Tag: Public Speaking

 
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All About Product Funnels for Coaches

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Three Marketing Strategies to Skyrocket Your Business

Website? Check.

Great sales copy? Check.

A variety of products available? Check.

Now all you need is steady flow of potential clients in your market.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? The truth is, though, marketing is the one thing that holds coaches just like you back from success. Maybe you don’t know where to begin, or perhaps you’re afraid of putting yourself out there, or maybe consistency is your biggest problem.

Whatever the case, if you want to grow your business, you must master marketing. Start with these proven strategies, and you’ll be well on your way to coaching stardom.

Nail Your Brand

Here’s the single most important part of any marketing plan—and one of the most difficult to pin down. It’s more than just a logo and the colors on your site. It’s not about your font choices or your “voice.” But it IS about all of those things and more.

Branding encompasses everything from who you are to who your ideal client is. A solid brand will instantly identify you no matter where you are. The way you write and speak and the language you use will resonate only with your ideal client. Your personal style will shine through, and make it impossible for anyone to mistake your content, graphics, ads and other materials for anyone else’s.

Host Free Webinars

Before a potential client becomes a paying customer, they must “know, like and trust” you. There are lots of ways to get there (solid branding helps) but one of the fastest is by creating and hosting free webinars.

These training-focused events help you show off your skills with real, actionable content. Attendees will know in just a short time that you really do know what you’re talking about, and they’ll want to learn more from you.

Not only that, but live webinars give you the opportunity to show off your personality, too.

Make Good Use of Paid Traffic

How will you entice people to register for your event? Through your website and newsletter, of course, but those are people who already know you. If you’re looking to grow your reach, then it’s time to break into paid advertising.

Facebook is one of the easiest and most cost effective advertising networks. Not only does it have incredible reach (nearly everyone has a Facebook account) but it also allows you to narrowly target your market, so you can reach your perfect customer. Add a retargeting component, and you’ll find that paid traffic is really quite cost effective.

You don’t have to have a degree in marketing to make it as a coach, but you do have to take steps to get in front of your audience. Start with the basics, and build from there, and soon your coaching practice will grow and thrive.

To start fill in the The Complete Assessment for a free assessment

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Taming Technology: How to Easily Manage Your Coaching Business

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Why We Love Group Coaching Programs

While one-on-one coaching might seem to be the holy grail of business, life, and even health coaching, the truth is, many people actually prefer a group program.

With one-on-one coaching, it’s just you and your coach. The focus is all on your business, what you did (or did not) accomplish in the last week or month, and how you can improve. In other words, it’s a bit of a vacuum.

Group coaching, on the other hand, has a much more social dynamic, and you might just find your clients actually prefer that.

Group coaching offers a sense of community that’s not found when it’s just you and your coach on the phone. With a group program, there’s often a Facebook group or forum where members can support one another, gain insight into other business models, and get advice in real time from people who have been there.

Need a shoulder to cry on about your landing page flop? How about a few cheerleaders as you prepare to step outside your comfort zone for your first keynote address? A group coaching program offers all that, and best of all, with a community of like-minded members, the help and support is actually, well, helpful.

Here’s another win for group coaching programs: the price. While it might be nice to work with that in-demand coach on a VIP day, the fact is that many people won’t be able to shell out that kind of cash.

A group program gives them many of the same benefits at a fraction of the cost.

Lastly, with a group program, you’re very nearly guaranteed a successful outcome—especially if the program has been around for a while. Group coaching programs such as Wael Badawy’s incredibly successful “Entrepreneurship License” has long been proven to change the lives of those who take the course. Naturally, participants must actually do the work, but the fact is, the model is solid, and clients know that going in.

Are you thinking of creating a group coaching program? Keep these points in mind. You might just find out your potential clients have been waiting for you to take this step for a long time.

Please fill in the The Complete Assessment for a free assessment

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5 Reasons Every Coach Needs a Book

Struggling to bring in new clients? Not sure what to do next in your marketing plan? There’s one simple answer you probably haven’t considered:

Write a book.

