Coaching Blog

Folks say I'm brilliant for coming up with this, but really I'm just observant: The old Marketing Funnel (AKA Product Funnel) doesn't work that well for most coaches unless they flip it over.

The Marketing Funnel sounds so logical that I tried it out as soon as I heard of it, several years ago.

Result? Hardly anybody bought my lower priced products, but because I focused on products instead of one-to-one coaching, I got FEWER clients! Not only that, but the lower-priced products were a lot of work to create and I needed to invest in a virtual assistant and a shopping cart, which weren't cheap. 

Most real coaches that I know have the same experience. I say 'real' because some folks do quite well with this business model, such as successful internet marketers, authors and speakers, who can afford to hire teams of consultants and assistants. They can make this work. Sometimes those people also call themselves coaches.

If you're primarily a coach, without a team or a big budget and especially if you're new to sales and marketing, it's actually much easier to go straight to high-paying coaching clients and skip all the work it takes to fill your funnel.

Because the funnel approach takes so much time, work and money to create, it felt kind of like building the Great Pyramids. Instead of a funnel, which sounds like it will just pull clients to you via gravity or suction or whatever, it's more like pushing bolders up a steep incline for slave wages.

So I flipped the funnel over and turned it into the Great Coaching Pyramid. It's so much more effective for real coaches like me. If you're a real coach and what you want to do is coach, then go straight to the top of the Great Coaching Pyramid and you'll experience success faster.

If you love to coach, fill your coaching practice with one-to-one clients first, add products later, if you want. This way, you're doing what you love and that's really attractive. You don't need a huge investment or team to make it happen. Each client pays you well, so you make a living with 10-20 clients instead of 10,000 to 20,000.

I kept my shopping cart and assistant and some products. Because I found that my one-to-one coaching clients were interested in buying my other products and services, as well.

If you're a real coach, most of your income should come from coaching, right? And you can make a much better income by focusing on coaching, itself.

People will hire you without sampling all your products. Why? Because you're a good coach. You get that way by doing a lot of coaching, not by creating websites and products.

Here's a secret: Marketing Funnels are NOT triangular. A great company that teaches about marketing funnels and is honest and upfront about it is Hubspot. They have a team of very smart professional marketers. They're much better at it than you and I. I've seen screen shots of Hubspot's marketing funnel, based on their marketing data. It necks down to almost nothing after the very first level. That means they need to reach tens of thousands of people just to get a few clients.

Here are a few numbers about that: Fantastic marketers are happy to convert 5-10% at each level of their funnel. Not so great marketers are lucky to convert 1-2%. At a 2% conversion rate, you'd have to attract 2.5 Million free customers to get 20 high-paying coaching clients. Or you can build your business with coaching.

There are a few more spots in the Coach 100 Mentor Group. Join and fill your practice with coaching clients by July.

I love social media for my coaching business.

I've been attracting coaching clients and students with online social tools for the past five years. Some of my favorite clients, ever, have come from web 2.0. Many of my Coach 100 students have had extraordinary success building their businesses with online tools. School of Coaching Mastery has had a strong social presence since its launch in 2007. Heck, we even have our own social networking site!

So I'm not the coach you'd expect to say that social media could kill your business. And no, I don't mean that your Facebook addiction might keep you from working on your business as you should (although it could). And I don't mean that you should be out shaking hands at live networking events instead of using online social networking (although some coaches really should be networking live instead of online).

I mean that the actual tools of social networking, if used poorly, can cost you coaching clients. And given how time consuming a good marketing plan can be to implement, tools that actually work against you can indeed kill your business.

What kinds of social networking tools could hurt a coaching business? Anything (and I mean anything) that annoys people. And let's face it, that covers a lot of territory.

Most new (and some veteran) business and life coaches have poor marketing and sales skills to begin with, so opportunities to do it poorly are abundant. But if you screw up your elevator speech at a live networking event, you only risk annoying a few people (and if you can laugh at yourself, you'll probably make a few friends, instead). But tools that allow you to contact everybody in your network in ways or at times that they don't want, can help you annoy thousands of people with one innocent little click. Ouch!

Repeat that innocent action again and again and your coaching business will be dead in the water before you know it.

Why is annoying people such a big deal when it comes to marketing your coaching business? Well, remember that cliche: 'Long after people have forgotten what you said, they'll remember how you made them feel'? You don't want to be remembered as the annoying coach.

Question: If you were looking to hire a business or life coach and you had narrowed it down to two coaches who both seemed to meet your criteria perfectly, would you hire the one who annoyed you are the one who didn't?

Sales decisions come down to subtleties. Sometimes a client doesn't even know why they chose to hire one coach over another. You don't have to annoy someone very much to tip the scales away from you.

What do you need to avoid in order to not kill your business with social networking tools? 

