Coaching Blog

Last year's Best Coaching Blogs 2009 was hugely popular.

Over 30,000 visitors read and voted on their favorite blogs and the winners, from all over the world, ranged from big coaching organizations to new coaching students.

We're getting ready to do it again. After reviewing a variety of approaches to help us upgrade security and fairness, we realized we already have eveything we need to run another great contest.

Who can enter Best Coaching Blogs 2010? Any self-described coach who already has a blog. Please don't enter if you aren't at least a coaching student and obviously don't enter this year if you don't already have a blog.

What's the benefit of entering Best Coaching Blogs 2010? Hundreds, if not thousands of new readers, potentially getting picked up by lists of top blogs, connecting with other thought leaders in the coaching world, prizes and bragging rights (including a badge for your site) if you win. Oh yeah, and it's fun!

Right now, we're looking for sponsors to help kick in some prizes in exchange for a little promotion on our site. If you offer a product or service that coaches would be interested in and want to be a contest sponsor, let me know here. (Sorry, contestants can't be sponsors, so you have to choose how you want to play.)

The contest last year ran from May through June, but we'll be accepting entries earlier this year. Watch this blog for upcoming announcements. I recommend you subscribe by email or RSS.

Why do we hold a Best Coaching Blogs Contest every year? Lots of reasons, including:

• Reading blogs is one of the best free ways to learn about this business.
• Participating in the blogosphere is a super way to establish yourelf as a thought leader, even if you don't have your own blog.
• Connecting with bloggers and readers can bring you ideas, opportunities, collaborators and clients.
• Much, much more. 

Subscribe to the Coaching Blog above right, to keep informed about this exciting coaching contest.

We're adding some major upgrades to our students' experiences at School of Coaching Mastery.

One new change is that Dean of Students, Natalie Tucker Miller, IAC-CC, is taking a more active role in orientation of new students, as well as answering questions for ongoing students and helping them stay on track with goals like IAC Coach Certification. Natalie of course, is an amazing coach and master instructor (She's leading our Mastery 6 Clarifying module, this month.). She's also past President and current Lead Certifier for the IAC. This month, she's speaking at the Shanghai Coaching Conference, too. Busy lady! But not too busy to meet personally with new coaching students to help them get off to a fantastic start with their coaching careers.

The second change is one that Curriculum Coordinator, Dee Taviner, has been hard at work on for months. It's a new membership and content management system that is really slick. We are SO excited about the possibilities that this new system adds for our students. Plus, we're adding a whole new way to play for coaches who want inside coaching knowledge, but don't need or aren't ready for a full-service coach training school. We're almost ready for a few beta testers. Please stand by...

And speaking of Dee Taviner, I can't help but mention our ongoing Study Groups. There are so many ways a study group can enhance your career (just ask Natalie), but that topic deserves its own blog post. I DO want you to know that in addition to Dee's Seven Secrets of Certification Student Group, talented SCM coach/student, Heidi Courtney, is now leading the Coaching Co-op Study Group.

Join a free Coaching Study Group here.

I've written a lot lately about how to build a successful coaching business without complex marketing systems or pricing structures.

Here are a few high points on how to give successful complimentary coaching sessions:

• Focus on the client, not on yourself. Your nerves and even your desire to do a good job are all about you. Coaching is all about them.
• Focus on expanding the client's possibilities instead of solving the client's problems. Every great coach knows that problem solving is the least of your gifts.
• Focus on the relationship and the potential relationship. Help the client see what's possible with your coaching.
• Give the client an experience. Of themselves, the value of the coaching relationship and the potential outcomes of working with you.
• Notice all the information that your client and your intuition are sending you. This is how you recognize a good client fit.
• If you and the client are a great fit, invite them to work with you.

If you're active on social media, then you can't have missed the hoopla over Google Buzz, Google's foray into social networking.

Google gets it right so much of the time, that most of us were surprised when they messed up with Buzz. First off, after testing Buzz internally, Google made some assumptions about how customers would interact with Buzz. Those assumptions led them to integrate Buzz automatically with every Gmail account, instantly giving millions of Gmail users Buzz followers gleaned from their Gmail address books and linking private emails and chats with public social conversations. Whoa Nelly!! That's a major invasion of privacy!

In addition, Buzz links up blogs and social networking profiles, which is kind of a nice touch, but suddenly, millions of people realized that Google knows more about us than we thought and it apparently can't be trusted to use keep all that info private (see above). This prompted Karen Rubin of Hubspot, to comment that Google knows enough about her to build an exact clone. Eew.

Result? A lot of negative buzz on Buzz. And a mild sense of paranoia about what Google was really up to. Google has enjoyed a fantastic reputation for years and the Buzz snafu will hardly bring them down, but even big companies can spoil their success with too many missteps. (Re: Microsoft, AOL)

So what are the take-aways for coaches?

1. All the data in the world doesn't mean you really know what your clients want. Nothing's better than asking and listening, no matter how smart and informed you are or how good you are at what you do.
2. Just because your customers already love what you do, doesn't mean they'll love everything you do. You can build an awesome empire with one fantastic offering (like Google Search).
3. Guard your contacts' identity info even more than you guard your own. People hate having their data spilled out where they don't want it and as a business owner, you are liable if someone's identity is stolen, because of your mistakes.
4. Do Google potential clients and even connect with their social profiles. That's normal and expected these days, but don't collect so much info about them that you creep them out. Stalking is still extremely unattractive.

