Category Archives: Coaching

What Makes You Stand Out As a Life Coach?

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There are thousands of life coaches, business coaches, personal coaches and executive coaches all competing for the same clients. Every one of them is offering the same thing – Coaching. In such a competitive marketplace what is going to make you stand out from the competition, what is going to give you the a competitive edge? As many coaches will testify, ultimately it may be your marketing skills rather than your coaching ability that determines the success of your business.

In competitive markets it is not always the best products that become a marketing success. History is littered with great products that are no longer around; they disappeared because they lost the marketing battle. Do you remember 8 Track stereo? No, not many people do, that’s the price you pay for losing the marketing battle, even though in the ’70’s it was far superior to its rival the compact cassette.

In the ’80’s it was VHS impressive marketing verses Betamax impressive quality and we all know who won that battle. Actually it was no contest.   Similar battles are being waged right now. Blu-Ray verses HD-DVD is a good example similar technologies yet the Blu-Ray has more storage capacity so can play higher quality films. HD-DVD struggles to match this but has a better marketing platform. Any guesses which format will win out in the end?   Exactly the same market forces apply to everything, including coaching. Whilst all coaches believe they have the best product; that is rarely enough to secure business on its own. Marketing that product is the key to success. It stands to reason that anything that gets you noticed, attracts potential clients or improves your service over other coaches is bound to give you an edge.   However there are few marketing services for coaches available that actually deliver a competitive advantage. One interesting option is coaching-success.org which allows coaches to use its online personality profile as a marketing tool.

The concept is quite simple, and you can easily try out the marketing tool for life coaches [http://cstest.coaching-success.org] for yourself; visitors to the coach’s website are offered a free profile which, based on their personality preference, talks of the benefits of coaching.   The coach can then use this information to follow up the prospective client. Because the reports are customised with the coach’s details it all looks like a seamless part of their personal service. This allows the visitor to ‘interact’ with the coach and get a feel for their service whilst getting a valuable profile. This alone is often enough to prompt more business as one said “Many potential clients research business coaches before agreeing to a face-to-face meeting. Having a way for them to interact with me via the website has increased my appointment rate”.   Other coaches have found that this type of personalised promotion has a positive effect on the number of visitors to their website reporting that “The traffic to my website has increased by 220% and is steadily increasing – it’s just amazing how word of it has spread.” Perhaps this is because there is a viral element to the process, visitors who have received the free report mention it to friends who are curious enough to visit themselves.   Becoming a qualified life coach is the easy bit, it’s finding the clients that’s hard is a sentiment that many coaches would have some empathy with. You have probably found that becoming a qualified coach is only the first step on the road to becoming a successful coach. Making a living as a life coach involves building a business. That means; making contacts, engaging with potential clients, converting clients, marketing your service, building a presence in the marketplace and most importantly standing out from the competition. And let’s face it the marketplace is tough at the moment, so anything that gives you the edge must be worth considering.

Coaching Certification – It’s Not Important, But What Is?

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In the coaching profession it is not necessary to get a coaching certification. In other words just about anyone can begin coaching without prior certification from any school or institution. Although there are some places that are making moves to regulate the profession, getting a coaching certification is not a requirement to be great at what you do.

What makes a great coach?

Having a coaching certification is not the basis for one to be considered an amazing coach. If you have prior experience in your field of expertise and you have the zeal and passion to support others then you may have what it takes to be a successful professional coach. You know the ins and outs of the business because you’ve been there done it. Anyone can start their own coaching business with virtually zero training or certifications.

However there is one “training” activity all successful coaches partake in consistently. They are always being coached themselves by a coach who is ahead of where they want to be. It makes sense right? If a coach wants to help their clients grow they must be growing themselves. This is where the true learning comes from. Being coached regularly is the best way to improve as a coach and a mentor.

But in case you’re wondering why there are people who want to get certified, they were indoctrinated by coaching organizations and schools. They believe it’s essential and that’s why these institutions exist to certify them.

Many people want to get certified because they want a validation that they are good coaches. But the truth is, it is highly possible to be certified even if you are not that good of a coach. In the same way that there are many great coaches that exist out there without coaching certification.

There is nothing wrong with getting a coaching certification, but then again there is no guarantee that a certified coach can deliver better results than an uncertified one. In fact, anyone with a printer can claim that they are certified coach-and I mean anyone who may not even have experience in business or in other fields. Who knows right?

If a coaching certification doesn’t matter then, what does?

Experience, ability, a great system-these are just few of the elements that matter when it comes to choosing a business coach. Clients want to invest in people who can help them; a person whom they believe in. And coaches must have a solid background in business or in other fields in order for them to gain the respect and trust of their clients.

Experience in their field can speak for itself. Bill Gates, for example, does not need to be certified in order for him to become a successful business coach. Ask yourself, does he need a certification?

What’s also important is whether or not the he or she was able to deliver desirable results for her or his previous clients. Was she or he able to improve a business, achieve goals or improve relationships? This is an effective way to measure whether or not a coach has a system that works for their clients.

The most important reasons why certain coaches succeed in their field is their irreversible passion for what they do. Coaches can make a great difference in people’s lives only when they have a heart for coaching. And having a coaching certification cannot replace passion, experience, real and raw skills.

How to Attract (And Keep) An Incredible Coach in Your Life

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“When the student is ready – the teacher appears…”

Coaching is absolutely one of the most important, fundamental concepts that is both can help you reach new heights of success in your business and life, and can help you crack the ‘secret code’ to unbelievable, massive growth and duplication in your team. Funny enough, it’s probably the most ignored strategy in Network Marketing, both as a distributor trying to find that ‘secret sauce’, and a leader who’s wondering why he’s got a bunch of frustrated downline who don’t know how to build a business.

