Helping Hands For Coaches

Since coaches are mostly solo-entrepreneurs, scheduling or re-scheduling appointments with clients can take a lot of time. For several months, I’ve been recommending Genbook - which has been great for me in scheduling prospects and clients: it integrates with my Outlook calender, I get text messages and automatic updates to my Blackberry, and clients feel a sense of control to be able to easily schedule time with me that fits to their own schedule. Genbook has gotten a lot better with their ‘backend’ usability, with week views, vs. one-day views, and easily see the schedules of multiple employees (great for those coaches that are partnering up on bigger clients).

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You can try out Genbook indefinitely for free (at least, that’s the policy right now), and there’s added capabilities (such as credit card capture, synchronizable appointment notifications, customer history, complete control over appointment times, text message notifications, and the ability to have clients book up to 1 year in advance) for less than $20 a month. A real great deal to give power to your clients, and give back time to you!

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Be on target with your coaching business by developing your niche and target market for your practice. Try it on – see if it fits!

Wendi Liechty, our host for May 22nd call, is a Business & Marketing Coach whose style breaks through the limitations of traditional, outdated, cut and paste marketing programs by offering her own unique, simple, creative and highly personal approach.

Wendi has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs including coaches, wellness professionals, designers and other service providers develop clear and compelling business and marketing strategies and messages that make both dollars and sense! You can find her at www.TheCasualEntrepreneur.com

Most coaches hear that finding and developing your niche is a must to succeed, but that is little comfort if you are just not ready or still feeling unsure and unwilling to settle for something generic and unfulfilling. Listen to this podcast and learn…

**What might be holding you back from finding your “Niche”
**A new perspective and incentive to market the “Niche” Way
**How to find, develop and uncover the best “Niche” for you

**What to do if your just not ready to find your “Niche”

The class today was hoppin with good vibes about Twitter! We went through the basics of your profile, certain settings to be aware of while tweeting, and the importance of RSS feeds. Most importantly, we answered the ‘Why?’ question so many coaches and speakers have in regards to Twitter. You can listen to the call below, and be sure to sign-up for the call next Friday, March 20th, to discuss some of the applications that have been built around Twitter that can save you time, add multi-media, and track results while using Twitter. Remember, these classes are FREE! – and a great not just for coaches and speakers, but also your business clients, so pass it on, and thank you!

Some of the websites that were mentioned in today’s class:

www.Ping.fm

www.tweetscan.com

Twitter Search

www.PopularTweets.com

Just Tweet It search

www.FreeTwitterDesigner.com

www.TwitBacks.com

www.SnipURL.com

www.BudURL.com

Recommended Blog posts regarding Twitter and RSS feeds:

RSS Feeds video

Twitter for Coaches

Do you play phone-tag with your current coaching clients? Wish there was a way to just have them log-in and book an appointment online – but worried about the cost?

I’m really enjoying my Genbook system – it’s free to start (and as little as $20 per month if you want all the features), and prospects and clients find it’s easier to get a hold of me. Like you, my time is my business, so when I’m with a client or a prospect, I can’t help another one at that time. Now, clients and prospects save time by simply booking an appointment with me online – anytime, day or night.

I’m also utilizing Skype to talk with my clients – this also is a great way to ‘compact’ my time. I can have several ‘IM’ (or Instant Messaging) conversations going on at the same time, and still help everyone. Plus, when I talk to clients that are also Skype users, we can have video conference (great for those coaches that like to see their clients while they coach). Oh, and the cost – free. Gosh, I love that word

Wouldn’t you love a community full of people all over the world supporting your business, helping it grow, referring to it, all while building relationships with current and past clients?  In the past, this would have taken a lot of effort – putting on events, networking, in-person meetings. But, as a coach, you can have potential clients from all over the world – so building your community in your geographic area may not work for your business. To quoting Seth Godin: “Realize that one day soon, you’ll be spending much of your time working with people who you will probably never meet in person.” The good news about the Internet: you can easily build that community through  online social networks – especially with Ning.com.

Ning.com is a great service for coaches because it allows you to build your community, support your current clients, and potentially attract future ones – all with very little cost. You can customize it’s look and feel, control who can join, and control the content of the site. Members can have their own blog, upload video and audio, upload images, and participate in the online forums. This allows you to see what your clients, and prospects, are struggling with, interested in, and connect to them to build the strong relationship and brand that will help your coaching clients coming back for more. You can read a ‘how-to’ for coaches on Ning.com at the ICF-OC website.