Bottom line? Be a coach in everything you do. Make it all about others and be sure to ask and listen. That's the foundation of great coaching and great coach marketing. It's why coaching is such a successful business (and why even Google's CEO says everyone needs a coach)

For more ideas on how to do it right:

Download the free Become a Coach eBook.

 Mastery Coach Exchange (MCX) is School of Coaching Mastery's own find-a-coach/social networking site.

MCX is designed to give professional coaches and the people who want to hire them, a chance to interact before money exchanges hands. It's also a great place for people who are thinking about becoming coaches to interact with coaches who are already doing it. In other words, MCX is an interactive coach directory. 

Many of my first clients came to me through coach directories that I participated in. The process was frustrating though, because directories are/were completely passive. All you could do was list yourself and then pray that potential clients would see your listing and call you.

Web 2.0 rewards coaches for doing what they do best: communicating and relating. Trouble is, most folks on Facebook and elsewhere are there to socialize, so you need to market delicately, if at all. Otherwise, your marketing message will be about as well received as that FBI warning on your favorite DVD. Market poorly online and you risk turning off the very people you'd like to attract.

MCX is clearly designed for professional coaches and those who want to hire them and/or learn more about them. Potential clients want to hear your marketing message. In fact, they want to get to know you. What better place than in a safe online community?

Best of all, you can add your profile to MCX for free. However, to be approved for membership, you must add a head shot of yourself, your first and last name, and at least one website or blog  address and/or social networking profile, so we can determine if you are who you say you are.

MCX is undergoing some upgrades right now to make it even more effective. Adding social share app's will help to spread your message across the web. We're also adding a monthly newsletter, to keep you updated on what's happening and you'll receive cool opportunities and discounts on School of Coaching Mastery programs.

Join MCX Here. 

  Most coaches would like to earn six figures or more with their coaching businesses.

But some coaches get caught up learning marketing strategies that have them do everything but coaching. The most popular strategies include building a big mailing list, creating a product funnel, creating free content and honestly, that's all a lot of hard work. And it might not be nearly as fun as coaching. And it can take months, if not years to make that great income.

If you're trying to do it this way, you may be wondering why you went into coaching, at all.

Well here's a little secret: You can start making a six-figure income even with a three-figure mailing list; probably with even a two-figure list. And you can do it all with the same skills you use as a coach.

Even top marketing experts, like Seth Godin, say this is the way to go.

I've been using this approach for twenty years. Adela Rubio is going to interview  me about it as part of her awesome Conscious Business Telesummit* series, which you can join for free.There are 9 other terrific Conscious Business Leaders(tm) who will also share their business secrets with you for free. Not too shabby.

The interview is Tuesday, November 17th, at  4-5 PM Eastern/NY Time. And the  topic is How to Earn a 6-Figure Income With a 3-Figure List.

Join the Conscious Business Telesummit for free and I tell you how to earn a six-figure income even with a three-figure list.*

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of this program and I would recommend it anyway.

Remember the proverb about the butterfly that flapped its wings and caused a hurricane halfway around the world?

It's been attributed to many sources (An old Chinese proverb, maybe?), but this story often gets quoted as a simple way to explain Systems Theory.

In short, systems theory tells us that large systems (like planet Earth) appear chaotic to the human eye, but actually are mathematically perfect. They are just so complex, that we can't always see the patterns that are at play within them. Everything works together and because it all works together, sometimes tiny actions can catalyze exponential outcomes, like a butterfly's wings causing a hurricane thousands of miles a way.

Of course, a butterly can't actually cause a hurricane, all by itself. There's a huge differential in the amount of energy required, but tiny actions at the right time and place can be leveraged to create incredible outcomes. That's one of the great lessons of systems theory and every great coach has seen it happen again and again.

Computers have made it possible for humans to comprehend complex systems and how mysterious events actually occur. Before computers, systems theory was pretty much just a theory. It was difficult to measure the evidence.

So it is, that especially online, where a seemingly infinite amount of data can be tracked and measured, tiny actions can have been shown to create incredible outcomes, and things as silly as a social networks, like Twitter or Facebook, can be used to fight runaway forest fires or influence the outcome of a Presidential election.

 The Online Social Butterfly has been born and she is powerful, exponentially powerful.

Remember Susan Boyle, of Britain's Got Talent fame, and how she rocketed to stardom for hundreds of millions of YouTube visitors? Even compared to television, the internet is extraordinarily influential. Tiny events can be leveraged to incredible outcomes.

Coaches are in the business of leveraging 'flutterby' activities (a.k.a. baby steps) toward great successes, beautiful lives and even huge fortunes for our clients. And the business of coaching often turns on the tiniest of butterfly activities, like posting a comment on a blog, or tweeting about an event.

Add to that the permanent quality of the internet, which creates a public record of you and your activities for a lifetime and you can see how those activities create your identity, brand and reputation in ways that nothing else can. And it just keeps creating more and more momentum for you.

Your online 'reach' or following makes a difference, of course. But knowing what, where and when to leverage is even more influential. That's what distinguishes true Online Social Butterflies from everyone else.

Are you a true Online Social Butterfly? Or would you like to become one? At School  of Coaching Mastery, we have an actual job description for Online Social Butterflies. Currently, it is a volunteer position for coaches who want to learn how to leverage their actions and monitor their effects, so that they create an impact of tsunami proportions.

If you are interested, go here to apply for the Online Social Butterfly position and learn how to create small actions that change everything.