Most coaches, consultants or freelancers are involved in the hungry, needy, merry-go-round of meetings, networking, social networking to secure what they believe are quality prospects for possible lucrative coaching contracts.

However, it may pay you well to DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what the general marketplace is doing.

In fact, the grandfather of personal development and self-help, Earl Nightingale said that if you can’t find a good role model for doing what you want to do, look around at what the majority are doing, and don’t do it – do the opposite! Because the majority means mediocrity. We think Earl was on to something!

For most coaches, the ultimate brochure, business card, advertisement, promotional document, they could ever own, is – to BE their BEST CLIENT! And then, to deliver their unique style of coaching at every opportune moment.

Let’s take these two ideas and turn them into practical, workable tools you can take into the marketplace, instantly.

Being Your Own Best Client

You’ve probably noticed the big worldwide shift towards, Life Coaching, Life Balance and Coaching in all its forms. In fact, you may already know that the profession itself is one of the fastest-moving professions in the world.

However, many of the very people who promote and stomp their feet about life change are themselves in a chaotic and disorganised mess! Not all. Many.

But look, whether they are in a mess or not, the whole idea of life balance should strike a powerful chord for you – especially if you’re looking to bag yourself a good number of fee-paying clients.

Here’s why.

There are a high number of coaches, consultants and mentors who are focused on the ‘I’ve got to MAKE THIS BUSINESS WORK, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER’ that, they’ve missed the boat entirely.

Whilst they’re busy buying into the idea that sacrificing all else in order to pursue their most cherished want, they’re leaving a trail of chaos for all to see, especially their prospective clients!

• What kind of catastrophic trail are we talking about?
• A body so out-of-shape that a person will soon really detest themselves…
• So neck-deep in personal and business debt, with no attempt to come out and cure it.
• Involved in loveless personal relationships which are heading down the sewer with no way out…
• Mental disharmony because the mind being strewn all over the place like a berserk orangutan…

Engaging in lifeless, lethargic language and communication making social interaction a chore and bore for others…

Do you feel you’re heading towards your own version of the above?

Well, if you’re looking for a goodly number of fee paying clients, here’s the big secret: FIX YOURSELF FIRST!

You see, very rarely does an award or qualification bring you success.

You have to DO something in order to bring it to life. Being your own good example of living a life in balance is the biggest testimonial, the biggest message of value you can send out in to the marketplace.

For, not only will you have that inner confidence and steely conviction, you’ll have a practical, experiential voice to speak from. There’s nothing worse than spluttering and faking it inside about wanting to help others when we ourselves are in the driving seat of our own lunatic life.

On the other hand, there’s a magic that happens when the pieces of our own life start falling into place for others to see. It’s best to lead by example and doing, rather than theory and mere words.

So, what should you be committed to in order to turn your own life into a role model?

Well, we’d suggest that there are seven commitments you should guard and treasure with your life. And, if you follow them and make them part of your daily regime, your daily curriculum of living, you can’t help but draw to you those type of clients who’ll love to have you coach them to fabulous success.

Make it a daily practice to be committed to:

1. your mind

2. action

3. responsibility

4. energy

5. friends and family

6. career and business goals

7. wealth

If you truly make it daily practice to absorb these seven commitments into your life, you’ll create a life that’s example-led. And, you’ll be so on-track, so focussed, so dedicated to your own life and your own work that people can’t help be drawn to you and what you stand for.

And that’s a beautiful moment when it happens. For then you’ll know that there’s no need for all that demoralising, convincing, persuading and selling of your services. It’ll happen because of who you are and what you do.

Yes, effective marketing material is important. However, you’ll find that you won’t be doing it the same way everyone else does. There won’t be that dry-mouth desperation for business. You see, you’ll be creating a distinction. That is a compelling advantage that’ll set you apart in the marketplace based on what you are doing in your own life.

It’s a refreshing way to go about promoting your services; by taking full and complete ownership and responsibility of your life. And it can happen for you in an instant.

The problem happens when we think about things for too long. We let our own head dissipate the power of our intentions. It’s the timeframe we give ourselves to change, that’s where the problem is.

You see, when we really think about it, the decision to do anything, happens in a split second – it’s the thinking time which is what causes the agony.

Go ahead and take those seven commitments to heart and let them weave their magic. For in a few weeks time you won’t believe what it will do to you and how you’ll see yourself.

Plus you’ll get a different feel and vibration from the marketplace towards you and what you can do to help them. I think you’ll find it exciting.

Moment-By-Moment Coaching

And once you HAVE mastered your own life, or are taking great strides to do so, you’ll see a natural, attractive force taking shape. The FORCE of YOU!

Your own confidence in your life starts to exude a spark of electricity with everyone you come into contact with, in every email you write, in every conversation you have. In those daily ‘conversations’, you’ll see that the natural way to make others feel at ease, is to ask warm, non-threatening though bold, fearless and direct questions.

Those questions are NOT to be about you, your practice, your skills, your abilities – your job is to serve others. To listen with intent like you’ve never listened before.

