Coaching For RESULTS!: April 2014

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Select a “Restore Point” for your Coaching Practice.

In one of my previous posts, I asked the question “Do You Know Your Client’s Profile?”

Your client’s profile allows you to identify the goals, objectives and challenges that are unique to your niche. But equally important is your ability to identify WITH these goals, objectives and challenges. In other words, your own profile as a coach must be congruent with that of your clients!

Coaching has the unique distinction of facilitating a Desired Outcome without actually creating it! You are not a consultant who provides an outcome or a counselor who identifies one. Your clients must be the architects of their Desired Outcome, while you facilitate its achievement!

These distinctions are often blurred and many coaches find themselves re-defining their role in the determination of their coach/client relationship. If the coaching definition is too rigid, then the coaching becomes constricted and the ability to facilitate a Desired Outcome is often compromised. On the other hand, if the role of the coach is too broad, the relationship with the client becomes subjective and the ‘accountability factor’ is no longer discernible.

Once your client profile and your personal coaching profile are aligned, you are able to provide the coaching services your clients are looking for! You’ll be able to deliver the value that clients are prepared to pay you for!

But your personal coaching profile may have been compromised over time. It may have been subjected to the ill-gotten advice from some coaching gurus, trainers and certifiers who are trying to impose their narrow and restrictive points of view on what coaching should be.

The irony is that your clients really don’t care by whose definition you produce results. They simply want the results and if you can produce them, your clients will reward you for your services!

Instead of looking for new shiny objects to advance your coaching career, take a step back.

What compelled you to become a coach in the first place?
What were the driving motivators behind your decision to become a coach?
What are the unique values you can bring to your coaching clients and are these values aligned with your authentic self?

If your coaching practice is out of alignment with your personal values it will not produce the results your clients are looking for. Nor will it generate the financial rewards you are entitled to.

Perhaps it’s time to select a “Restore Point” for your coaching practice!

This is where you’ll start to align your personal coaching profile with that of your coaching niche. This is where your previous coaching profile may have taken a wrong turn!

Make a list of the ‘wrong decisions’ you made in your coaching career, dating back to your Restore Point, so that you won’t make the same choices again. You must also identify the personal dreams, hopes and ambitions you once had as a coach that were left behind at your Restore Point, so you can determine if they still have relevance in your coaching practice today.

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“PersonaCoach™ teaches Life & Business Coaches from around the world how to be EXPERTS at what they do and charge EXPERT FEES for what they do. Get your FREE eBook “Become a Coaching EXPERT and Charge EXPERT Coaching Fees” at http://www.personacoach.com

Contact PersonaCoach at info@personacoach.com

Thursday, 17 April 2014

Is It Time For A Coaching Reality Check?

“I’m struggling as a coach and OMG . . . . I may have to get a J.O.B.!”

I don’t know if you spend a lot of time going through your spam box to read about the myriad of solutions that are available to struggling coaches . . . . for a price! Now, I don’t want to tar the whole array of coaching trainers, certifiers and mentors with the same brush. There are some excellent programs out there, created by people who genuinely care!

But when I hear some coaching trainers suggest that unsuccessful coaches may have to get a job, I cringe.

Are they suggesting that professional coaching is not a job? Where did that notion come from?

Now I do understand that there is pain in working for a living! And having a job can be synonymous with that pain! Especially when these same gurus tell you that they themselves enjoy a 4 hour work week from their ocean front condo on the shores of Maui.

And to accentuate the pain you’re now feeling, they spell job in capital letter with periods in between!

J.O.B.! Ouch, that really hurts!

Well, here’s a reality check!

Professional coaching is a JOB! Whoever thinks that it isn’t is in for a rude awakening! We can argue about semantics by calling it a profession or a business, but if we don’t treat it as a job, it becomes a hobby! And hobbies very seldom create income!

So what is fueling the notion that coaching is not a real job?

It is the perception that abundance can be created with little or no effort! Brendon Burchard reminds us that he comes from a small town called WORK! I think it behooves us all to try and locate that place on the map!

For me, coaching is a wondrous profession. It is the best profession on earth!

But make no mistake! IT IS A JOB!

And as with any job, not every aspect of coaching is fun! You need to be disciplined to go to work, even if your “office” is in a corner of your bedroom. You need to market your services, so that people get to know about you. You need to put yourself out there, even if that is outside your comfort zone!

And you must become the professional that your clients will want to work with!

If you can do all that in four hours a week, then “package” your secret. You’ve got a product to sell!

But you may discover that coaching is actually hard work and you better be prepared to work long hours if you want to be successful!

And that’s the reality check!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE?

You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Contact PersonaCoach at info@personacoach.com

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Do You Know Your Client's Profile?

If the “Pareto Principle” holds true for the coaching industry, then it’s reasonable to assume that 80% of all coaches only generate 20% of all coaching revenue. This simple equation has not escaped the attention of coaching trainers, certifiers and marketers! Solutions to “correct” this imbalance seem to be popping up daily!

The needs of the 80% of coaches can be summarized as follows:
1 – They need more clients
2 – They need to make more money

And since the obvious correlation between these two needs begins with having more client, the vast majority of coaching training is focused on “client attraction”.

I believe that not having enough clients is only a symptom of an unsuccessful coaching practice, but not its root cause! If a coach is not running a successful and profitable coaching business, there are only three reasons:
1 – They do not give their clients what they want.
2 – They do not provide their clients with the coaching services that they ask for.
3 – They do not give them enough VALUE for their money!

The real problem is that these coaches are not providing their clients with the one thing that clients want most of all! The one thing that most clients are prepared to pay huge coaching fees for!

There are only two things that truly matter to a client:
1 – They want a coach that can help them solve a specific problem or challenge. The do not want a coach who simply bounces it back at them!
2 – They want a coach with the expertise to facilitate the achievement of a Desired Outcome. And if that coach is not you, they’ll find a coach who has!

Most coaches understand that a successful practice begins by identifying a specific niche that the coach can relate to. This can be in relationships, business, health & wellness, personal development, spiritual growth . . . . the list is endless!

But a step that many coaches overlook is the creation of an actual profile for their niche clientele.

Here are seven profile criteria that you must understand about your niche if that niche is going to become the foundation for your coaching practice:
1 – What are the major challenges of this profile?
2 – What are the common goals and objectives of this profile?
3 – Are these goals, objectives and challenges unique to this profile?
4 – Can you identify with this profile?
5 – Have you had personal experience with this profile?
6 – How has that experience changed your personal profile?
7 – Based on your personal experience, can you facilitate change in this profile?

The more detailed and sophisticated the profile of your niche clientele, the better your ability to effect change for your client (VALUE) and the greater your monetary rewards (FEES).

Do you know your client’s profile?

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE?

You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Contact PersonaCoach at info@personacoach.com