Absolutely, without question, this is the most important concept that you can ever learn in business: If you want to be at the TOP of your game, you MUST be willing to be coached, and find the best person possible, who can help you clean up your game and take it to the next level. I like to use Michael Jordan as an example, because even though he was arguably one of the top basketball players of all time, at the height of his success, when every move he made seemed magical, he was still a team player – and willing and ready to receive guidance and feedback.

Now, keep in mind that Jordan was BETTER at basketball, and had more success in his life than any of his basketball coaches, at any point in their life experienced – but still he was willing to take critical feedback, guidance, and correction at skills that he was arguably the best in the world at performing.

Now why is that? I’ve heard people say things like ‘only listen to people who are getting better results than you in the area you’re seeking’, but then why did a $100,000,000 per year earner take advice from people that earned dramatically smaller incomes, played basketball less well, and were never as influential as he was?

Because a great coach isn’t there to be better at everything, he is there to always help keep you on track. A great coach is good at identifying the strength of the players, and at helping people improve skill sets that they don’t even have themselves. The most important thing that a coach can do, however, is to help you focus and keep on the right track, and hold you accountable to the things that you agree that you’ll do together.

I had a major breakthrough a few weeks back, when I had a guy come on one of my coaching calls who’s been one of the largest distributors in the Amway corporation for the last 20 years. He shared some concepts that have totally transformed the way that I thought about life and business, and it put into perspective something that was missing in my business, and was one of the most important changes I’ve made to the way I approach building a team – and here’s what it was:

Putting in place a structured accountability and coaching program for anyone in my team who is willing to be accountable and follow instructions. Now, keep in mind, I couldn’t possibly have the time in a week to coach every person in my organization, and that’s OK – because I don’t need to – because only people that are willing to be accountable will track their results, activity, and follow instructions – which is about 15% of my team, and I have my leaders coach their leaders, and so on.

One of the things that I realized after coaching back to back team members for 10 hours straight, the first day I implemented the program, was that the biggest roadblock that team members have is that they don’t know what to do next. This is something that shocked me – because I intuitively seem to understand what comes next, and see Network Marketing as a simple, relationship recruiting based business model, and it seems natural what should always come next in building a group.

However, what I found is that most of my team, even after having great training, tools to buy, a great fast-start system, online marketing funnels, a warm market prospecting system, even if everything is in place – most people haven’t had my experience base in network marketing, and they have absolutely, no idea what to do next, AND, I found that by guiding them in one direction, not only were they more productive – but they are happier, work harder, understand better, and prospect more. Plus, my organizational recruiting is more than a third higher, and I’m only 2 weeks in to the program.

Fascinating looking at it. What I want to talk about now, though, is how to attract a good coach and keep them in your life. I have a famous quote up at the top of this article that I’ve heard 1000 times and have no idea where it came from, and it still holds just as true. If you want the attention of a great coach, be willing and ready to learn, be a sponge, and be willing to take action and be accountable.

Sometimes, as a coach to others, I start giving feedback and advice, only to be interrupted by a student who has absolutely no idea how to do something, giving me their opinions on ‘the way it is’. If you want to attract and keep a great mentor – be willing to listen and correct your direction, even if you don’t completely agree – because chances are a great mentor can see things in you that you don’t yet see.

For example, I pay a few professional coaches, and one of them made a couple of suggestions to me over the course of the last couple of weeks that were right ‘in my face’ suggestions about my personal life. Funny enough, though, just one of those suggestions has now made me more money than I’ll pay for 2 months of coaching, just 2 weeks after hearing it.

Had I been an amateur, and had a huge ego, I’d be short about $2,000 short in the last 2 weeks, from no additional effort or energy than I would have expended otherwise.

You and I are simple beings, and we can be compared to a rocket headed to the moon – off course 98% of the time. Just like NASA gives constant nudging, feedback, and guidance to a rocket, a coach will help you, off track 98% of the time still reach your destination on schedule. So here are some ideas to help you:

1. Track everything you actually do – for example, if you’re marketing, you could track how many articles you’re writing – how much you’re spending on PPC, how many leads your generating, your landing page conversions, etc. If you’re warm market prospecting, you could track how many one on one presentations you’re doing, how many 3 way calls you’re doing, etc. Always remember – WHATEVER you track you can improve, and whatever you don’t track, you can’t improve.

2. Have a clear intention with your coaching sessions, of a specific, tangible, measurable goal that you would like to achieve in your life. It’s easier to steer a moving ship – and if you know exactly where you’re headed, your coach will be more able to guide you.

3. Don’t whine to your mentor – they don’t need to hear your whining to guide you, they need to see what you’re doing, not doing, and the result that you either got or didn’t get, so they can help create specific course corrections in your business.

4. Be willing to follow through and complete ALL of the assignments that your mentor gives you, no matter what it takes.

If you’re open, ready, and willing, sometimes a great coach that will transform your life is just a phone call away – sometimes you need to pay, and you should be open and willing to doing so. Here’s my final thought for you, though:

When someone shows up in your life who is willing to take their time, knowledge, energy, and effort and POUR their heart and soul into you – thank your lucky stars, God, or whoever it is for you and be willing to go to the ends of the earth – because NOTHING will help you more in your business life than someone who is willing to take the time, no matter what it takes – to help you reach your goals. And if you want to transform your results in your business – be willing to coach your team, and take things to a whole new level…