Coaching in 2015
ONE MONTH INTO THE NEW YEAR AND EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED (AGAIN). WE ARE IN AN INDUSTRY THAT TENDS TO MAKE DECISIONS QUICKLY AND CHANGE ITS MIND SLOWLY. SUCCESSFUL COACHES WATCH THE TRENDS - I’M SURE, BY NOW, THAT YOU’RE AWARE OF THIS. INDUSTRY LEADERS, HOWEVER, DISRUPT THEM. I SPEAK WITH THOUSANDS OF COACHES EACH MONTH - COACHES WHO ARE SUCCESSFUL, AND COACHES WHO ARE STRUGGLING.
HERE ARE THEIR LESSONS ALONG THE WAY...
ONE. This is your year to start developing content One of coaching’s “biblical” texts is Influence, and it’s by Robert Cialdini - a leading expert in the fields of psychology and marketing. Influence is a paragon of marketing for coaches - and is lauded as a must-read by some of Australia’s most senior coaches including Taki Moore and Sharon Pearson. Cialdini notes six key areas of influence and persuasion, and it is The Law of Authority that I consider to be one of the most essential. The Law of Authority states that people will tend to obey authority figures.
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No matter what industry you are in, authority will put you a step above - but I believe this is most applicable in coaching.
TWO. Building your list is the key to success
EVERY NICHE MARKET WILL RESPOND TO AUTHORITY - AND THE CHALLENGE BECOMES HOW DO YOU BUILD AUTHORITY AND LEVERAGE YOUR TIME?
Every year, I mentor thousands of coaches on generating wealth through coaching and, every year, I find myself giving the same feedback. If you are not converting enough business to sustain yourself, the problem that you created was created back in your lead generation strategy.
CONTENT. From generalist life coaching to mentoring the next generation of leaders, the successful coaches are those who produce and sell content. Whether it’s a book or an affiliate program, an online membership area or a series of recorded webinars. Content is authority in this industry - and 2015 is your year to get into the game. It’s never been easier to develop your own content - run and record a training, write your own manual, build a membership website. Simpler than that, become an affiliate of a program that’s already built. Check out Desiremap or Disruptive Leadership - programs that you purchase a license to, with content already written, with a pre-built infrastructure, that you can onsell and profit from. In this industry, it’s a no-brainer for sure. Having content heralds you as a guru with “expert status” - and the sales research tells us that being the expert is the way to boost your conversion rate without changing your sales strategy. Or, as Cialdini calls is... authority.
Without being pessimistic, the problem is that you probably don’t have a lead gen strategy. Making money from coaching is simply a maths game - the more people you have on your list, the more leads you have to prospect, the more opportunities you have to convert. It’s the 80/20 rule: 80% of your business this year will come from only 20% of your leads.
WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY? HOW ARE YOU BUILDING YOUR LIST? Many coaches I train shy at the idea of online marketing, and I want to tell you: that’s okay. If you want to keep networking this year to build your list, that’s okay - but, too many coaches are focussing solely on the quality of their leads. If you want to success this year, you need to balance quality of leads, with the number you have! If you are starting to navigate the online sphere, it’s time to build the opposite arm of your lead gen: the quality of your leads. So many coaches start their direct marketing journeys with Google Adwords - and, I have to say... welcome to the twenty-first
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century! Facebook advertising allows you to advertise directly to your avatar (average ideal client). You can target by age, location, career, education - anything. When you are paying per click (PPC model), then marketing to everyone is the same as taking your marketing budget and burning half of it. We’re at a delicate point now where more and more coaches are catching onto this nuggets - that social media marketing is the new frontier of list building.
Most coaches already have a number of programs - but, a huge majority are allowing their clients to stay in their bottom programs for fear of losing them as clients. A hard, but important lesson I had to learn is that my clients were as afraid as I was. They signed onto my small programs because they thought I was like every other salesperson out there.