If through your simple, non-threatening dialogue, you just GIVE, SERVE and SHARE in helping others with what’s important in THEIR lives, people will be drawn to you even more.

You’ll find that there’s an irresistible nature to you and what you stand for. People can’t but help be involved in a conversation with you. And, because coaching is such a personal profession, don’t feel that things need to happen there and then in terms of securing a business or personal coaching client.

However, through an ongoing dialogue, a continuing conversation, you’ll see that through this process., and the ‘be your own client’ outlined above, you’ll be drawing prospective, fee paying clients in to your life like never before.

The Coaching Academy, conducted a survey to gain a better understanding of where the coaching profession currently is and where it is heading in the future.

The main purpose of the survey was to develop some evidence base on the practice that we know is thriving and growing.

Over the past 10 years, we have seen coaching grow and develop immensely and it is very encouraging to know that 86% of coaches found their client base has remained stable or increased in the past year.

Take a sneak peak into our findings displayed in this infographic and keep your eyes peeled for our full report.

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<a href="http://www.coachingacademyblog.com/infographic-make-up-of-a-modern-day-coach/" target="_blank"><img title="Infographic: The Make Up of a Modern Day Coach - The Coaching Academy" src="http://www.coachingacademyblog.com/wp-content/infographic-the-make-up-of-a-modern-day-coach-the-coaching-academy-large1.jpg" border="0" alt="Infographic: The Make Up of a Modern Day Coach - The Coaching Academy" /></a></div><div>Source: The Coaching Academy – The UK’s largest school for <a title="The Coaching Academy - The UK's largest school for Life Coaching" href="http://www.the-coaching-academy.com" target="_blank">Life Coaching</a></text>

We all know that we need to ask our clients question in order to get to the real core problem or desired solution. But what questions are they?

How can YOU ‘coach’ your clients? Here’s a quick and easy way to remember what to ask: S.C.O.R.E.

Symptoms
Causes
Outcome
Resources
Effects

Select which questions feels most appropriate for the situation:

Symptoms

• What’s not working?
• What do you want to change?
• What is the problem that you would like to solve?
• When so you notice this problem?
• What are the signs that there is a problem?

Causes

• What do you believe are the causes of the problem?
• What triggers it off?
• What events or contexts cause the problem to happen?
• What stops you from fixing this?
• Who or what is benefiting from you not fixing this?

Outcome

• What do you want instead of this problem?
• What outcome do you seek?
• Where do you want to get to?
• How would you know if you had solved this problem?

Resources

• What resources (skills/money/equipment/contacts) do you have that you can use to solve this problem?
• Have you solved similar problems in the past?
• What resources do you already have that you can use to solve this problem?
• Do you know anyone else who has these resources or has overcome this similar challenge?

Effects

• What will it do for you/your team/your organisation for you to attain this solution?
• What will be affected by your solving this problem?
• Who else will be affected when you have your outcome?
• What else is possible?
• How will reaching your outcome change things?
• How will you manage the changes?
• What will you learn from it?

These question will help you understand your client and to build rapport and trust – Key requirements in any successful relationship.

Happy Selling!

by Debbie Robinson

You will not find these secrets in any textbook or coaching manual.

They’re from experienced and highly successful coaches who were asked to describe the most important lessons they’d learnt coaching executives through the toughest situations imaginable.

Secret #1 – Create a safe space for dangerous feelings. Those feelings will lead you to the source of the problem and to its solution.

Secret #2 - Executives who think their business decisions have nothing to do with personal feelings are using disassociation as a defence mechanism.

Secret #3 - In most cases, executives got to where they are because they DO have the necessary skills.

Secret #4 - When previously successful executives start to fail, something in their lives is interfering with their potential.

Secret #5 – Executives are in crisis only when they feel they are in crisis. Crisis is an inner state.

Secret #6 – Executive coaching is most effective with executives who are experiencing a crisis. The successful coach only takes clients who are ready to benefit from his or her services.

Secret #7 – Executives must first take responsibility for experiencing a crisis before they can begin to work on resolving the crisis. A person can’t fix what he or she won’t admit is broken.

Secret #8 – Never allow your client to become a victim. Clients must talk ownership of their crises.

Secret #9 – The client not the coach does the work. The coach is simply the facilitator.

Secret #10 – Stay focused on how client feels. Once he or she takes ownership of the problem your job is to push deeper into muddy waters.

Secret #11 – A coach should never attempt to play the role of the executive’s boss. You are there to help the client reach his or her highest potential not to direct their work.

Secret #12 – The role of the coach is different from a management consultant or human resources representative. The unique value of the coach is your concern about feelings. No one else on thye job or in the company is really concerned about his or her feelings.

Secret #13 – An executive who is inspired will outperform one who isn’t – every time. Regardless of skill set, a motivated executive will find a way to succeed.

Secret #14 – A crisis first appears in the executive’s life as a “latent” crisis. The feelings and conditions underlying a crisis exist even before being inflamed by a triggering event.

Secret #15 – A triggering event turns a latent crisis into an inflamed one. A traumatic event – whether or not it is business-related – activates the latent crisis and begins the cycle of frustration and pain.

