OK, I'm re-inspired to the max.
Just attended a one-day seminar with the EnlightenmentNext people in NYC with Andrew Cohen, their founder, and Dr. Don Beck, the world's expert on Spiral Dynamics. This, following a 5-day intensive certification program with Dr. Beck in Boston, at Andrew's center, there.
I've been checking these guys out for a while and every time I go deeper and come out even more excited about what they're doing...Read the entire post on the Coaching Blog.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
You Gotta Have Faith
It's a common fact that people who pursue their dreams often lie awake at night worrying about their finances, so instead of experiencing bliss they experience extreme anxiety.
People who follow more practical pursuits by pursuing a profession that pays well for instance, even if they don't love it, often have fewer financial worries, but less satisfaction. Ironically, they don't experience security either, just dependence on the company or system that employs them.
Neither group is free.
The Dreamers have a lack of financial freedom and the Practical People have a lack of personal freedom. Both problems are the result of mistaking ourselves as the providers of success in our own lives...Read the entire post at the Coaching Blog.
People who follow more practical pursuits by pursuing a profession that pays well for instance, even if they don't love it, often have fewer financial worries, but less satisfaction. Ironically, they don't experience security either, just dependence on the company or system that employs them.
Neither group is free.
The Dreamers have a lack of financial freedom and the Practical People have a lack of personal freedom. Both problems are the result of mistaking ourselves as the providers of success in our own lives...Read the entire post at the Coaching Blog.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Did Coaching Go Mainstream Without You?
I've been at odds with all the experts on this one for years and I read it again in Andrea Lee's book, Multiple Streams of Coaching Income, recently (which I recommend, btw).
Everybody who knows anything about coaching knows that coaching hasn't gone mainstream, yet, but when it does, it'll be really BIG. Have you heard that one?
Guess what? Coaching already went mainstream!
How do I know? Read entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Everybody who knows anything about coaching knows that coaching hasn't gone mainstream, yet, but when it does, it'll be really BIG. Have you heard that one?
Guess what? Coaching already went mainstream!
How do I know? Read entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Got Biz?
I think one of the toughest businesses in the would to build is a coaching business. I know this flies in the face of what your coach training school may have told you, before you signed up. I know that the story that I was told was that coaching businesses are easy to start and inexpensive to maintain, that you can name your own hours and make a six-figure income while working part-time. That you get to model "life balance" for your clients and you can fill your practice in as little as three months. ("Cool!" I thought.)
Actually, all of the leading coaches that I currently know about are working 12-16 hours per day, sometimes, seven days a week! Is that crazy, or what?
Why is it so hard to build a successful coaching business? Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Actually, all of the leading coaches that I currently know about are working 12-16 hours per day, sometimes, seven days a week! Is that crazy, or what?
Why is it so hard to build a successful coaching business? Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
REALL Marketing for Coaches
Well, our Confab meeting with guest mentor coach, Barbra Sundquist, on "Do Coaches Need to Get Real?", was very high energy! There are a lot of smart coaches on the calls and they're not shy about sharing. Barbra didn't get to talk as much as we expected, but gracious as she is, she recognized that it was a great call, anyway! (If you're not a member, yet, go here: http://www.coachingconfab.com. You can also access the free recording of the call and previous calls, there.)
Several callers mentioned my recent post, "No Wonder Clients Aren't Buying", so the call became a discussion on marketing; what works, what doesn't, and what's just plain repugnant. I'm getting lots of feedback on that post and on the Confab meeting. We've really struck a nerve in the coaching community! Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.
Several callers mentioned my recent post, "No Wonder Clients Aren't Buying", so the call became a discussion on marketing; what works, what doesn't, and what's just plain repugnant. I'm getting lots of feedback on that post and on the Confab meeting. We've really struck a nerve in the coaching community! Read entire post at the Coaching Blog.
Monday, May 16, 2005
No Wonder Clients Aren't Buying
I still watch 60 Minutes every Sunday night, if I can catch it. Last night, they had a feature called, "BS Rules". It was tough, because they couldn't actually say the word in the title.
