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The

CoachStart
Manual
A Step-by-Step Guide to
Setting Up Your Professional
Life or Business Coaching Practice
By David Wood, PCC

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

This resource may not be redistributed. Please respect


the work that went into developing it. Please refer your
colleagues so they can purchase their own copy.
If you have not paid for this download, then you have an
illegal copy. Please do the right thing and purchase a
legal copy at www.CoachStart.com

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

Basically, you are responsible for your own actions. Ill give you the
best advice I can on the coaching-specific aspects of setting up your
coaching business. However, what you do with that is your
responsibility.
By reading this manual you agree to not hold me liable for any loss or
cost incurred by you (or any person related to or associated with you,
including but not limited to your customers) as a result of reading
and/or applying the material in this manual. You shall indemnify me in
the event of any such claim, including but not limited to any claims
made against me by any person related to or associated with you,
including but not limited to your customers. Nothing in this manual
shall be considered to be legal, financial, or actuarial advice.
Coaching clients may expose you to certain risks. If you are not
formally certified as a coach, and not currently undergoing formal
training, your risks may increase. Setting up a business also exposes
you to certain risks.
It is your responsibility to seek legal, business, accounting, and other
professional advice for your business. In addition, I recommend you
obtain professional advice as to whether professional indemnity and/or
any other insurances are appropriate for your situation, and legal
advice concerning any legal exposure you may have. You are setting
up your coaching business at your own risk.
I also recommend you obtain specific business advice from a qualified
business consultant or accountant before making significant
commitments to your business (e.g., significant expenses, or quitting
your job).
I do not warrant that you will achieve any specific income level from
using this Manual. While the techniques work, your results will vary
from mine, depending on how you apply the techniques and the amount
of effort you put in. You may make no money, or even make a loss, or
make ten times what I make.
This Disclaimer is not intended to be a comprehensive summary of the
risks involved in setting up and running a coaching business.

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CONTENTS

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER................................................................ 3
CONTENTS ........................................................................................ 4
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 6
Section 1: Industry Background ......................................................... 7
1.0 TEN REASONS TO BECOME A COACH ......................................... 7
1.1 WHAT IS COACHING? ................................................................ 9
1.2 THE COACHING MARKET.......................................................... 12
1.3 TYPES OF COACHING SAMPLE NICHES................................. 13
1.4 WHO ARE BECOMING COACHES?............................................. 14
1.5 WHO ARE BECOMING CLIENTS? .............................................. 15
Section 2: Strategy............................................................................ 16
2.0 PRACTICAL GUIDE TO GETTING STARTED .............................. 16
2.1 NOTE FOR PROFESSIONALS ADDING COACHING TO YOUR
SERVICES ....................................................................................... 18
2.2 NOTE FOR CORPORATE COACHES............................................ 19
2.3 TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION ............................................. 21
2.4 HOW BIG WILL YOU PLAY? ..................................................... 23
2.5 CHOOSING A MENTOR COACH ................................................. 24
2.6 GOLDEN RULE: COACH 50 PEOPLE .......................................... 26
Section 3: Getting Ready .................................................................. 28
3.0 CONFIDENCE: WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER................................... 28
3.1 WHAT I DO, AND WHO I COACH .............................................. 30
3.2 MY BIO OR RESUME ................................................................. 34
3.3 YOUR COACHING SERVICE THE DETAILS............................. 36
3.4 WELCOME PACK AND AGREEMENTS ........................................ 41
3.5 SOME COACHING PRINCIPLES ................................................ 47
Section 4: Getting Paying Clients ..................................................... 49

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4.0 THE EXPLORATORY OR TRIAL SESSION.................................. 49


