International Association of Coaching Blog

Social Media 101 – Expand Your Coaching Practice through Social Media

by Sara Sims

Coaches know they need to have an effective online presence to grow their practice, and part of that includes participating in the social media networking phenomenon. Don’t be overwhelmed, it can be very easy and I’ll show you how.

Social media includes popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs. You can build your following by seeking connections with your current clients and colleagues, and also by linking yourself with any organization or association that you are part of.

Today there is a large audience looking for great coaches, and 96% are looking online – this is where social media can make such a difference. Your posts and tweets will enhance your reputation and pique people’s interest when they are looking for coaching services.

Start with Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to create a separate Twitter account and Facebook page for your business. The benefits to having a page for your practice are that users can endorse you by promoting your page to their friends, and the page can be strictly professional. Then lock the privacy settings on your personal profile to keep the public from viewing your personal interactions.

Your clients want to engage with you and are looking for fresh content, articles, interesting tips, and thoughts for the day. Using social media, coaches can also help enhance their brand awareness in the community by establishing their niche in their area of expertise. You can build partnerships with helpful referral organizations to create a wider following. Most importantly, keeping your services “top of mind” to your followers will help encourage them to schedule appointments with you.

Tips for posting updates on social media:

• Make your updates timeless so they are relevant no matter when someone reads them.
• 75% of your comments should provide value to the reader. These could be inspirational quotes, questions that elicit thought and feedback, interesting metaphors or encouragement to take an action.
• 25% of your comments could ask them to do something, such as complete a survey, subscribe to your e-newsletter or register for a free workshop. Even better, offer package deals or discounts for sessions with you.
• Set aside time to post on social media and have fun with it! Spending focused time just twice a week is easy to manage, and that consistency can make a big difference to your results.
• To save time, you can link your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that when you post something on Facebook, it automatically posts on Twitter. Just be mindful that Twitter has a 140-character limit.

 
Sara Sims is the Director of Business Development at CoachingWebsites.com. CoachingWebsites offers a comprehensive website service designed just for coaches that includes domain, hosting, design, content, SEO, credit card processing, online appointment requests and more with no set-up fees or long-term contracts for only $59 a month.

 

Member benefit: IAC members receive their first three months free. Log into the members-only section for more details.

Difficult Client Behaviors? New Tools for Coaching Confidence and Success

by Doris Helge, MCC (IAC)

How many times have you complained to another coach about clients' resistance to change or lack of follow through? Discouragement about client progress can contribute to ineffectiveness, low self-esteem and even burnout if you don’t understand the bigger picture. Below are some of my favorite tools for combatting disappointment or frustration. Notice how each tip forms a foundation for the next while you gain additional coaching confidence.

Human Mirror 101

Our clients serve as human mirrors for characteristics we are either unwilling or unable to perceive about ourselves. If a client consistently fails to live up to their full potential, I stay in a compassionate mode and check to see if they are mirroring to me where I’m not being accountable to myself. If so, once I do my best to shape up and own my personal power, the client usually makes a positive shift. Our clients respond much more to our energy and authenticity than to anything we say.

Progressive Mirrors

Sometimes I don’t perceive a mirror because the client is providing a “benchmark mirror,” indicating a challenge I’ve overcome. In that case, I notice their lack of progress with detached compassion, not frustration. Since I previously faced a similar challenge, I’m intuitive about the best way to help the client face their issue. You can easily prove this to yourself. Notice how often most of your clients make significant strides forward when you’re rapidly growing.

Impatience, Control and Trust Mirrors

Another enlightening experience when we work with so-called “difficult clients” is to remember they are always gifts in disguise. Pause to ponder if the real issue resolves within you or your client. When we’re impatient, we’re usually trying to control the outcome. We have forgotten to trust the inherent magic of the coaching process. Next time you’re tempted to feel frustrated because a client seems resistant to change, consider the possibility that this is evidence that their eventual transition is unfolding perfectly. Instead of spending your time voicing frustration, focus on the joy of discovering a creative new approach.

Remember Where You End and Your Client Begins

Since coaches are not deities, we cannot always perceive the bigger picture of the roles we are playing. Clients are always in charge of their lives. If they choose to hold onto a behavior, belief or action we don’t think is serving them, that is their choice. We are all sometimes “stuck.” Profound wisdom and growth are always hidden in our darkest nights, patiently awaiting our discovery. When you are patient, many clients will eventually express their appreciation.

Here is a summary statement of what countless clients have told me over the years when they commented about the merits of coaching patience with their process, “It was the last part of emerging from my dark funnel of self-discovery that produced the greatest Aha. If I’d embarked on a new path any sooner, I would have cheated myself out of the last hidden nuggets of gold that I didn’t discover until I sank to the bottom of the bottom. Once I did that, I was finally ready to walk away from what wasn’t working . . . forever. Now I don’t have to repeat the same negative experience again.”