Well here are a few items that will help you to not annoy me. But get feedback from your own networks to find out what really bugs them.

1. Social SPAM. Any social app that's designed to spread itself automatically at the expense of annoying your network is social SPAM. The inspiration for this post is an innocuous little tool called, Boxbe, that's spreading around School of Coaching Mastery. Everytime someone I know joins it, I automatically get an invitation to join, too. I don't want to join. And I don't want to get email invitations to it several times per day. It's social SPAM and it's annoying. Plaxo is also annoying. Some poorly designed Twitter apps do this sort of thing. (And don't get me started on SpamArrest. I consider SpamArrest SPAM.)

2. Social Temptation. How often do you get invitations from Facebook or any social networking site to invite or notify everyone in your Outlook,Yahoo, Google, or other address book? How often do you do it? In my book, you get to do it once. One time. Resist the temptation to tell everybody you know about something unless they followed you or joined your group or fan page. Otherwise social temptation becomes social SPAM.

3. Social Scams.  @UnMarketing just posted a link on Twitter to this blog post about scam apps on Facebook. It's easy to get tricked by these because they look like so many other apps on Facebook. Maybe you should avoid temptation and not allow every app out there to connect to your account. (While I was researching this, I came accross Scott Stratten's - A.K.A. UnMarketing - blog post on how to lose friends and tick people off on Facebook.)

4. Social Abbrev. There's nothing wrong with LOL, WTF, Ouch! and KEWL unless you use them constantly. Remember you annoying uncle, cousin, spouse who said the same things over and over until you wanted to stuff mashed potatoes in your ears? Don't be that coach.

5. Social Games. As well as gifts, etc., ad nauseum. You can have fun at work but please stay focused so the rest of us can. Sorority Life, Mafia Games, Farmville, etc., I tolerate these from my relatives (barely), but not from you (unless you find a way to combine all three, which might be interesting). Don't you feel silly posting your latest livestock aquisition on Facebook? I don't think this would persuade even Old MacDonald to hire you to be his coach.

6. Social Pics and Tags. Not all of them. Most are great. You probably don't need me to tell you not to post the pics of you throwing up at that college binge party (the real sorority life). If not, stop reading this post and get thee to a 12-step program, fast. But consider your headshot. If you coach kids, then a shot of you with your kids is appropriate, but if you coach Fortune 100 execs, maybe not. And if somebody else posts or tags you in an unflattering shot, quietly request that they take it down. If you haven't annoyed them, they probably will. If not, be prepared for radical transparency. You have no more secrets.

7. Social Compulsion. Please don't fill people's Twitter streams with constant inane tweets. They will unfollow you. Direct messages are even worse. And you're not kidding anybody by tweeting nothing but Twitter names in the hope of getting noticed. Don't tweet or post unless you have something to say and definitely don't tweet constantly.

Well that's it for now. I could annoy you with a bunch of links to friend/join/follow us, like the 'Find us on Facebook' link above, but probably more valuable to you will be for you to get some training on how to attract clients effectively, which we do in our Coach 100 classes. They start again in February and they teach what actually works.

WARNING: You'll have less time for social networking when your coaching practice is full.

 Check out Coach 100 classes here.

While prepping for my interview tomorrow with Coach Reporter, MarkJoyella, I came across some fascinating tidbits on coaching in the posts filed by Mark at Coaching Commons.

As a former TV journalist (and Emmy Award winner), Mark keeps his finger on the coaching pulse like the pro that he is. Who better to interview on current trends in coaching for the January teleconference meeting of the IAC North American Virtual Chapter?

Some of these trends ultimately will impact how you practice the profession of coaching. And if there is one trend in coaching that never seems to go away, it's that the coaches who succeed best are either the ones leading the way or those who keep up and adapt quickly to important trends. 

You need to be at this interview. 

We'll be talking about the latest research on coaching, business mergers, high tech developments and job opportunities and we'll even touch on the story that I think proves that coaching has already gone mainstream!

There'll be a quick Q&A at the end of the interview, followed by 30 minutes on some Mastery 1 coaching skills that you probably already have, but may not be using, which can simplify your coaching and lead to happier more successful clients. 

We meet Thursday, January 14th, 2 - 3:30 PM Eastern/NY Time. To join this call and receive notifications on upcoming calls, as well as a white paper on 'How to Become an IAC Certified Coach', a recorded interview with IAC Certifiers, Natalie Tucker Miller and Elizabeth Nofziger, plus the IAC Notes - all for free -

Join IAC NAC Here. 

 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. 

I am writing to you from Salt Lake City, where I'm attending the Kanzeon Western Zen Center's Fall Retreat with Genpo Roshi.

As someone who has never wanted to be a Buddhist, but who is powerfully drawn to to the Big Mind process, I'm having a few interesting and fun culture shocks.