With the Presidential election drawing closer, our feelings and emotions are rising. You may feel the need to stand up and be heard. That’s what I love about America – you can voice your opinion on politics without being prosecuted! However, as business owners we also need to be a little wary.

Before you go ranting on a blog or forum, remember that as an entrepreneur you are a reflection of your business. And while my opinion is that we shouldn’t be silent – we should remember that the Internet is a permanent – even when you think it’s not.

You may be able to delete that twitter post or blog comment, but it will still be on their databases. So, stand-up for your beliefs, but just be a little objective. Think of how your customers or prospects would feel if they read what you wrote. Think of the possible consequences. Would you be willing to loose clients or turn-off possible clients to voice your point of view? Could there be a way to voice your opinion without being offensive? As a coach, do you think your target market would appreciate your voiced opinion? Or, should you remain a ‘blank canvous’ for your clients to reflect on?

Most of all, remember: no matter what you say on the Internet or around the water cooler – your opinion only really counts on Election Day! Rock the Vote on November 4th!

ICF-OC had it’s 4th annual “Accredited Coach Training Program” event last night, and what a great event it was. I met many wonderful coaches, as well as the representatives of 5 ICF Accredited Coaching Schools:

Coach for Life
Phyliss Francis, MA, CLC, PCC
www.coachforlife.com

Newfield Network
Carol Courcy, MCC
www.newfieldnetwork.com

iPEC (Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching)
Keith Miller, CEC
www.iPECcoaching.com

David Darst, CPCC, PCC
Coaches Training Institute
www.thecoaches.com

Christopher McAuliffe
Accomplishment Coaching
www.accomplishmentcoaching.com

What I found interesting with some of the schools, was that they have started to offer business support – such as providing contracts, accounting, and even websites. This is great! I proves that websites are an important part of starting a new coaching business, but I would add to it the website: such as a blog so that prospects get to know you as a coach and a person (remember, people buy from people they know, like and trust), and an eNewsletter with their own brand so that coaches can market directly with prospects and current clients.

But remember, if you’re a new coach, don’t start off too big and become overwhelmed with the website project. Start small, with just a few pages. You can always add to what you’ve got – a website is not a printed product, so it can change and grow as you do. Just take our new launch, http://powerfulmindcoaching.com/ – she was making changes the day we launched – and she can do it easily with the online management software that we developed. She can quickly add pages, change content, and add PayPal buttons – all without contacting us. So, are you ready to get started quickly? Remember, Indra Successful Coach Marketing is here for you!

Part 1 of Search Engine Optimization for Coaches:

Part 2 of Search Engine Optimization for Coaches:

Highlights of Search Engine Optimization for Coaches:

Our class today was very exciting because we talked about how coaches can utilize PayPal to side-step the awkward “The check’s in the mail” syndrome. We are, of course, talking about Credit Card payments – and in the below audio I show you how easy it is to use PayPal to create “Buy Now” buttons, receive recurring and subscription payments, create paypal invoices – as well as how to credit accounts when you accidentally charge someone.

Just a quick reminder that our templates are still available until today at a $200 discount on customization. If you wish to take advantage of this one-time offer please buy your template today, April 18^th, at indramarketing.com and click on “Template Design”.

Also, If you enjoy these free teleclasses, be a good sport and tell me: call (214) 615-6505 ext 9053 and leave a testimonial for this class. I would really appreciate it.

I am so excited about my up-coming Facebook class next week! If you’ve been reading the magazines or papers lately then you’ve heard about Facebook – it’s the 2nd largest social (and business) networking website out there. But, what you may not know is how great it is for your coaching business! Why?

-Grow your contacts list
-Get more website visitors
-Continue the connection you have after a networking meeting
-Easily let people know of up coming classes and teleclasses

 Be sure to sign-up for this class now as it will be very popular – and for good reason! All these articles I’ve been reading have been saying, “You need to be on Facebook” – but don’t show you how! I will be guiding you step-by-step on how to set-up your profile, add applications, start your business page, and grow your list of contacts quickly! So, sign-up today before we run out of spaces! SIGN UP HERE