Coaching Tools to help Coaches Get More Coaching Clients. Suzan Schmitt: The Coach Marketer

Fill Your Coaching Schedule When You Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking

There is an old description of fear as an acronym of false evidence appearing real. I believe this is true when it comes to the fear most people have about public speaking. I would like to debunk several of the common fears about public speaking because I know that it is the single fastest way to fill your coaching schedule with clients.

Speaking is Inherently Stressful
Fear of public speaking is the most common reason coaches do not get out and attract new clients with speaking and workshops. Our magic magnifying mind make us think all sorts of things and creates fears that are not based in fact.

Speaking for many people is actually no different than speaking for a few people. We have a message we want to deliver and we are going to speak to them and do our best to communicate our message. The only difference is the number of people listening. Our message does not change making the delivery more difficult so there is no true reason for greater stress. Yet, our minds still tell us we need to freak out if we are speaking to a large group of people. You can get around this stress as many other people including myself have.

Know Your Material
When you know your material very well then stress is reduced greatly because you don't need to rely on notes or a power point presentation. When you write your own material and rehearse it you will be able to deliver your message with ease.

I suggest that you develop one presentation that relates to your target coaching niche and deliver that same speech or workshop for every speaking opportunity. As the material become old and needs refreshing create a new presentation or workshop. Soon you will have several presentations that you can deliver at any time even with short notice.

Speak Often
The best way to get over the fear of speaking is to get out and speak on a regular basis. I suggest you start by delivering your presentation to friends then small groups and finally larger groups.

It is a good idea to speak at least two times per month. You must be consistent in your speaking or it will be like starting over every time you speak. So even if it is not your nature, books yourself to speak at different groups two or three times a month over the next two months.

You can fill your coaching schedule and earn the income you desire by speaking on a regular basis and you can share your knowledge to help others along the way.

Coaching Tools Like Workshops and Speaking Will Fill Your Coaching Schedule Quickly

Delivering dynamic and inspiring workshops and speeches is the most effective and fastest way to grow your business and attract new coaching clients. You can literally fill your coaching schedule with a few targeted and motivating workshops or speeches delivered to the right audience.

This method of client attraction will fill your coaching schedule quickly and you will not have to do any traditional selling. Most coaches love to help and serve others and that is exactly what you will be able to do when you are in front of a group of people who need and desire the information you are sharing.

Research Your Audience
To be effective in reaching the buying mindset of your audience you must know who they are and what they need. The products or services you have to offer must match the needs of the audience you are speaking to so it is imperative that you research your audience before you make contact to request a speaking opportunity. It will not be productive to speak to an audience that has not need or desire for your services so you want to make sure that your audience is a good match to your services and products.

You can get the details of what to include in a workshop or speech in my home study program "No Sales Required Client Attraction".

Use the internet to find groups that are related to your target coaching niche. Once you find a list of groups that are related to your target coaching niche determine the profile of the group members.

Recognize Emotions that Could be Holding You Back

There is a lot to learn about running and marketing a coaching business and in the process of getting a business going or learning new ways to attract client many coaches find themselves in a state of overwhelm. They have a large number of things that need to be done but they don't know where to start so the response is to do nothing.

Are Your Emotions Causing You to Stall Out in Your Coaching Business?

Too many coaches are unknowingly caught up in their emotions about different aspects of starting and growing a coaching business. These emotions sneak up and stall us out until we uncover them and learn how to overcome limiting thoughts and beliefs.

Overwhelm
We all know what happens when we do nothing. Yes, you guessed it nothing happens and our coaching business goes nowhere! Don't let overwhelm paralyze you.

The only way to overcome overwhelm is to plan. Even if you can only plan goals for one month go ahead and determine your goal. Begin to put daily strategies in place that will help you reach your goal. Take the goal step by step and only one major goal at a time.

Don't try to achieve six major goals in one month. Pick one or two major things and plan the actions you will need to take each week to achieve the two goals. Each day take a look at what you have to do that day and make a check list.

Lack of Confidence
There can be a lot of fear involved in trying something new especially something that involves technical skills, the well being of someone else or, public speaking skills. A successful coaching business can involve all of those things simultaneously. So you have to have a plan for dealing with the challenges.

