Ginger Cockerham on Finding Initial Clients

Posted by David Wood

The following is taken from David’s interview with Ginger Cockerham in 10 Super Coaches.

What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first two years?

Referral Engine – I chose a niche of people who are generous, and let them be my advocates! My clients in the financial services industry are dependent on referrals to grow their own businesses, so they refer naturally, regularly and generously.

Media and Presentations – I love to write so I wrote a monthly column in Today’s Dallas Woman for two years with coaching themes. I presented and coached during those presentations to organizations, financial services companies, study groups for financial reps.

Networking – I became active in the coaching community and volunteered and took leadership roles, I gave back to my clients and community, I shared and received from many, many other coaches, I formed a networking group with other professionals and helped grow their businesses while they helped me grow mine.

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Choosing Your Domain Name

Posted by David Wood

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

One approach is to choose a domain which describes WHO you work with; e.g., www.babyboomers.com or www.highenergywomen.com.

Another is to choose a domain which describes WHAT problem you solve for them; e.g., www.careerdirection.com, or www.relationshipbliss.com.

You may even be able to fit in both; e.g., www.happymarriage4women.com.

It’s also important to have a name which is ‘search engine friendly’. For example, I chose www.life-coaching-resource.com and www.lifecoaching.com.au. Why? Because when people search for ‘life coaching’ in the search engines, the search engines see that I have ‘life coaching’ in the domain name, and decide my site should come up pretty high in the list. So work out your ‘target key words’ — the words people will use to search for you, and get a domain that contains those words.

But clearly you can’t always do all of the above in one domain name. Don’t let search engine traffic run you. A name you like, which is memorable, is key. And — it’s OK to have two domain names — one which will be attractive to the search engines and one which you really love to tell people.

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Mike Turner on Discovering Your Niche

Posted by David Wood

The following is taken from David’s interview with Mike Turner in 10 Super Coaches.

What are your coaching niche(s)? How did you discover this?

My niches are executive coaching and mentoring, transition coaching, and metavising/supervising other coaches. I discovered these by noticing what the work I was actually doing was, what I felt drawn to do and what I enjoyed.

How would you suggest coaches find their niche?

Discover what you are naturally good at and do it. This sounds easy but is often quite difficult since we tend to be blind to what our natural gifts are. So, notice what interests you, what you feel drawn to, and what you enjoy doing. Get feedback from people who know you, about what your natural strengths and talents are.

Then go with the flow of what is already present and seek to expand and enlarge it so that what you do is aligned with what you love and what you are naturally talented at.

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Judy Feld on Building a Practice

Posted by David Wood

The following is taken from David’s interview with Judy Feld in 10 Super Coaches.

What was perhaps the biggest mistake you made in practice building?

Not exactly practice building mistakes, but here are some “don’ts” based on experience:

When closing a deal, don’t put yourself in a position of ‘negotiating with yourself’. Don’t do work on speculation. Don’t create long responses to complex RFPs. Don’t spend a lot of time “auditioning”. Coaches are different from consultants, and coaches get paid in advance. For career coaching: Don’t let a client assure that the first “exit package” offer received from their company is the best offer they can expect. You can always do better, and a coach can help you see how.

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The Structure of Coaching

Posted by David Wood

The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.

Client: Such a huge combination of things – coaching – isn’t it?

David: It really can be, and I told you that I was going to give you three models, but I want to give a fourth one. This is perhaps the most important, and it’s the scariest. So I can understand coaches not using it – well, they have to use it, but not wanting to rely on it – but it’s really fundamental, and that’s simply sharing what comes up for you to share.

This is the ultimate model. What you do is speak the truth, so if the client says, ‘I want to leave my husband.’ you look at what comes up. What comes up might be, ‘Oh, you sounded so happy. Really, I don’t understand. You sounded happy, but you want to leave. Can you say more about that?’ Now that’s not a coaching technique, that’s just intuition. That’s what came up for you. If something comes up like, ‘Oh, are you okay? You know, are you feeling okay? Are you stressed?’ If that’s what comes up, you might ask that. Of course, there are hundreds of things that could come up for you. You may be thinking…

Client: Yeah, I’ll never anticipate everything. So I’ve stopped even trying.

David: That’s the point. The point is, you see what’s natural for you to say – the human being. You will have intuition and things coming up. What stops most coaches doing powerful coaching is they don’t trust that. They think that there should be some magic formula or some magic question that I should ask right now, instead of just being a human being.

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Top Ten Things MISSING in Achieving Your Goal

Posted by David Wood

The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.

1. A clear enough picture of ~what~ you want, and by ~when~.

2. A Plan

3. A goal you really WANT!

4. A big enough goal. Try doubling it!

5. Disciplined Action (How many of us know what needs to be done? See “Top Ten Tips for Committing to Action” above)

6. A Coach (this can be a friend, colleague, mentor, or ideally, someone completely unbiased, to give you regular support, challenge and focus)

7. Something you need to give up (your position, your anger, letting fear stop you, your comfy comfort zone, needing people to like you or agree with everything, a belief you don’t deserve it)

8. Permission. (What are you not giving yourself permission for? e.g. to make mistakes, to succeed.)

9. Support. (Are you hanging around with people with the same goal? People who want you to achieve it?)

10. Other areas of your life are not strong enough to support you (finances too weak, energy low, poor support network).

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Home

Ginger Cockerham on Finding Initial Clients

Choosing Your Domain Name

Mike Turner on Discovering Your Niche

Judy Feld on Building a Practice

The Structure of Coaching

Top Ten Things MISSING in Achieving Your Goal

The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.