4.1 WHERE TO FIND CLIENTS........................................................ 53
4.2 THE INVITATION ..................................................................... 56
4.3 FEE SETTING AND NEGOTIATION............................................ 61
4.4 TESTIMONIALS ........................................................................ 65
4.5 DEVELOPING MARKETING ENGINES ....................................... 67
4.6 AVOID THIS MISTAKE.............................................................. 68
Section 5: How To Get Clients From The Internet ............................ 69
5.1 CREATING A WINNING WEB SITE ........................................... 69
5.2 CHOOSING YOUR DOMAIN NAME ............................................ 74
5.3 HOSTING YOUR WEB DOMAIN................................................. 76
5.4 DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE (BASIC)............................. 77
5.5 DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE (ADVANCED) ..................... 78
Section 6: How to Get Clients Via Alliances .................................... 82
6.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 82
6.1 FIVE STEP PROCESS................................................................. 83
Section 7: How to Get Clients Via Public Speaking ......................... 86
7.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 86
7.1 CREATING YOUR SPEECH......................................................... 87
7.2 PRACTICING YOUR SPEECH..................................................... 90
7.3 GETTING THE BOOKINGS ........................................................ 91
7.4 ADVANCED TIPS....................................................................... 94
Section 8: Further Resources............................................................ 97
8.1 COACH TRAINING SCHOOLS.................................................... 98
8.2 SAMPLE BIO ............................................................................. 99
8.3 TARGET MARKET WORKSHEET .............................................. 100
8.4 PRACTICE DESIGN FORM....................................................... 101
8.5 COACHING ALLIANCE FORM .................................................. 107

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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the CoachStart Manual! Here you will learn the techniques
that will take you from 'Never Coached' to 'Have Coached Fifty People' in
an accelerated time frame. These are the very same techniques I used to
develop a coaching business grossing six figures from coaching two days a
week. They are also the same techniques, which were incorporated into the
business-building course for a major coach training school.
You may already be training with a training school, working with a mentor
coach, or simply ready to apply your accumulated skills and life experience
to help people and to get paid for it. Most likely its a combination of the
three.
What you need now are the coaching business tools that will allow you to
turn your training, experience or natural coaching ability into a fulfilling,
money-making business for you. Ill answer your most pressing questions
and give you the practical skills you need complete with a range of
exercises, specifically designed to help you grow your business.
Here are just a few of the critical areas well cover:
The fastest way to get started.
The real story about accreditation.
How to build your confidence and experience gradually and
consistently.
The benefits of focusing on your specific niche.
How to get your initial clients.
How to structure your very first coaching session.
How to set your fee in the major coaching countries, and how to
negotiate a reasonable fee.
How to collect powerful testimonials to boost your credibility and
confidence right from the start.
How to write a compelling 'bio' or resume.
How to craft the details of your coaching service and policies.
How to get clients via the internet, alliances, and public speaking!
So, are you ready to build a successful coaching business? Lets get
started!

http://www.CoachStart.com
http://www.BecomeaCoach.com

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Section 1: Industry Background


1.0 TEN REASONS TO BECOME A COACH
Here are ten great reasons to become a coach:
1. Continual personal growth
2. Your personal development is tax deductible!
3. Contribute to people/the world and see concrete results
4. Work from home (no travel!)
5. Flexible hours (you choose them)
6. Earn a good income good coaches get paid well
7. VERY low overhead
8. Options to expand into many fields including speaking, seminars, and
book writing
9. Excitement of running your own business: choosing your own niches
and marketing channels (e.g. radio interviews), creating your own
web site etc.
10. Can work while overseas, on the ski slopes, or at the beach
(seriously, Ive done it)
Imagine getting up in the morning, excited about the day ahead. You have
some quiet time and go for a run on the beach. After breakfast you sit out
on the porch or in the backyard answering e-mails on your laptop and
returning calls on your cell phone. In the morning you make coaching calls,
thrilled about making a difference in your clients lives.
In the afternoon you take a leisurely lunch or go out to lunch with friends.
You do a little marketing, business stuff or take off to go hiking, biking or out
to the movies. You make your own schedule, so you can go on your kids
field trip, volunteer to tutor a child, or help a friend.

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The evenings are spent with family and friends or on your personal
development and care. You are a great role model of balance, fun and caring
for your clients.
One Reason Not To
If you dont enjoy seeing and being part of someones growing, then dont
become a coach. If you dont get a kick out of being part of someone
learning something new, bursting through a barrier, having FAR more than
they ever thought they could have then this is not the career for you.
Having said that, I dont believe there is a human being on the planet who
couldnt learn to enjoy that!

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1.1 WHAT IS COACHING?