"BS Rules" was inspired by an unexpected bestseller by, Harry G. Frankfurt, a distinguished professor of philosophy at Princeton University. ON BULLSHIT is a serious philosophical work that normally would only sell a few hundred copies, but the title has struck a chord with so many that it's selling hundreds of thousands.
Hey, it struck a chord with me, too!
I've specifically thought about this in regards to coaching. (Well I do sort of have a one-track mind.)
I've been meaning to write about this subject since the first day of the CoachVille Annual Conference, when Dave Buck got up and asked, What's wrong with coaching?
Without stopping to think, I spontaneously wrote in my notes:
The hype has separated us from our souls.
I stared at that for a few seconds and forgot to listen to Dave, anymore. The hype is killing us, quite simply.
Geeze! I'm so sick of hype, I'm choking on it. And hype goes deeper than that, too. It shows up in promises that aren't kept, even though you meant well. It shows up in products that are designed according to what the market is buying, not what people want. It shows in compromised integrity. It shows up when you strive to get people to buy, rather than attract them, because you have something they really want. In other words, hype is BS.
Coaches mean well. They're just not thinking at a high enough level to attract clients. No wonder people aren't buying!
We're operating at a paradigm level that's no higher than (or even lower than) most of our potential clients. The materialistic/entrepreneurial/corporate mindset that has dominated American culture for decades is in decline. Corporate refugees, victims of downsizing, burned consumers; those people don't want more of the same. They've had it. Coaches need to be operating at a higher paradigm then that, in order to help them shift to a new way of thinking. That's what coaches are for! Not to insert them in our product funnels and squeeze more and bigger dollars out of them.
Why should people trust us with their lives, their dreams and their futures if they feel like our first motive is to make money from them? Most people live in such a climate of mistrust that if they sniff even the slightest bit of an agenda, they become suspicious. Not a good place for our coaching clients to be coming from!
So how did we get here and what do we need to do about it? Well, Thomas stretched out thinking. Remember that? And coaching was growing, then. Then we lost Thomas. Since then, lots of coaches have tried to step into his shoes, but none of them are thinking like Thomas, yet. They're striving, instead of attracting and they're becoming less attractive, as a result.
It wouldn't hurt to go back to some of the old Thomas material, like Irresistable Attraction and place our faith in that. Only let's don't stop there. The world is still moving forward and Thomas can't keep leading us. Look for new voices and new ways of thinking. Look outside the coaching industry for inspiration. Watch what's going on in the world and notice where it's heading and where it's been. Coach the present and future, not the past. Start leading, yourself.
And stop trying so hard!
Most coaches come into the profession, because they're not BS artists. They care about truth and other values. How silly to train them to BS their potential clients.
If you want to actually attract clients, Fresh Thinking Rules.
Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com
"BS Rules" was inspired by an unexpected bestseller by, Harry G. Frankfurt, a distinguished professor of philosophy at Princeton University. ON BULLSHIT is a serious philosophical work that normally would only sell a few hundred copies, but the title has struck a chord with so many that it's selling hundreds of thousands.
Hey, it struck a chord with me, too!
I've specifically thought about this in regards to coaching. (Well I do sort of have a one-track mind.)
I've been meaning to write about this subject since the first day of the CoachVille Annual Conference, when Dave Buck got up and asked, What's wrong with coaching?
Without stopping to think, I spontaneously wrote in my notes:
The hype has separated us from our souls.
I stared at that for a few seconds and forgot to listen to Dave, anymore. The hype is killing us, quite simply.
What hype? Marketing hype! Branding hype! Advertisements disquised as newsletters! Products that will make coaches money! Yadyadayada!!
Geeze! I'm so sick of hype, I'm choking on it. And hype goes deeper than that, too. It shows up in promises that aren't kept, even though you meant well. It shows up in products that are designed according to what the market is buying, not what people want. It shows in compromised integrity. It shows up when you strive to get people to buy, rather than attract them, because you have something they really want. In other words, hype is BS.
Coaches mean well. They're just not thinking at a high enough level to attract clients. No wonder people aren't buying!