The first step to dealing with this kind of fear is to recognize that it exists. It is easily hidden behind another emotion or line of thinking. Not charging enough for your coaching is the disguised version of the fear that you are not a competent coach but that can be difficult to see. Not going out and doing workshops or finding a coaching niche can be the fear of public speaking disguised as uncertainty about what area of coaching is best for you.

Once you recognize that something is holding you back from achieving the goals you have set then you can take a closer look to determine what fear may lie behind your inaction.

Are Your Emotions Causing You to Stall Out in Your Coaching Business?

Are you stuck or stalled in your coaching business? Perhaps you have some clients but you are not exactly reeling them in on a daily basis and perhaps you would like to be earning more money. You are not alone in fact most coaches have experienced the very same thing. I would like to talk about a few of the emotions that could be holding you back.

Perfectionism
Far too many coaches fail to get off the launching pad because they have an underlying desire to be perfect. This perfectionist attitude can stop you from starting anything if you don't think you can do it flawlessly. What happens if you coach someone and their life does not change? What if you coach someone and "bad" things happen to them? What if the solutions you help them find only create more challenges?

First let's remember that coaching is fluid and it is not all about you and how you coach. I firmly believe that you could be a monkey and be a good coach as long as you were a monkey that had good listening skills.

Think about how many people just need someone to listen to them with good listening skills! I believe that if you sat through an entire coaching session and did nothing more than listen to your client and encourage them to keep talking through their issues the client would receive great value from you as a coach. So don't let yourself believe the lie that coaching is totally dependent upon you or your coaching skills.

Secret Reasons that Coaches Kill Their Own Coaching Businesses

Statistics show that ninety percent of coaches make less than ten thousand dollars a year coaching. Why is that true? I think it is because too many coaches don't get out and seek clients. They are busy taking more courses to become a better coach or networking with other coaches. This article takes a look at the emotions behind this issue.

Perfectionism
Far too many coaches fail to get off the launching pad because they have an underlying desire to be perfect. This perfectionist attitude can stop you from starting anything if you don't think you can do it flawlessly. What happens if you coach someone and their life does not change? What if you coach someone and "bad" things happen to them? What if the solutions you help them find only create more challenges?

First let's remember that coaching is fluid and it is not all about you and how you coach. I firmly believe that you could be a monkey and be a good coach as long as you were a monkey that had good listening skills.

Think about how many people just need someone to listen to them with good listening skills! I believe that if you sat through an entire coaching session and did nothing more than listen to your client and encourage them to keep talking through their issues the client would receive great value from you as a coach. So don't let yourself believe the lie that coaching is totally dependent upon you or your coaching skills.

The fact is that if you want to get better at coaching you have to coach a lot. That means that you start now and go get some coaching clients. No, you will not be perfect  and yes, you will make some mistakes but that is how we learn and improve our skills. I can guarantee that your skills as a coach will not increase until you begin coaching lots of clients.

Information Stagnation

Another perfectionist attitude I hear from coaches is I can't start marketing and doing things like the Internet or giving workshops because I don't have enough training.

Coaches are people who are curious and like to learn but this is a trap many coaches fall into and I call it "Information Stagnation". The thinking behind information stagnation is that one does not have the skills to do something perfectly therefore, one must take more classes and learn more before beginning a coaching business.

Wrong, the best way to learn is to be practicing coaching while getting information and input. You can get better at coaching by taking courses and I highly suggest it but you can also get in a rut of taking classes and never coaching.

Coaching Business Roadblocks Limiting Thoughts and Beliefs

I have found it very surprising how starting a coaching business and marketing on the internet has affected me emotionally! I have observed myself and several other colleagues go through some very challenging and uncomfortable emotions while creating the dream of being an entrepreneur. 

It seems that the process forces one to address many limiting thoughts and beliefs and overcome them if we are to have success. It also seems that these emotional challenges came as a complete surprise to each person and in many cases were the downfall of their coaching business. I want to address these seemingly predictable and normal emotional hurdles so that you can be prepared for them and have a plan for working through them on your way to success as a coach.