"Coaching involves holding out a possibility in front of others while


coaching them to move to the next level with relentless compassion."
(Hargrove, 2000)
"Coaching people to unleash their aspirations, move beyond what they
already think and know, and maximise their results is one of the highest
aspirations of what it is to be a human." (Hargrove, 2000)
There seems to be more to this whole living thing than meets the eye.
(Anonymous)

Coaching is essentially a conversation between a coach and his or her client,


starting with the aim of helping the client to live a fulfilling life. This is most
often achieved by helping the client:
(a) Set goals that will add significantly to your clients life (or as I like to say,
and put a BIG smile on your face).
(b) To achieve those goals.
In this way, coaching can be broken down into two halves and this is a great
way to communicate coaching to prospective clients.
You may also help the client live a more fulfilling life by helping them to
increase their level of self-awareness. This alone can help someone move
forward in any area.
Of course, sometimes the client may want to achieve a specific goal that the
coach may not agree with (that achieving that goal will not add significantly
to that persons life). In such a situation, the coach may point this out
either immediately, or over time and will still be willing to work on
achieving the goal.
A coach will provide many things during this process, such as:
a) Access to ideas the client may already hold, but is not yet aware of.
By viewing the situation from a different perspective, the coach is able
to lead the client in an exploration of ideas that he/she may not have
previously considered.

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b) Clarity around what the client actually wants.


What does it look like? In which country? How many? How often?
How would you feel?
c) A sounding board for new ideas.
Providing a safe place to suggest new ideas is an essential aspect of
the coachs role, in that this encourages the client to step beyond
their current situation, unlocking a world of new, unexplored potential.
d) Support in big decision making.
Encouragement in walking new paths is essential to build the courage
to continue beyond the safety of what is known. The coach can help
the client grow and develop their own individual strategies and
solutions.
e) Challenge to expand the thinking process and make bold new
decisions.
Someone daring you to go further than you ever have before is also
an extremely powerful way to break old habits and forge new
boundaries.
f) Direction in times of confusion, opinion and if necessary, advice.
Once again, the power of a fresh set of eyes to interpret a new
perspective on a situation is often invaluable during the coaching
process.
g) Brainstorming to flesh out new ideas.
h) Acknowledgement and validation
This cannot be stressed enough. The coach who only focuses with the
client on what is missing and what needs to be done, deserves to lose
the client.
Here are some interesting statistics from a past ICF client survey:
* Role of the Coach: 84% believed that the major role of the coach was as
a sounding board, whilst 78% focused on motivational aspects. 56% viewed
their coach as a friend, 50% as a mentor. 46% viewed their coach as a
business consultant, with 41% as a teacher.

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* Results of working with a coach: 67% of clients saw an increase in selfawareness as a primary result of the coaching process, with 62% setting
better goals, a more balanced life received by 60%, and lower stress levels
in 57% of the clients. 52% of the clients used the opportunity as a means
of self-discovery, and 52% to build self-confidence. 43% wanted to improve
the quality of their life, 39% to improve communication skills, 35% to
complete specific projects. 33% used a coach to improve their health and/or
fitness level, 33% to improve aspects of their personal or professional
relationships, and 31% use a coach to have more fun in life.
What Coaching Isnt
The most obvious point to remember is that coaching is not therapy,
counseling, or psychology. In addition, coaching should not be confused
with consulting or mentoring there are subtle differences between each of
these interventions. Whilst the coaching process may have originated in the
field of psychology and intervention often follows some psychological models,
the actual coaching process should not be mistaken for a therapeutic
intervention. Some of the differences include:
Mentoring:
The passing on of knowledge, experiences, and skills usually by
someone within the company who is older and wiser. Usually more
specifically career-oriented information. A mentor has normally
achieved the goal themselves, while a coach may not have any
experience in the given coaching area.
Consulting:
Often using your own skills to improve a given situation, as opposed
to developing the clients skills to a level that can cope effectively with
the situation.
Therapy and counseling:
Tends to focus on feelings related to past events and processing such
feelings. Coaching is oriented towards goal setting and encouraging
the client to actively move forward. Tony Grant from Sydney
University has said: Therapy is like helping someone with a broken
leg to walk again. Coaching is helping them to run the four minute
mile.

