Tag: Public Speaking
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.
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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.
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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.
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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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