Like Monday, 6:45 AM, when I entered the Zendo for morning meditation in time for a Hogwarts-ian vision of black robed monks floating down the dark staircase in dawn's half-light. I must admit, I was slightly creeped out until I reminded myself that I'd already met all those people at dinner the night before, in their jeans and sweatshirts. They were perfectly lovely.

Nobody had said anything about robes, though! ;-)

I'm here for Big Mind, but meditation and enlightenment are two deep interests of mine, as they are just about a must be for a good coach. We need to always be opening that space for our clients and we can't just manufacture it.

Roshi talks a lot about the teacher/student relationship and how masters never lose the need for teachers. Otherwise, we get stuck or arrogant (or both). Same goes for coaches.

I've been looking for my next teacher for some time and here he is. Roshi doesn't call Big Mind, coaching, although he recognizes the correlation. He's helping people experience enlightenment in a quintessentially American way, but with 40 years of experience and 2,500 years of teachings.

Speaking of which, the Dharma, or Way, was predicted to end at about this time. Roshi believes that 21st Century monasteries will go away and that enlightenment will converge with the market, to integrate life and business with awareness. 

One element of this will be the elimination of a huge shadow that has forced monks to 'beg, borrow or steal', instead of earn, to survive.  

So many coaches are plagued by the same shadow. They feel uncomfortable with asking for money, afraid of the 'sleeze factor'. Unless you are independently wealthy, the money shadow will prevent you from succeeding as a professional coach.  

Not sure if you have a money shadow? Just look at your coaching career and ask yourself how you have begged, borrowed or stolen in order to coach. If you're not earning your way back to integrity, yet, you probably have a financial shadow. 

What to do? Big Mind, of course. They are broadcasting live everyday this week. You may even see me on screen. No robes, though. http://www.BigMind.org/zen-eye

[UPDATE: On February 3rd, 2011, Genpo Merzel announced that he would disrobe as a Buddhist monk, after admitting to improper relationships with some students. He plans to continue teaching Big Mind on a secular basis and will no longer teach at Kanzeon Zen Center.]

  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.

I don't want to ruffle your feathers, but if you teach the Law of Attraction, don't you ever doubt whether it really works?

I'm not against the Law of Attraction. It's a great way to draw people's attention to the subtle ways that events seem to line for us when we are sure of what we want. Most importantly, it offers a good excuse for practicing faith.

For example: Recently a relative of mine told me she had a job offer that she really wanted to take, but it was a 9-month teaching position that paid about 1/4 less than her current job. I said, "If you really want it, there's probably a way that you can do it. So the question to ask is not, 'Should I do it?', but 'How could I do it?'". She knew there were lots of part-time temporary positions for her skill set, so she took the job on faith and within a month, her new employer offered her a summer teaching position that made up the lost pay. You could say she attracted the outcome she wanted. You could also say she realistically assessed the situation. Both explanations accurately describe her outcome.

My problem with the Law of Attraction is that tends to confuse people. And no matter how you explain it, confusion stops people from getting what they want. Most people who grew up in the 20th Century (I bet that includes you) were taught that hard work, strategy, education, research, expert advice and goal setting would help them get what they want. Then they hear that the Law of Attraction says all they have to do is think about what they want and they will get it. Does that mean they can throw out hard work, strategy, education, research, expert advice and goal setting? No. All those things include thinking about what it is you want, so keep doing them if they work for you.

Another example: Several months ago, I was musing that perhaps it was time to find a new coach. I'm fortunate to have some of the best coaches in the world as friends who will coach me, as needed, so quality of coaching wasn't an issue, but I fantasized that perhaps it was time for someone who was a spiritual teacher, whose training was different from mine (so they could surprise me now and then) and maybe someone who owns a coaching school, so they could relate to some of the challenges I'm working with; all of that would be nice. A week or two later, Lama Tantrapa called me up out of the blue and suggested we start coaching each other. When stuff like that happens, I've learned to just say, "Yes."

Sometimes things seem to happen like magic, but that doesn't mean that all we ever have to do is set our intentions. As Lama says, "The road to hell is paved with intentions." It turns out he found me via LinkedIn. Was it the Law of Attraction or a good social media strategy that brought him to me? Yes.

I belong to the local Science of Mind church. It's pretty much ground zero for the Law of Attraction. But even they say that LOA doesn't work for everybody. Children who grow up in the church seem to create more of what they want just by thinking about it, perhaps because they don't have competing beliefs that confuse them.

Third example: The other day, I ran into the pastor of my church at the Post Office. She told me how she broke her toe by slipping in the bathroom. She said she had broken another toe on the same foot so many time that it was crooked and she had been considering having it broken by a doctor to straighten it back out. In other words, she had been thinking about breaking a toe and she then broke one. Be careful what you think about! Was it LOA or a freak accident? Whatever story you tell about it, she still has a broken toe.