Strengthen Your Sense of Self

Maintaining clear boundaries helps you easily perceive what feelings, thoughts and expectations are yours and which belong to your client. When we’re grounded in a strong sense of self, we accept our limits with joy and relief. Any unrealistic (egoistic) pressure to “fix” or “save” our clients disappears. You’ll intuitively know when to use coaching “edge” and when to float on gentle waves of patience during a coaching session. Your coaching confidence will soar when you observe your client’s process with detachment and remember your life purpose.

Enjoy the Rewards of Confidence, Trust and Wonder

When clients are ready to change, they do so with enthusiasm and conviction. Their clarity, focus and passion create confidence and success. Our job is to hold the space for positive change by being 100 percent present and listening to every clue and subtle nuance. Clients guide us to help them in the perfect way at the perfect time because their inner guidance always knows what works best for them. I’m continuously in awe about what a privilege and joy it is to be trusted to play this role.

 
 

Doris Helge, Ph.D., MCC, author of bestselling books, Transforming Pain Into Power, Joy on the Job and Conquer Your Inner Critic is an IAC Mentor Coach and founder of the IAC-licensed training school, Confident Coach Connection. She also created the New Coach Virtual Chapter of IAC. Discover more at www.ConfidentCoachConnection.com.

 
 

IAC Member Benefit: IAC members save 10% on all Confident Coach Connection training programs including IAC Certification Preparation classes and Advanced Coaching and Business-Building classes. Log into the IAC member site to learn more.

I Guarantee My Coaching Results – Do You?

by Kim Ades

As a coach, I ask my clients to journal online daily in between our coaching calls. I give them journaling prompts weekly and I provide them with a private and secure journaling platform to write down all the thoughts that are running through their minds in my absence. The impact on the coaching process is astounding. I collect a ton of relevant data that empowers me as a coach and my clients experience significant self-reflection and coaching momentum.

On a call with one of my newer clients, we were discussing the concept of focusing on what you want instead of what you don’t. We talked about testing this out with her husband and her children. The intention of this exercise was multi-layered. First, the idea was to get her to feel more comfortable expressing herself without holding back. If someone was doing something that upset her, her pattern was to have a disgruntled conversation in her head instead of speaking up. My goal was to get her to speak up for herself more readily. Second, the intention was to have her practice verbalizing what she wanted rather than focus on what was bothering her.

The next day, she posted a version of this in her journal:

"Focus on what you want—not what you don't . . . I've realized that so far I've been trying to apply this to my thoughts. Hadn't really thought to apply it to my outward communications, but I had a victory tonight. At one point during the second half of the baseball game tonight, my son (6 years old) was standing beside me and decided to step on the bag of snacks I'd brought. I told him not to do it several times, stopping his foot with my hand so he couldn't, but of course now it's a game. So it dawned on me to try your suggestion . . . I turned to him and said, "I want you to stop stepping on the bag" AND HE STOPPED!! I think it might have been some coincidence because within 10 minutes he was back and trying to do it again, but it worked the first time."

Her journal instantly told me that she did not quite receive the full intention of the exercise – only half was absorbed. She heard the part about speaking up, but she did not quite understand the concept of telling them what you want, not what you don’t. As soon as I read her journal, I sent her a message asking her if she was available for a quick 5-minute conversation. I felt that this misunderstanding warranted a call. I also felt offering her a few extra coaching minutes in between calls was both a generous gesture as well as one that added great value. She took me up on it instantly and within a few minutes I was able to use her example to demonstrate the difference between focusing on what you want and focusing on what you don’t. Specifically, we talked about how asking her child to stop doing something that is annoying is still focused on the annoying thing versus giving him instruction on what she would rather he do.

She realized that this was a habit of hers and was now clearly able to understand how to practice this particular exercise more effectively. Had I not asked her to journal, I would not have been able to step in as quickly and I would have unknowingly left her in a state of misunderstanding and perhaps frustration until our next call. Instead, she picked up a new skill faster and got incredible results with it right away.

The journaling component is central to my coaching business. I am far more equipped to coach with the additional data and information that I acquire from my clients and this is what enables me to be able to say to my clients without hesitation, "Yes, I absolutely guarantee results."

 
Kim Ades, MBA, is president and founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and JournalEngine™ Software. Author, speaker, entrepreneur, coach and mother of five, Kim has developed a thriving coaching business by implementing an idea that has changed the coaching industry. Visit www.journalengine.com to start your free trial today.
 

 

IAC Member Benefit: IAC members save 50% on customization and 20% on membership (use the coupon code on the IAC Members page).