Creating and Maintaining a Beginners Attitude

Try to think back to the time you were learning to ride a bicycle and how you approached the challenge and how you achieved the goal you highly desired. The first thing you may remember is you knew you did not know how to ride a bike. You had some knowledge of how to ride a bike because you had observed others and you had practiced the activity in your mind but you were keenly aware that you had no experience or proven skill for riding a bike. You were probably eager and willing to listen to others who had bike riding experience and follow their direction and guidance.

This is a great way to approach starting your coaching business. You have seen others who have become successful coaches so you have made observations and have some knowledge. The key is to find a person who can help you with what you do not know. You must accept that though you have completed coaching school there s still a lot that you may not know about having a successful coaching business.

Multiple Coaching Products and Multiple Streams of Coaching Income

The idea is to earn more money with less time and effort and to even earn passive income. Coaching is a demanding profession and is limited to some degree by the number of hours in a day and the amount of time you can coach. Essentially you are trading hours for money with one on one coaching.

I think it is important to add multiple streams of income and to mix up the activities in your business day because of the emotional toll from a long day of one on one coaching. You can add relief and variety to your work day and dramatically increase your earning power by creating coaching products.

Group coaching is one product that you can offer to increase your rate per hour. Group coaching has many advantages for you and for the clients. As a coach you are able to reach many more people when you add group coaching and you are able to earn more per hour of coaching.

Coaching clients can pay a lower rate for group coaching and they also benefit from the input of the collective group. There is an electricity and a wonderful group dynamic that is created when people who are trying to deal with similar issues, challenges and goals come together to find solutions. I feel the benefit for everyone increases with well done group coaching.

Secrets to Successfully Market Your Coaching Business

Begin Working on Your Internet Business by Starting a Blog

Blogs are a great way to share valuable information with your potential coaching clients and give them an opportunity to see how you can help them.

Blogs are superior to websites because you can update them with new information frequently drawing the search engines to the blog and improving search page rank.

It is essential that you get you information out to the public so that potential coaching clients can see that you have some solutions that will meet their needs.

A blog is a central point of contact for your potential coaching clients. This is the place they can go to gather information and to communicate with you. You can promote and give access to your coaching and products on your blog. Essentially your blog will become the hub of your business wheel that will soon have many spokes providing multiple sources of income to your coaching business.

I suggest Typepad for a blogging platform because it is inexpensive and easy to use. The blog you are reading right now is Typepad.

Plan for Your Coaching Business Success

Coaches tell me they want a successful coaching business all the time but when I ask them what does your business plan look like? "What is your marketing strategy?" Even "Who is your target coaching niche?" I get the same response "Well, I don't really have one yet." Well, I ask, how is that working for you?

Failing to plan for your coaching business is like planning to fail in your coaching business. You have to have a plan and work that plan. Would you go to a surgeon who did not have a plan for your surgery? Would you go to an accountant who did not have a plan for your taxes? Then why would you allow yourself not to have a plan for your own business?

Develop Your Marketing Plan and Work It
You must have a plan to marketing and grow your coaching business. Success does not usually happen by accident it requires planning and hard work on a consistent basis. Start with a marketing plan for your coaching business. Set goals and determine the strategies you will employ to reach those goals.

Your goals should include the income you desire, the number of hours you wish to work, the type of clients you want to work with, where you want to work and how you want to structure your business. Goals are not simply numbers of hours coaching or income earned they include lifestyle choices.

If you don't have a plan for how to attract clients to your coaching business then you need to get my "No Sales Required Client Attraction" home study program.

Generate Immediate Income with Local Marketing for Your Coaching Business

Every coach starts off differently but I have found that there are certain steps that prove to be effective for most coaches who want to generate some income right away. It is a great idea to begin generating income in your local market so you have ample funds to begin the process of marketing in a bigger scale and so you have some financial security and peace of mind.

Choose Your Target Coaching Niche

This single step is the most important element to the success of your coaching business. Your target coaching niche is the basis from which many key business decisions are made. Take your time and research your potential target coaching niches to choose the one best suited to you that is a viable market segment.

Your target coaching niche must be a potentially profitable market that suits your experience, passion, education, aptitudes, and interests. It is best to use some formal process to determine your target coaching niche. You can use your own process or you can use a process offered by people who have already succeeded in coaching.