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Linda |
From the Editor
Welcome to the July 2012 issue of the IAC VOICE!
President's Message
Susan R. Meyer, MCC (IAC)
Susan R. Meyer is off this month. If you want to catch up on what she's been up to, you can read her President's Message from June 2012. Click to read more.
How to Make Your Coaching Practice Stand Out From the Crowd
Featured Member Benefit – Erik Bowman, Guanzi Institute
This month's featured member benefit is the Entrepreneur Boot Camp® program from the Guanzi Institute. Erik Bowman, Executive Director, contributed an article about how to make your coaching practice stand out from the crowd. Scroll down to view the full article, or click to read the article online.
IAC Learning Agreements: Look to What You're Already Doing
Inside Scoop – Natalie Tucker Miller, MCC (IAC)
IAC's Lead Certifier Natalie Tucker Miller received this question: "Someone told me that I can create my Learning Agreement with things I’m already doing. I’m not planning any coach-specific work this year, for personal reasons, and wonder how I am going to fulfill my requirement for my current certified coach status?" Click to read Natalie's response.
Learning about Learning Agreements
Sue Johnston, MCC (IAC)
This month's feature coaching article continues the topic of Learning Agreements. After almost two years on her "to do" list, MCC (IAC) Sue Johnston embarked on her own journey through the IAC's Learning Agreement process. She was pleasantly surprised to discover that it's not such a big hoop to jump through. Click to read more.
What to Do When a Client Says They Can't Afford You
Kathy Mallary
In this month's business-building article, Kathy Mallary writes about how to understand and appeal to your prospective clients' deeper desires, and three important questions to ask yourself if prospective clients are saying they can't afford your fees. Click to read more.
Strategies for Enhancing Performance Initiative: An interview with coaching researcher Deborah Bright
Research-Based Coaching Mastery
Recently, Deborah Bright and Anita Crocket published a paper in Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, titled, "Training combined with coaching can make a significant difference in job performance and satisfaction." The overall purpose of their research was "to identify the most effective Performance Control Practices (behavioral and cognitive skills) used on a frequent basis to enhance performance while simultaneously mitigating the negative effects of stress." IAC members, click here to discover the role of coaching in performance control and mitigating the negative effects of stress.
Submission guidelines for the VOICE are available on the website. Submissions are welcome anytime through the month.
If there are topics you would like to read about in future issues, or if you have feedback about today's issue, please contact me directly.
Warm wishes,
Linda
Linda Dessau, CPCC
Editor, IAC® VOICE
Email: voice@certifiedcoach.org
www.contentmasteryguide.com
P.S. Are you on Twitter? You can follow the IAC at http://twitter.com/IACCoachMastery. There is also a list of VOICE authors, columnists and IAC BOG members at http://twitter.com/lindadessau/iac-voice-contributors.
How to Make Your Coaching Practice Stand Out From the Crowd
by Erik Bowman
You became a coach to help other people. But what are you doing to help yourself succeed? Today, there are well over 10,000 coaches working in the United States alone. Standing out from the crowd is your key to success. The most important thing you can do to differentiate yourself is by creating a credible platform.
What’s your platform?
A platform is how you market yourself, your specialties and coaching services. It’s what you use to promote your coaching practice. The challenge with marketing coaching services is that we all have unique skills and styles. This makes us great coaches, but it also makes it difficult to create a platform that reaches our ideal clients.
Here are six steps you can use to build your platform:
- Define your message – This is what makes you unique. It encompasses your specialty and how you want to be perceived.
- Define your goals – Do you want to earn a living, become wealthy or become famous?
- Define your market – Do you want to work with women, men, teens or specialized markets like chiropractors or moms?
- Package your brand – Write a book, create a logo, build a website, write a blog, get active on social networks and/or post video and audio.
- Execute on your plan – Visualize, build and live your brand every day.
- Market your brand – Continue online marketing through SEO, writing articles, asking for referrals, giving presentations, etc.
Most coaches build their platform from the ground up. If you have the time (it generally takes two to three years) and money (some coaches spend up to $100,000) to commit to this process, it can be very successful.
Another option is to build up your coaching through leveraging. Leveraging is a cost-effective process where you use someone else’s existing platform to gain instant credibility through your association with that brand. Coaches get exposure for their business in exchange for paying a licensing fee.
Whether you choose to leverage an existing brand to boost your coaching business or you build a platform from scratch, remember that even the best marketing must to have something of value paired with it – a great service, blog, public speaking skills or something else.
Erik Bowman is a bestselling author, Executive Director of the Guanzi Institute and creator of the Entrepreneur Boot Camp® program. The Entrepreneur Boot Camp® brand and curriculum provides a platform for coaches to stand out in a crowded coaching marketplace.
IAC members get $100 off Entrepreneur Boot Camp® Certified Coach and 1-month free use of the Entrepreneur Boot Camp® License with a 12- month agreement.
New IAC Coaching Masteries® licensed schools and mentors
| Name | City | State | Country | IAC-CC | |
| Dian Gu | Beijing | China | No | View Details |
Your Feedback
We'd love to get your feedback on any issue related to the IAC. Do you have any questions, concerns, encouragement or ideas for improvement regarding membership benefits, certification, the VOICE, the direction of the organization or anything else at all? Please send an email to voice@certifiedcoach.org. Please help us improve.