It’s true. This one thing—especially if it’s an actual printed book rather than a Kindle or eBook—has the power to grow your business beyond your expectations. You’ll experience a whole new world of opportunities simply by having your name on the cover of a book.

Authority

Imagine you’re at a conference or local networking group and you meet two coaches who both specialize in business branding—something you know you need help with.

One coach says all the right things. She’s been in business for years and worked with some top-notch business owners. She has great ideas for how she can help you solidify your branding.

The other has a similar history and story, with one added bonus: she’s just handed you a copy of her latest book. It’s a professionally printed, substantial publication that practically exudes confidence.

Which coach do you think shows more authority in her field? The one with the book, of course. There really is nothing better when it comes to establishing your authority in any niche than having a book with your name on it.

Expertise

So why does a book speak so highly of you and establish your authority so well? Because it gives you a platform to show off your expertise. It’s like being invited to present on any topic you choose on the world’s largest stage.

Not only that, but your readers are a captive audience. They’re listening—in that moment—only to you. That’s a powerful position to be in, and one that gives you an opportunity to really show off your stuff.

Market Reach

No matter how many readers Google sends your way, no matter how much traffic your YouTube channel receives, nothing will ever compare to the number of potential readers Amazon and other online booksellers can bring your way.

Positioned correctly, your book can reach millions of new readers, and thousands of potential clients. Combine that with the expertise and authority we know comes with being a published author, and that’s a recipe for success that can’t be beat.

Better Than a Business Card

If you’ve ever been to a conference, you’ve no doubt collected a stack of business cards. You get home and toss them in a drawer, and six months later you throw them out, without ever having contacted the people who gave them to you.

But if one of those people handed you a book instead, what happened? You’ve likely read it (or at least leafed through it). You almost certainly didn’t throw it away. And you remember it—and the person who wrote it.

Press Opportunities

Turn on your television to any interview show, browse through Huffington Post, or listen to any of a number of popular podcasts, and you’ll quickly see that most of the guest speakers and interviewees have written a book.

The fact is, interview shows depend on interesting, insightful guests to keep their audiences listening, and there’s no better applicant than an author. Writing a book will open up many, many opportunities for appearances that you may never have without your name on that cover.

Do you have to write a book to be successful? No. But there’s no denying the fact that a published author will find she has a much easier time growing her business than the coach who keeps putting it off until later.

Please fill in The Complete Speaking Business Assessment for free assessment

More info’s and free registrations (restricted to  pros), please join our live seminar

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Overcoming Objections: Defeating Your Top Book-Writing Hurdles

You know you need to do it. You’ve had it on your to-do list for years. Your own coach has told you time and again that this is the year you must get your book in print.

And yet…nothing.

It’s not that you don’t recognize the benefits, or that you don’t want to have a published book on your resume. You just struggle with it, and probably for the same reasons many other coaches resist publication.

You don’t have time. Here’s a biggie. Everyone is busy. We all get that. But that’s not a good excuse when it comes to growing your business.

Rather than lamenting your lack of time, you should be prioritizing your day to accommodate the important things, like writing your book. Maybe that means getting up 30 minutes earlier for a focused (if short) writing stint every morning, or turning off the television after dinner so you can write, or even setting aside several hours each Sunday morning until your book is done.

The point is, you must make this a priority. Block out the time in your calendar, and treat that time as sacred. Pretend it’s an appointment with your most important client, and do not allow anything to get in the way of keeping it.

You can’t write. Many, many people claim they cannot write; yet when you look at their blogs, there are hundreds of posts. What it really means when someone says they can’t write is that they don’t like to.

Luckily, you have plenty of options for overcoming this particular hurdle. Hire a ghostwriter. Start with PLR. Repurpose your blog posts into a book.

And if all else fails, speak. Use software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, or simply record using your favorite MP3 app and then have it transcribed.

You can’t organize a long project like a book. Ok, so you’re great with blog posts, and you don’t mind writing them, but the thought of writing an entire book makes you stare at your blank screen like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

First, if you can write a blog post, you can write an entire series of books. The process is all the same, after all. It’s just putting words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and so on.