IF YOU’RE ADDING VALUE - IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE SOLUTION TO YOUR CLIENTS’ PROBLEMS - THEN ASCENDING THEM THROUGH YOUR DIFFERENT PROGRAMS IS EASY, AND IT’S A NOBRAINER FOR THEM.
Get it now, or you’ll have to wait until the next disruptive trend comes along.
THREE. Design an ascension model today
If you have your three programs, check in after a couple of sessions and see whether they’d like to upgrade to a higher program for a longer time, or for the other inclusions your programs provide. If you’ve created some content or built a product, offer them online membership or to invest in your personal development product.
The next time you research successful coaches in your niche, I want you to take note of something: most of their money will come from a program or service that they upsell to. When I say upsell, I’m referring to clients who buy into one program, and then upgrade to a more expensive program later (for example, starting in a three month program, and then upselling to the twelve month program). Another common service is the cross sell, where the client stays in one core program, but purchases an “add on” (such as an affiliate program, an online membership, or a product). In business, we call this as ascension model - a system whereby clients can upsell and cross sell easily, because of the incredible value your different programs add to their lives. In my private mentoring, this is one area I coach all of my clients on, because this is where the massive wealth is generated.
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Powerful ascension models are about being 100% in the game and giving your clients the opportunity to fully commit to themselves. It’s an easy decision if you’re attracting your ideal average client!
FOUR. Get clear on where you’re going
I mean, in many senses, this speaks for itself. Kind of. History, though, shows me that most coaches, while walking the walk, have a huge amount of trouble talking the talk.
SUCCESS AS A COACH IS ABOUT THE FIRST CORE NEED:
Succeeding in coaching is all about knowing where you want to be... tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next decade. Some call these goals, but at The Coaching Institute, we refer to these big, hairy, audacious goals as our Wildly Important Goals (check out the Four Disciplines of Execution book for more information on this). We have two or three of these each year - the goals that will show us that we’re ready for the next level.
CERTAINTY. Clients buy certainty. Coaches teach certainty. Everything in this industry starts with certainty. Why? Because when our clients lose track of it, they get lost and disillusioned.
What are your Wildly Important Goals (we call them WIGs for short!) this year? An income goal? What about the number of coaching hours? Enrolling in a higher level program? Becoming an accredited coach with ICG? Finishing an assessment? Hiring a professional mentor? Whatever it is, you need to be able to see it, here it, and feel it. What is the experience you will have when you achieve your WIGs? And what is the next level for you?
WHEN YOU ARE CLEAR ON WHERE YOU’RE GOING - WHEN YOU KNOW THE BENCHMARKS, AND YOU KNOW WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE - THEN THIS YEAR IS SIMPLY A MATTER OF WINNING THE GAME.
FIVE. Know your own value
We are their rock. Immovable and unstoppable. Nothing they say - and nothing anybody else says - will move us or change us. We give our clients the tools to be their own rocks - and to be rocks for others. Master Trainer and Coach, Joe Pane - a mentor of mine - always reminds his students to be grounded. Groundedness is about having your feet on the ground. It’s about accepting where you are, and accepting that what you know will change nothing. I will never apologise for saying that.
Who you are being - for yourself, and for others - can change the whole world. Everything else is just noise in the cracks.
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WRITTEN BY
KEVIN GAMMIE
Meta Dynamics Profiler and Thought Dynamics Consultant
A NEW
Adventure PART THREE
Catch up on Part One and Part Two in the August and September issues
A NEW ADVENTURE… OR AS
I hope you got that. Things were in fact quite dire for the recruitment business. Every bright spot seemed only to be met with a new challenge. The economy was still unstable and business very conservative. Not a conducive environment to running a small recruitment company with reasonable debts from the past.
CROCODILE DUNDEE WOULD SAY “THAT’S NOT A PROBLEM… THIS IS A PROBLEM…” A quick recap. Early 2013: Owning recruiting business 14.5 years old. Fun and happy pre-GFC, struggling and unhappy since. The challenged economy highlighted problems and resulted in poor cash-flow. 1st attempt at business coaching – unsuccessful. 1st attempt at transformation coaching for self - successful. 2nd attempt at business coaching – unsuccessful. Heavy investment, without return… and just started coaching journey…blah blah blah… And we’re back!