We're operating at a paradigm level that's no higher than (or even lower than) most of our potential clients. The materialistic/entrepreneurial/corporate mindset that has dominated American culture for decades is in decline. Corporate refugees, victims of downsizing, burned consumers; those people don't want more of the same. They've had it. Coaches need to be operating at a higher paradigm then that, in order to help them shift to a new way of thinking. That's what coaches are for! Not to insert them in our product funnels and squeeze more and bigger dollars out of them.
Why should people trust us with their lives, their dreams and their futures if they feel like our first motive is to make money from them? Most people live in such a climate of mistrust that if they sniff even the slightest bit of an agenda, they become suspicious. Not a good place for our coaching clients to be coming from!
So how did we get here and what do we need to do about it? Well, Thomas stretched out thinking. Remember that? And coaching was growing, then. Then we lost Thomas. Since then, lots of coaches have tried to step into his shoes, but none of them are thinking like Thomas, yet. They're striving, instead of attracting and they're becoming less attractive, as a result.
It wouldn't hurt to go back to some of the old Thomas material, like Irresistable Attraction and place our faith in that. Only let's don't stop there. The world is still moving forward and Thomas can't keep leading us. Look for new voices and new ways of thinking. Look outside the coaching industry for inspiration. Watch what's going on in the world and notice where it's heading and where it's been. Coach the present and future, not the past. Start leading, yourself.
And stop trying so hard!
Most coaches come into the profession, because they're not BS artists. They care about truth and other values. How silly to train them to BS their potential clients.
If you want to actually attract clients, Fresh Thinking Rules.
Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Under-Capitalized
This is a problem that can be so painful, that coaches don't like to talk about it.
Under-capitalization.
Fancy term for, "You don't have enough money to make it." Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Under-capitalization.
Fancy term for, "You don't have enough money to make it." Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
The Most Saturated Market in the World
Yesterday, one of my mentees commented that there seem to be an awful lot of certifications and programs for coaches, out there, and that it's hard for a coach to know which are really important to pursue and which aren't.
I agree. There are so many coach trainings, marketing programs and certifications on the market, that coaches aren't just overwhelmed, they're confused - and broke!
And still more products for coaches to buy are rolled out practically everyday.
This points to one of the biggest bad habits in the coaching industry, right now: the tendency to market to other coaches. The cause is pretty simple: we know what matters to us and we know how to communicate with each other. It's a natural! The problem is, most coaches don't have thriving businesses, yet, and buying more products tends to keep them in the financial red.
This produces the proverbial snake that swallows its tail. Not a sustainable industry practice!
And I'm a mentor coach, so I'm guilty!
I sometimes wonder if this hybrid of professional/entrepreneur doesn't just present a massive integrity problem for coaches. Coaches aren't supposed to be experts, the client is the expert, right? And yet, we present ourselves as experts in our marketing materials. This confuses everybody - including us.
Slippery integrity kills coaching. And it could kill the coaching industry, too.
When you're presented witht the next great program that's going to finally make you a successful coach, ask yourself if that's really true? Do you really need it and how can you find out? And always bear this in mind: Coaching businesses are businesses. They create products to make profits. Is the program you're about to buy designed to make you successful or make the seller money?
The best ones will do both.
You need to be able to make a clear assessment of what you need at every step along the way to your ideal coaching practice, so you know what you need to buy.
And you need to ask a lot of questions about the programs you buy, like: What is their track record? Do they have success stories? Do they have statistics on the success rate of people, like you, who buy? What's the reputation of the seller? Is it sterling? Don't just rely on a big name; ask people what their experiences have been.
If the program is just based on a cool new theory, it may still be worth checking out, but expect to pay less, if you're an early adopter.
This is a tough challenge for me. I want to be part of the solution, not just be adding to the problem. I've considered getting out of the mentor coach biz, because it's such a depressed market, but this seems to be my calling.
I don't have all the answers, yet, but I'm willing to name the problem. My goal is to find ways that help coaches get from the tourist stage, where they just want to buy and experience all the cool stuff out there for coaches, and help them to have their own thriving businesses. That's the only way coaching will survive.
I'm wondering what your thoughts are.
Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com
I agree. There are so many coach trainings, marketing programs and certifications on the market, that coaches aren't just overwhelmed, they're confused - and broke!
And still more products for coaches to buy are rolled out practically everyday.
This points to one of the biggest bad habits in the coaching industry, right now: the tendency to market to other coaches. The cause is pretty simple: we know what matters to us and we know how to communicate with each other. It's a natural! The problem is, most coaches don't have thriving businesses, yet, and buying more products tends to keep them in the financial red.
This produces the proverbial snake that swallows its tail. Not a sustainable industry practice!
And I'm a mentor coach, so I'm guilty!
I sometimes wonder if this hybrid of professional/entrepreneur doesn't just present a massive integrity problem for coaches. Coaches aren't supposed to be experts, the client is the expert, right? And yet, we present ourselves as experts in our marketing materials. This confuses everybody - including us.
Slippery integrity kills coaching. And it could kill the coaching industry, too.
When you're presented witht the next great program that's going to finally make you a successful coach, ask yourself if that's really true? Do you really need it and how can you find out? And always bear this in mind: Coaching businesses are businesses. They create products to make profits. Is the program you're about to buy designed to make you successful or make the seller money?
The best ones will do both.
You need to be able to make a clear assessment of what you need at every step along the way to your ideal coaching practice, so you know what you need to buy.
And you need to ask a lot of questions about the programs you buy, like: What is their track record? Do they have success stories? Do they have statistics on the success rate of people, like you, who buy? What's the reputation of the seller? Is it sterling? Don't just rely on a big name; ask people what their experiences have been.
If the program is just based on a cool new theory, it may still be worth checking out, but expect to pay less, if you're an early adopter.
This is a tough challenge for me. I want to be part of the solution, not just be adding to the problem. I've considered getting out of the mentor coach biz, because it's such a depressed market, but this seems to be my calling.
I don't have all the answers, yet, but I'm willing to name the problem. My goal is to find ways that help coaches get from the tourist stage, where they just want to buy and experience all the cool stuff out there for coaches, and help them to have their own thriving businesses. That's the only way coaching will survive.
I'm wondering what your thoughts are.
Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
How to Create Programs that Rock!
Hey - If you missed the 1st or 2nd Confab meetings, the recordings will be posted on my website in the very near future. http://www.coachingconfab.com Watch for an announcement, when they're ready. In the meantime, I want to thank Heidi Costas for sharing her wisdom with us, yesterday. We talked about why some programs sell and others don't and what the market seems to want, right now. Click on "comments" at the end of this post to see Heidi's Five Key Points for Programs that Rock. ;-) Julia http://www.yourlifepart2.com
Monday, April 18, 2005
Are You Stuck in the Green Meme?
I've been fascinated by Spiral Dynamics, lately. It's a theory of human development that helps to explain people's paradigms, both individually and culturally. (You can read a brief synopsis of it in Ken Wilber's A Theory of Everything, or the whole enchilada in Spiral Dynamics by Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan.)
This theory neatly explains why people think what they do and why there is so much disagreement about values in today's world - and it's weirdly color coded...Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.
This theory neatly explains why people think what they do and why there is so much disagreement about values in today's world - and it's weirdly color coded...Read the entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Inspiration is for Amateurs
"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up." I heard Chuck Close say this the other night on a PBS interview. It pricked my ears, because inspiration is a big part of what I do as a coach. It's for amateurs? But the more he talked, the more I agreed with him. Listening to Close took me back to my years of training in the arts... Read the whole article at the Coaching Blog.
Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com
Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2005 http://www.yourlifepart2.com
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Don't Stop to Play Tiddlywinks 'til You've Finished Up in the Birthing Room
Great conversation in our first Confab! It left me with lots to think about ever since. I'm honored at the amazing group of coaches who have subscribed, so far, and can't wait to get back together with you! I already feel like twice a month isn't often enough, so I decided to set up a blog, so I'd have somewhere to go when the mood strikes. Originally, I'd planned a newsletter for this group, but a blog fits the conversational style far better. With a group of coaches this experienced and talented, the posts are bound to be mind-bending...Read entire article at the Coaching Blog.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
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