Secret #16 – Suppressing a crisis keeps the executive locked into a repeating behavioural pattern. Suppressing a crisis – instead of resolving it – depletes the executive’s internal resources, leaving him or her unable to grow, take risks, and move forward with his or her career.

Secret #17 – Every executive has latent crises that have not yet been inflamed. Executives are human being with human vulnerabilities. The right set of circumstances and triggering events can send any person into crisis.

Secret #18 – At first, suppressing a crisis appears to be easier than resolving it. A crisis can be so overwhelming that the first impulse is to avoid it rather than meet the challenge.

Secret #19 – The executive coach must insist that the executive focus on resolving the crisis rather than suppressing it. It is your job to “keep the crisis alive” until the executive is forced to work through it.

Secret #20 – It is very easy to confuse the triggering event with the underlying crisis it inflames. Focusing on the triggering event may amount to putting a Band-Aid on a mortal wound.

Secret #21 – As long as executives are unable to resolve the crises, they cannot be emotionally engaged in their work. The end goal of all coaching is to increase the executive’s emotional engagement with their work.

by Alan Downs

“Groucho isn’t my real name. I’m just breaking it in for a friend.” - Julius ‘Groucho’ Marx

I have seen countless coaches get to the exciting stage of naming their business only find the process of registering the name drives them crazy.

Having named several companies myself, I know the feeling, and understand exactly how frustrating it can be. Just when you come up with the perfect name, you ‘Google it’ to find that another coach is using it already; or trawl through the Companies House database to find another company has already submitted it for registration.

A few years ago when I was planning my website, I went online to buy BevJames.com and BevJames.co.uk, only to find that both domain names had already been taken.

My heart sank. Who could have bought them? What sort of business were they running? Could I persuade them to sell them to me? Those and other less charitable thoughts went through my mind as I delved further.

I looked up the name of the owner … only to find it was me! I had brought them a few years previously when I set up Elements Consulting, my first coaching business, but had forgotten about them. The relief was immense – and it was a real wake-up call.

Web domain names are so valuable that they are being bought-up speculatively these days – so whatever stage you are at in your business planning, don’t delay. No matter what name you eventually choose for your business, if your own name is available, buy it now if you can.

TOP TIPS FOR CHOOSING A NAME FOR YOUR BUSINESS

DITCH IT

The two most common mistakes that people make when choosing a name:

• Trying to be too cryptic or clever. If you have to explain how to spell the name or what it means every time you speak to someone – forget it.
• Using unusual spelling to be different. People may forget the spelling and find it difficult to find you online; or worse, mis-spell it and stumble upon of your competitors by mistake.

It is also wise to avoid using words that will date, may cause offence or have regional or UK spelling.

DO IT!

Things to ask yourself when choosing a name:

• Is it memorable?
• Is it easy to spell?
• Does the name tell people what you do? e.g. Life Coaching for Change
• Does it give out a message that will limit future development? e.g. The Brighton Coach (not much use if you move to Inverness, or could be mistaken for a transport hire company.) You get the idea.

Decide on your name and get if registered before ordering business cards and stationery, to avoid unnecessary disappointment and expense.

Consider using your own name as the business name – especially if you already have an established reputation. It has worked well for self-improvement gurus such as Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy. It also increases the chance of your name being remembered when people make personal recommendations – and improves the chances of your name being returned in Google searches.

Register your name – Once you have chosen your name, check to see whether the domain is available. Just Google “UK Domain registration” for a full list, or contact Nominet, which manages .uk domain name registrations.

If you are a limited company check out the Companies House website to make sure the name is available. You can use different names for trading and registration.

SPECIAL NOTE:

There are legal guidelines surrounding the use of words such as ‘Limited’, ‘Associates’, ‘Partners’, ‘Trust’, etc.

Certain ‘sensitive words and expressions’ need permission and proof for use if they:

• Suggest your business is of national or international importance (such as British, International, Olympic etc)
• Imply special status or authority (such as Association)
• Describe a particular function (such as Charity or Trust)
• Suggest a connection with government (such as Agency) or the Royal family (such as Royal)
• Imply professional status (such as Chartered, Registered, etc.)

There are also legal guidelines about Trademark infringement and passing off. Again, Companies House offers clear guidelines and advice. Business Link also offers useful information via their website.

Tell the world you exist – once you have decided on your company name and have registered it (but not before!), get the word out via as many routes as you have available. Don’t be shy. Use Twitter, LinkedIn, email and every other avenue of business communication.

The more often others mention you and eventually link to you, the more likely you are to be found and recommended.

TOP TIP: Even if you don’t plan to use your own name for your business, make sure you own the domain. Buy the .com and .co.uk if they are available and I suggest you DO IT! today.

About Bev

Bev is CEO of The Academy Group which includes The Entrepreneurs’ Business Academy (EBA) & EBA for Coaches which are both joint ventures with James Caan. Her book “Do It! or Ditch It” has already been listed as a bestselling business title and she is ready to pass on her success to your organisation.

Connect with Bev on Google+