But if you really feel you can’t manage a long project, then an outline is going to be your best friend. Start with a broad overview of your project, and then break it down by sections, then chapters. Make notes about what you’ll cover in each, and then it’s just a matter of filling in the blanks.

There are dozens of reasons to write a book. It’s important for establishing your expertise, for growing your audience, and for solidifying your message. But none of that will happen if you don’t actually write it. So it’s time to get beyond your hurdles and get your book done.

Please fill in the The Complete Speaking Business Assessment for free assessment

More info’s and free registrations (restricted to  pros), please join our live seminar

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One Author's Solution For Publishing Creative Writing Output

It has never been easy to have your creative writing output accepted by traditional publishing houses.

Witness these famous masters of fiction who were all obliged to take the route of shelling out hard cash to have their debut novels printed.

Alexandre Dumas
D.H. Lawrence
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Rice Burroughs
George Bernard Shaw
Gertrude Stein
James Joyce
John Grisham
Mark Twain
Mary Baker Eddy
Rudyard Kipling
Stephen Crane
Upton Sinclair
Virginia Woolf
Walt Whitman
William Blake
Zane Grey

John Grisham, incidentally, sold copies of his first novel A Time to Kill out of the boot of a car which at the outset was his sole ‘vehicle’ for distributionÖ

And it is getting tougher all the time ñ even for established authors.

It can be doubly frustrating when youíve written something that you are desperate to see in print; something you want other people to read.

There is always recourse to the expensive vanity publishing houses but I wouldnít take that route come what may.

Would you?

Imagine my surprise then when I stumbled across the perfect solution for publishing creative output that you cannot place elsewhere.

I have a string of traditionally published titles currently selling in bookstores world wide but I have an almost equal string that I have never been able to get into print.

That is until now

The little known but highly reputable POD (print on demand) source I have discovered requires an initial membership fee that covers UNLIMITED titles – perfect bound with ISBN and free shipping to customers

In a nutshell: Instead of requiring you to place an initial order for 10 to 100 books, this innovative publisher provides the first copy of your book free of charge and then prints-on-demand and ships when they receive subsequent orders from you and your customers.

This website featured in the resource box below is well worth a visit especially if you are still struggling to get your first book into print. You could have your own personal library up and running in next to no time.

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Public Speaking Dilemma: What To Do When You Don't Have Enough Time

Do you have a standard hour-length presentation, but your host can only spare a half hour? Are you in the middle of a presentation when you realize that, due to a late start or abundant questions, you are running out of time?

No matter what your topic, always be flexible and ready to cut short your session (or ready to lengthen, as the case may be). Here are some ways to make sure your presentation always fits the time slot.

<b>Pointer #1: Use a timed outline</b>

When you create your presentation outline, include time estimates next to each section (I like to add mine in red to make them easier to spot on the page).

A brief, one-page bulleted outline (or two pages double-sided) will be easier to time than a long, rambling novel written in paragraphs.

Practice your presentation and jot down time estimates as you go (two minutes for opening, five minutes for section I, seven minutes for section II, etc.) When you get to the end, add up all the time and determine whether you should add to or subtract from any sections to make it all fit into the allotted time slot.

If you have to edit severely to fit into a different time frame and your presentation will be adversely affected, you might want to develop separate self-contained presentations for short, medium and long time slots.

(If you are a PowerPoint user, see the book “Beyond Bullet Points” for instruction on creating a PowerPoint that serves different timing needs.)

<b>Pointer #2: Shift information depending on its priority</b>

If you notice that you are running out of time while in the middle of a presentation, you may have to shift some of your content around. If you have important points at the end of the presentation, now is the time to bring them forward. As soon as you notice the time crunch, start changing the order of your sections.

When creating and practicing your presentation, it’s always a good idea to think ahead about how you would handle this situation. The layout of your bulleted outline should make it easy to see which sections to leave out, move up or move down.

If you have to leave out something that you feel is important, gather business cards from the audience and offer to e-mail them additional content.