My coaching journey had begun and I was definitely green (and hopefully growing). The recruitment, well, that seemed more on the rotting side. I was personally at effect on this side. I was starting to resent clients, candidates and even my business partner. It was 12 months since I had decided to leave the business and industry and I was desperate to build it to be a saleable asset prior to departure.
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I organised an agreement with my partner in the business for sale the following June... still 9 months off.
After work, 3 nights a week I would go home to my beautifully patient partner Melissa, have dinner and head to the study for webinars and learning. Generally seeing a client or two a week as well, the pace was frantic. The more I enjoyed the coaching the greater contrast I found in the recruitment. By July I’d negotiated 3 days a week in recruitment so I could start seeing some clients during the day on the other 2. I found a couple of paying clients and had a good number of pro bono clients to boot. I was deep in learning, saying “Yes” and making it up as I went along. I joined BNI for my coaching business and was busy promoting that. Each week, I’d take along at least one referral, offer support and even did some brief pro bono work there. Nothing came back. In 10 months I had given 40 referrals and received less than 5. All for training sessions or one off events.
recruitment office. 19 days intensive training within just 32 days, what a buzz!!! What a challenge. I must admit, my brain was fried by the end of it. I was exhilarated, and exhausted. The one thing I realised was that I wasn’t coping with continually growing my learning, coaching clients and completing my commitment to the recruitment side of things. Something had to give and I knew exactly what that was. I sat down with my business partner and agreed an exit strategy that had me leaving the recruitment business on great terms immediately, selling him the business for around 33% - 50% of the minimum agreed price we had from only a couple of months ago, depending on how he met certain criteria. Even at such a discount, it was a great deal for both parties.
In the September I was booked onto 3 days of Advanced Skills, returning to Brisbane for 7 days, back to Melbourne for 7 days NLP/Meta Dynamics, returning to Brisbane for just 3 nights and a flight to Sydney for a marketing intensive for 5 days, back to Brisbane for just 3 days and returning to Melbourne for the 5 days of How to Run a Workshop. I was able to utilise annual leave to cover for the days I wasn’t in the page 15
I was free to commence my journey forward and he was able to step into leading the recruitment business on the next stage of its journey. There was some financials to be completed but the transition was to commence immediately. I continued to pick up some clients on the coaching side and had 6 core clients, from individuals through to doing some executive work with the John Holland Group. My coaching business was hitting the ground running. Late November I was back to complete EDISC and in December I billed in excess of $8,000. I had the big picture, I was loving what I was doing, I was busy implementing everything I learned as quickly as I would learn it.
I was enthusiastic, focussed on clients and giving generously. Clients were getting great benefits and providing great feedback. Things were really going along well… OR so it seemed. Sure January was down, I’d sold a lot of EDISC in December so the fall off was to be expected. I’d been working on building a “small business specific” business planning platform. Most of Brisbane seemed to be on holidays anyway. In February I’d had a similar result, picking up very little new business.
In March one of the clients departed, they’d got a lot from the coaching but were needing some time to implement what we had be doing. I was off to Meta Dynamics II in April and so had a lot of study to complete. I was starting to get concerned with the lack of new work I was picking up. In May I got some further work from the John Holland Group but hadn’t picked up new work for several months. I had freed myself from the recruitment side, started coaching and generally had a positive attitude.
When networking I was genuinely seeking opportunities to assist others… Why wasn’t I getting more business??? That’s when I realised. The problem wasn’t the recruitment business… I had individual clients, small business clients, clients in transition from sole operator and building and corporate clients… I still lacked clarity around where I was going.