How to Make Your Coaching Practice Stand Out From the Crowd

by Erik Bowman

You became a coach to help other people. But what are you doing to help yourself succeed? Today, there are well over 10,000 coaches working in the United States alone. Standing out from the crowd is your key to success. The most important thing you can do to differentiate yourself is by creating a credible platform.

What’s your platform?

A platform is how you market yourself, your specialties and coaching services. It’s what you use to promote your coaching practice. The challenge with marketing coaching services is that we all have unique skills and styles. This makes us great coaches, but it also makes it difficult to create a platform that reaches our ideal clients.

Here are six steps you can use to build your platform:

1. Define your message – This is what makes you unique. It encompasses your specialty and how you want to be perceived.
2. Define your goals – Do you want to earn a living, become wealthy or become famous?
3. Define your market – Do you want to work with women, men, teens or specialized markets like chiropractors or moms?
4. Package your brand – Write a book, create a logo, build a website, write a blog, get active on social networks and/or post video and audio.
5. Execute on your plan – Visualize, build and live your brand every day.
6. Market your brand – Continue online marketing through SEO, writing articles, asking for referrals, giving presentations, etc.

Most coaches build their platform from the ground up. If you have the time (it generally takes two to three years) and money (some coaches spend up to $100,000) to commit to this process, it can be very successful.

Another option is to build up your coaching through leveraging. Leveraging is a cost-effective process where you use someone else’s existing platform to gain instant credibility through your association with that brand. Coaches get exposure for their business in exchange for paying a licensing fee.

Whether you choose to leverage an existing brand to boost your coaching business or you build a platform from scratch, remember that even the best marketing must to have something of value paired with it – a great service, blog, public speaking skills or something else.

 

Erik Bowman is a bestselling author, Executive Director of the Guanzi Institute and creator of the Entrepreneur Boot Camp^® program. The Entrepreneur Boot Camp^® brand and curriculum provides a platform for coaches to stand out in a crowded coaching marketplace.

 
  

IAC members get $100 off Entrepreneur Boot Camp^® Certified Coach and 1-month free use of the Entrepreneur Boot Camp^® License with a 12- month agreement.

Five Important Reminders for Coaches About Goal Setting

by Annette Sharpe

There are many tried and true goal setting tips available to you, and I encourage every coach and entrepreneur to know and understand them. At the same time, there are a few 'out of the box' insights that I believe coaches also need to know in order to set and achieve meaningful goals and intentions with our clients.

Consider these extra insights when setting goals/intentions to create whatever it is you want in your life:

Tip #1: Remember—YOU HAVE A LIFE!
Don't fool yourself into believing you can do every single thing you want to do, every single day. You have a life, after all. Your life consists of so many different areas: relationships, health, business, money, spirituality, personal growth, etc. If you set goals in only one area, you're setting yourself up to lose.

Tip #2: Do one small thing every day
While I do believe that it's very important to prioritize your actions daily, the most important action that you should take as an entrepreneur—every single day—is one small step towards your big dream or vision. This can be something as small as making a connection with a prospective business partner, or simply stating an affirmation.

Tip #3: Use an accountability system
As an entrepreneur myself, I know what it's like to set a goal and then allow something more pressing to get in my way of achieving it. But when I know that someone is counting on me to get something done, or when I've given my word that I would complete a task, I do it. Most people are the same way, especially as our consciousness evolves. What tools do you use to hold yourself accountable? What tools do you use with your clients to help them keep track of their goals?

Tip #4: Focus on sharing your natural gifts
Why set a goal that shouldn't be yours in the first place? People who share their natural gifts with others are happier, more balanced and more successful. You were given your gifts for a reason, so focus on what you're good at and what you love to do. Stop draining your valuable creative energy doing what you don't like; let someone else do what they do best! Building a team of multi-talented people will help you – directly or indirectly – to achieve your goals.

Tip #5: Be open to change
Life is fluid and unpredictable. You must allow for some organic growth of your business and that means allowing for change to occur naturally. There are simply too many things that we cannot foresee. In fact, even when we believe we're on track to achieving a goal, life has a fabulous way of sending us surprises—and those sometimes lead to even more meaningful outcomes. So expect them, and allow for them. You will feel much more peaceful as you and your business grow. When the unexpected happens (and it will), take a deep breath, re-assess, and move forward with your next step. By continuing to focus on the small steps, you will build and maintain momentum in your life.

 

Annette Sharpe is the founder of Growing for Success, a multi-coach coaching company, and the creator of the Inspired Steps Coaching System. Visit Annette at www.growingforsuccess.com/inspiredsteps.html to learn how you can license the tools and system that will help you attract, engage and retain more clients.

 

 

Member benefit: IAC Member Benefit: IAC members save 40% on the annual licensing fee for the program (use the coupon code on the IAC Members page).