<b>Pointer #3: Supplement with handouts</b>

There’s usually some information that we want to share, but that we don’t necessarily want to include in our live presentation. You might have some relevant articles to supplement your workshop, or you might have charts and graphs that you didn’t have time for or the technology to project.

Use handouts wisely. If the material does not need to be reviewed during your presentation, then leave handouts at the back of the room for the audience to pick up on the way out. If you choose to put them on seats before you begin, be aware that your audience may spend half the time reading and not listening to you.

Your handouts should always include your contact information and a link to your website, if you have one. Make sure all resources and references are clear and easy to read; use graphics if appropriate and leave a lot of white space on the page. Don’t overload handouts with text; make them concise and relevant to your presentation. Otherwise, they will end up in the recycling bin!

Follow these suggestions, and you will always be prepared, no matter how much (or little) time you have.

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How to Impress Others When You Speak

Your presentation must do more than just inform. It must connect with the audience so that they accept your information. Here’s how.
People expect more of a speaker that just words. Here’s how to stand out.

1) Be the message. You must exemplify the principles, values, and ideas that you talk about in order to have credibility urging others to adopt them.

2) Think like the audience. Present your ideas from the viewpoint of how they will find them most useful. Realize that things that work for you, may depend upon your situation. Thus, customize new techniques to the world that your audience lives in.

3) Be original. Create your own cartoons and humor. Tell your own stories. Use your own activities. Stealing from others is unethical, illegal, and just plain wrong. You can be sued by the author (or cartoonist) for using copyrighted materials, such as cartoons from the newspaper. And you could find that your presentation follows one with the original versions of material that you planned to use.

4) Create a safe environment. People learn best when they feel safe to experiment and try new ideas. Treat everyone with respect. Never damage anyone in the audience, even if this person seems to be disrupting your presentation.

5) Be ethical. Cite references for published information. Obtain a license and pay royalties if you must use copyrighted materials. Realize that other speakers (authors, cartoonists, humorists, entertainers, etc.) depend upon their materials for their livelihood.

6) Let people discover and experience new ideas. Adults learn by applying what they are being taught. It makes learning more permanent and enjoyable.

7) Be authentic. That is, be yourself, without pretense, without gimmicks, and without theatrics. People can recognize a fake easily. And when they find one, they leave.

8) Leave the audience impressed with themselves. Create opportunities for people to be funny, clever, or correct. Feed the audience set up lines that lead them into being the stars in your program. Ask question that let them show off what they know. This facilitates adult learning by making people feel special, which opens their minds to new ideas.

9) Keep it simple. People benefit most from techniques that they can use now.

10) Speak to them about them. Everyone finds their own story the most interesting. If you tell your story, then take them with you by including them in your story. Help them experience what you felt, discover as you learned, and celebrate as if they had won.

Please fill in the The Complete Speaking Business Assessment for free assessment

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How to be a Great Speaker Without Using PowerPoint

This article gives 10 tips on how presenters can be highly effective without using PowerPoint.

RESEARCH YOUR AUDIENCE It amazes me how some speakers will show up for a speaking engagement and really not know anything about the audience they are speaking to. Many speakers just get lazy and feel that their message is so important that anyone would want to hear it. They couldn’t be more wrong. Your core message may be about the same for everyone, but knowing your audience will allow you to slant the information so that the audience feels it was prepared just for them. They will relate much better to the information and think much more highly of you for creating something specifically for them. Of course, in many cases you were only slanting your information, but I won’t tell if you won’t.

PRACTICE The only way to look polished while speaking is to practice. This is one skill you cannot delegate to anyone else. It is you that is on stage with the microphone and it is you who will look either great or terrible. You are sadly mistaken and egotistical if you think the PowerPoint slides that either you or someone else created will make you a dynamic speaker. There are specific techniques used to practice that don’t take much time and make you look extremely polished. One of these techniques is called bits. You practice a short piece of material over and over again. You don’t practice it word for word, but just talk your way through it. This way you won’t blank out when a distraction happens while you are on stage.