THE PROBLEM WASN’T WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS… THAT WAS JUST A SYMPTOM OF A MUCH LARGER ONE. (To be continued...) page 16
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kenyon EDISC Profiler Int. Cred. Master Coach Student
MY COACHING JOURNEY BEGAN AT THE END OF JUNE 2014, SO I STILL CONSIDER MYSELF A ‘ROOKIE’. IN SAYING THAT I DO ALWAYS REMEMBER THE SAYING’S THAT IT IS OK IF YOU ARE NOT PERFECT, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW IF YOU DON’T HAVE A GO AND MY FAVOURITE ‘GREEN AND GROWING OR RIPE AND ROTTEN’.
One of my goals is to always be ‘Green and Growing’ I am working full time while continuing my coaching journey and everything I put in place at the moment are to get me to my ultimate goal of having my own coaching business, and to use Joe Pane’s words
‘Doing what I love and getting paid for it’. I have recently been to a conference in Adelaide and was privileged to be able to hear a presentation by Samantha and Laurence Barlow. page 18
The definition of Resilience:
Samantha and Laurence were both police officers in Sydney. In 2009 Samantha was brutally bashed and left for dead. She suffered horrific injuries where she was not expected to live let alone get back to the job she loved.
The power or ability to return to the original form or position after being bent, compressed or stretched or the ability to recover readily from illness, depression or adversity.
During the presentation the words and the themes of resilience kept coming through. I kept thinking of how throughout her journey she never ever gave up and the mantra she actually developed was ‘Never Ever Ever Give Up’. She had to keep taking action and kept getting up again and again no matter what obstacles she had in her way. Once she regained consciousness, whilst still a patient in intensive care, she was stating her goal of returning to work. She kept this goal as her focus the whole time.
I have translated this into a slightly different version that I believe will serve me and I would like to think any other coaches on their own personal development and business journey.
The power to continue to develop, grow and serve (yourself and others) with a goal in mind no matter what life throws at you. These are merely hurdles to get over, under or around they are not road blocks.
As I was listening to the presentation I kept thinking how her actions, behaviour and never say die attitude was the attitude and mind set I needed to embrace more and more to become a great coach. It was such an inspirational story that kept making me think if she can do this what I am doing is easy. Anything would be easy compared to what they endured and the lesson learned and what she told herself every day are the real meaning of resilience. Even though the story was horrific the message of the presentation was not. It was all about the journey to get where she needed to be. The story I took away cemented the information that we hear every day at TCI. It is all up to us and no one else can make it happen.
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I have learnt to love where I’m at
teuila
reid
ICG Associate Member Int. Cred. Master Coach Student
I STARTED WITH COACHING IN JULY 2013. MY DECISION BASED ON AN APPETITE TO LEARN WHAT I NEEDED TO DO AND FURTHER WHO I NEEDED TO BE IN ORDER TO TURN MY PASSION INTO A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS. Foundations of Coaching Success (my first coaching training with The Coaching Institute) provided me with a solid
foundation on all the ‘how to do it’, backed up by a huge injection of actionspiration (made up word). I was super keen; head full of ideas and heart full of ‘change the world’! My career spanned13 years is in the government sector. I love what I do but had reached a ceiling and wanted more. With my coaching learnings I first worked out what that ‘more’ looked like specifically. I wanted to create an opportunity where I could be more creative in what I did and share my 13+ year knowledge AND do that part time. Well, with persistence, a heck of patience and a determination like I’ve never thought
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possible I achieved this, it took 12 months but I am now a trainer with an audience that is worldwide.
lagging I ask myself if this standard is one I uphold. My response dictates the action to follow :-)
Now, I am in this amazing position where I get to train others in Management & Leadership Tools, bringing passion to process and that is totally my bag!
I have learnt to love where I’m at, no matter where I am.
In March 2014, to get the ball rolling with my coaching I started my own private one on one coaching practice – www.theartwelIinstitute.com. I coached and continued to work full time hours. I was traveling for at least 5 months out of 12 but just made it work somehow! Today, I have a small client base that is continually growing at the pace I set. This however is only the start! In December 2014, I met the most inspiring entrepreneurial couple who run a successful company inspiring change SO aligned with my mission and values. I am so grateful to now be working with this great team at Ultimate You as their lead Mindset Coach.