It's hard to prove causation. Scientists tend to point to correlations and avoid making up stories about causation. When we observe events like thinking about something and then experience what we thought about, we're observing correlation. But humans are story-making machines and we love stories about causation. Correlation feels  confusing.

Choose the stories that work for you. And let coaching clients do the same. Confusing them with the Law of Attraction may stop them from getting what they want, even if it works for you.

I'm here to say that the Law of Attraction is nothing but faith. 

Or maybe it's just correlated with faith. But faith is huge. And at the opposite end of the scale is doubt. All healthy humans have both.

Imagine faith and doubt connected by a line. Faith pulls us forward and doubt pulls us back. However, there is often hidden wisdom underneath doubt, so explore it, rather than try to eliminate it.

Confusion on the other hand, erases the line. Doubt carries wisdom and connects to faith. Confusion is full of missed connections and blurred vision, kind of like the words in the image, above.

Whether you have faith in science, Jesus Christ, hard work, the Law of Attraction or all of the above, that faith will help to pull you forward. Uncover what's behind your doubts and erase your confusion if you can (by creating clarity) and you'll be pulled forward with less effort. It's not a guarantee of outcome, but rather something that correlates with success. 

"No one should spend their time trying to think positive thoughts. We've all got better things to do." - Thomas Leonard  

Some of the most successful and honest thought leaders out there, like Bill Harris, who appeared in The Secret, and Thomas Leonard, who 'founded' the coaching profession, don't ascribe to the Law of Attraction. Thomas actually developed a very different approach to attracting what you want called, The Principles of Attraction. Coaching is about getting what you want and there are many ways to do it. 

Here's a secret: In my experience the Principles of Attraction, combined with the Law of Attraction is even more attractive. Consider trying both together.

What are your thoughts on Attraction? Feel free to share them in the comments section, below.

Want to learn about the Principles of Attraction for free?

'I don't want to market, I just want to coach.'

You too? I've heard this refrain from hundreds of coaches and I am soooo sympathetic. Building a coaching business from scratch can truly feel overwhelming. Of course, you don't know how to do it - yet.

But I'll let you in on a little secret.

THE best marketing strategy is to coach, coach and then go coach some more. Is there a problem here that I'm missing? I don't think so!  

Here are 10 ways to fill your coaching business by coaching:

1. To reach the moon, shoot for the stars. What's a way bigger goal than filling your coaching businesess? Shoot for that and fill your business in the process. One fantastic way to do this is to coach many more people than you think you need to.

2.  Get a system. All a business is, is a system for making money. Systemize your coaching and create a business out of it. Coach a lot of people in a systematic process that provides value to others and build your business abilities at the same time. Everything will get easier.

3. Experiment. Millions are made by 'gurus' who claim to have 'fool-proof' systems for making a killing. Usually it's only the gurus making the killing. To find your own best system, experiment and expect some failures. Every successful coach fails some of the time and then learns from each failure.

4. Track your progress. Set goals for yourself along the way (you can call them intentions, if you prefer). Watch how you're doing over time. You should be improving. If not, tweak your system. Make it fun by making a game out of it.

5. Remember it's not about you. Get your focus off yourself and your needs and focus on assisting your potential clents. If you need to get a side job, go for it! Most new coaches have a side income in the beginning.

6. Build relationships. You'd be surprised how many people will HELP you build your business if you give them a chance. Some of them may become your clients; some of them may just tell everyone they know about you. But remember to be assisting them, too.

7. Learn to cement relationships. Recognize when someone wants to work with you (they may be shy about showing it) and when they just need an invitation from you. In sales parlay this is known as 'closing the deal'. You do NOT need to be salesy to do it. In fact, salesy-ness can kill relationships.

8. Transform lives in minutes. Fantastic coaching practically sells itself. If you give a complimentary session to someone, solve their problem, and they don't buy your coaching package, you didn't give fantastic coaching. Get ongoing feedback on your coaching and you'll become a fantastic coach faster.

9. Collect outcomes, results, testimonials and referrals. The more great coaching you do, the more attractive your track record becomes. People need to see your track record, so don't be shy about sharing it.

10. Stop boo-hoo-ing. Crocky the Coach (above) gets to cry you-know-what-kind-of-tears, but you don't, because you're not a cartoon!

Isn't it marvelously perfect that the best way to build a successful coaching business is by doing a lot of coaching?

If you're not sure how to begin, the new free Coach 100 eBook will help you. We also have a system for filling your coaching business that makes it easy to shoot for the stars, experiment, track and tweak everything, so you can get your focus off you and onto building and cementing relationships, having transformative conversations and collecting great testimonials, referrals and clients. We even have a community of coaches who are going through the same process. They've become the experts on this and they're even sympathetic to the occasional crockodile tear. But start with the ebook.

Get the Coach 100 eBook here.