TAKE CARE OF HECKLERS The following is my famous asterisk technique; I use it to make sure hecklers don’t interrupt my presentation. I get people in the group to identify potential troublemakers BEFORE I get to the event. I phone these people and interview them to give them the attention they are craving. I then mention their names during the speech. This virtually eliminates the chance they will give me a hard time because I am praising one of their opinions. This works really well but don’t mention their names exclusively or the rest of the audience that knows these people are trouble may think that you are just as bad. Mention a wide variety of people in the audience. Just make sure the bad ones are included which normally keeps them at bay.

USE EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE Boring old facts rarely move people to action. Learning to use words that evoke emotions in people will make a much greater impact when you speak. There are many emotions you can trigger in the audience just by your choice of words. Happiness, anger, sadness, nostalgia are just a few. Knowing your purpose for being in front of the group helps you to pick which emotions you want to tap. When your purpose is known, choosing words to get the desired emotional response is much easier. For instance, if you wanted to take someone back to a childhood experience you might say, “Do you remember when someone did something bad at school and the teacher smacked the yardstick on her desk?” The word Phrase “smacked the yardstick” would evoke an emotional response that many adults can relate to. A younger group may not relate to this phrase since corporal punishment has all but disappeared from schools. You must pick the words that would mean something to your audience.

REVEAL YOURSELF Often people have trouble implementing this idea because they like to remain aloof and private. This will hurt their chances of making a good connection with people in the audience. You certainly don’t have to reveal your deepest darkest secrets when on stage, but you certainly could tell someone how much you like horses, or how you love to cook . . .anything that will give them a glimpse into the real you will give you a better chance of connecting with them and getting them to listen to you.

USE PROPS A prop is worth a thousand words. People can really anchor a thought in their minds when it is connected to an object that relates to the point you are trying to make. You could use large, small, funny or serious props. Always relate the prop to the point you are trying to make and make sure the audience can see it. Sometimes you’ll want to hide the prop so people don’t wonder what it is until you are ready to present it.

USE HUMOR Even Shakespeare used humor in the middle of the tragedies he wrote. Humor is a powerful and effective tool that gives the audience’s mind a chance to breath in the face of heavy material. It also makes you more likable and fun to listen to. Humor is also much more likely to make your information more memorable. You don’t have to be a stand up comedian to use humor in speeches and presentations, and you don’t have to tell jokes either. There are many ways to add humor that don’t require any skill at all. You can show funny visuals, tell stories, or read from books or periodicals. Just like with props, make sue your humor relates to the point you are trying to make and you will be much more successful. Each issue of “Great Speaking” has about 20 pieces of humor you can use during speeches.

MOVE ‘EM TO ACTION If you are going to bother taking up people’s time to speak to them, don’t you think it would be a good idea to get them to do something positive because of your presentation? Even if they do something negative, it’s still better than doing nothing because they will at least get a chance to learn something from their mistake. Regardless of the size of your ego, the reality is that you are there for them, not the other way around. I’m all for you building up your reputation, but if you go into your speech thinking it’s all for you, it will show and you probably won’t do as well as you would have had you concentrated on the needs of the audience more.

BRING SOLUTIONS One of the best ways to make sure the audience loves you is to bring solutions to their problems. If you have done a thorough job of researching your audience, you already know what their problems are. It’s your job to bring ideas for them to try. In modern day thinking this is what motivational speaking is all about. No longer is it good enough to get people all fired up where they are bouncing off the walls without a clue as to what they will do with this new found excitement and motivation. Modern professional motivational speakers bring solutions and a plan of action to achieve them. Now those are motivating.

PAY ATTENTION TO LOGISTICS The best preparation, practice, and audience research could be ruined if you forget to pay attention to all the details surrounding a presentation. You want to know what is happening before you speak, and what is happening after you speak: How are the people seated? Are they at round tables where half of them are facing away from you, or are there no tables at all? What kind of microphone is appropriate? How big is the screen in the room? Will the people be drinking alcohol? What is the lighting like? All these items and many more affect the overall effectiveness of a presentation. The same exact words delivered with significantly different logistics could be received in entirely different ways. You could even go from a fantastic evaluation to a bomb just because of the way people are seated. It’s up to you to know the differences and how they affect a presentation.

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