I have learnt that momentum is created by action. The ducks don’t line up unless one moves. TCI is a community based around this. Nothing happens unless I do something. So, there have been a number of wins. The fine print is not as pretty as it looks here I can assure you. Has it been hard work? Yes. Have I made sacrifices and been uncomfortable? Yes, continually. Am I in a better position now to serve my community and provide for my family? Yes. Am I more grateful today than I ever have been? Yes. Is the conversation I am having with myself anything like what it was 12 months ago? Not at all!
Bring it hard 2015.
What I dig so much about the coaching community is that we hold a principle that says, ‘Its ok to not know how’ and, ‘It is ok to suck at something.’ Failure is ok. I have learnt how set-backs, rejection, not having a great day or things not going to plan can leverage me into a successful outcome rather than the opposite. I have learnt how to strategize, to create steps and follow daily systems that direct me on the course. I have learnt that high personal standards are my most valuable asset. When I’m page 21
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WRITTEN BY
ARPAN ROY Master Coach and Thought Dynamics Consultant
THE
Marketing
Plan
FOR COACHES PART TWO
Quick Recap & Context: In Part 1, we looked at the importance of having a marketing plan as coaches and how we can perform a SWOT analysis before developing a marketing plan. In this article, we will look at the aspects that further provide a better understanding of your environment such as defining your client avatar, identifying your collaborators and the factors that give you a competitive edge.
Catch up on Part One in the October Issue
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Know Your Client:
Collaborators
Defining your Client Avatar
While running our coaching practice, we often operate independently.
“To get what we want, we must know what we want”
Especially if you operate on a One-on-One basis to serve your clients. So why should you look at collaboration with others?
Similarly to market our services, it is important to understand and be clear about who our audience is. We often come across this statement- “We deliver high value when we give the clients what they want”. Knowing our client is a vital step to understand what they want. That’s when we start talking business!
Collaboration with various people or groups can give you access to resources, enable you to solve problems for your clients quickly and effectively and help you grow your brand. Here are some of the key collaborators you could liaise with at any stage of your coaching journey:
Some of you might have defined your client avatar already. If you have, that’s a really positive start. For those who haven’t done this yet, below are some of the questions you can answer to be able to define your client avatar.
1. Fellow coaches for Joint ventures Joint ventures are often undertaken to deliver large, complex programs as well as serve large number of clients through the same program. Liaisons can be formed with fellow coaches/consultants to work on such joint ventures.
As you find yourself answering the above questions, you focus on who you want to work with and become clear on your message.
1. Who is it that I most enjoy working with? What is their age, sex, demographics, location, income/ turnover, role/designation in their business?
2. Networking Groups
2. What specific challenges do they face? What problem of theirs would you solve?
3. What do they want to achieve? Are you able to deliver what they want?
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Networking events are a fantastic way to meet new people and build relationships. These could be prospective clients, someone who can refer clients to you or even fellow consultants with whom you could start a joint venture in the future. By attending networking events, the networking groups that run these events become your collaborator.
Competitive Factors Like with any industry, differentiation is a key factor that gives you an edge over others. Key questions we must ask ourselves at all times is “What do I provide that compels the clients to pay for my services?”, “How do I engage with my client?” What are the factors to maintain differentiation from others?
1. Online Presence In today’s digital world, online presence is vital to generate brand awareness. Search engines and social media are major sources of information to most people. If your clients are online and on social media, shouldn’t you be?
Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell SETH GODIN
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sell itself.
2. Value delivered to clients In a value-based industry such as coaching, what we offer to our clients can mostly be intangible. The results achieved by the clients are a reflection of the value that we add (assuming of course that the clients take responsibility for their actions and are committed to change). The more evidences we have of our clients’ success, the more valuable our services are perceived to be.
JOHN MAXWELL
The best marketing strategy ever: CARE. GARY VAYNERCHUCK
3. Product Offerings The multitude of products offered to our clients is also a key differentiator. In addition to coaching sessions, these can be in the form of online articles, blogs, e-books, webinars etc. page 26
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