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1.2 THE COACHING MARKET


Ten years ago, no one had heard of life, business, or corporate coaching.
Today, it is featured in The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, Oprah, and
CNN. And still, most of the world's population has not heard of it. Demand
for coaching is expected to continue to grow and may accelerate. What will
happen when the first major movie featuring a life coach hits the street?
Corporations are jumping on the band wagon: they want to hire corporate
coaches, but even greater is their desire to have their managers trained in
coaching techniques, and to develop a "coaching culture" within their
organisation.
There are an estimated 10,000 part-time and full-time coaches worldwide
(ref: ICF). The number of people entering the emerging field of personal and
business coaching has doubled in size each of the past three years (ref:
CoachVille). Several hundred articles, TV and radio shows have been done
in the past three years. Coaching has been written about in Newsweek,
Business Week, Fortune, Money, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The
New York Times, Nation's Business, Fast Company, New Age Journal,
Management Review, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Bloomberg Personal,
Newsday, etc. It has also been featured on "Oprah" and CNN's "Impact".
The number of corporations using coaching is increasing. Fortune magazine
has referred to coaching as: "one of the hottest things in human resources"
and "a grassroots movement that is spreading in some of the unlikeliest
corners of corporate America, including IBM, AT&T, and Kodak."
Coaching is strongest in the US, followed by the UK, Japan, Canada,
Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. Coaching is reaching more and
more countries all the time; my newsletter subscribers now come from more
than 90 countries.
Improvements in technology including teleconferences, cheap international
phone calls, and the reach of the internet are making it even easier for
coaches to build a successful practice with low overhead.
Is this a good time to become a coach?
I say yes. Ten years ago, and ten years from now, when the market has
reached equilibrium, are fine times to be a coach. But ten years ago you
would have had a lot of trouble explaining what you do. And ten years from
now competition will be very fierce. Now seems like an opportune time
where many people have heard of what you do, but still dont know anyone
who actually coaches!

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1.3 TYPES OF COACHING SAMPLE NICHES


There are a multitude of specific coaching niches, with more being identified
every day. The major areas of specialization at present include: Life Skills,
Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Corporate Coaching, Career
Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Financial Coaching, Study Skills, Fitness
and Weight Control, and overall Personal Development.
A typical life skills program may look at clarifying values and visions, setting
goals and new actions so that an individual may lead a more satisfying,
successful, and fulfilling life.
Business coaching can be useful in any type of business, small or large, and
may range from individual skill development to overall team coaching in
larger corporations. Areas that often benefit from coaching include
communication skills, time management, strategic planning, increasing
market share, improving workplace efficiency and productivity and dealing
with specific conflicts within the workplace.
If you were working with small business owners and possibly their staff, you
would normally call it Business Coaching. If you were working with staff
within a corporation, usually paid for by the corporation, or working with the
board or leadership team, you would call it Corporate Coaching. Working
with individuals in executive positions is of course Executive Coaching, but
clearly there can be a lot of overlap between this and Corporate Coaching.

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1.4 WHO ARE BECOMING COACHES?


A US poll proposed that the majority of US coaches are female, from the
'baby boomer' generation, and come from a broad variety of professional
backgrounds, such as psychology, management consulting, teaching, health
care, and human resources (Salinger and Feld, cited in Skiffington & Zeus,
2000).
Here are some key statistics (Ref: CoachU):
-

Average age 46.6


57% are women
90% have an undergraduate degree
52% have a graduate degree
7% hold a doctorate
Most common backgrounds from most to least are: Consultants,
Mental Health Professionals, Managers, T&D/HR, Financial Consultants
and CPAs, Theater and Professional Speakers, Engineers, and Sales.

To show you the relative interest in the career of coaching by country, here
is a breakdown of student location from a leading coach training school. Note
this is a US based school a UK based school would show a much different
distribution.
Country
USA
UK
Japan
Canada
Australia

Students
2150
236
227
143
84

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1.5 WHO ARE BECOMING CLIENTS?


Clients are generally people:

Wanting to change something in their life


Wanting more of something
Tolerating too much
Wanting to switch careers
Wanting to improve their career
Looking for a bigger goal
Desiring to achieve something faster
Who are bored
Who feel something is missing
Who realize they can be much more successful with outside input.

They include:

Executives
Managers
CEOs
Housewives
Professionals
Creative people
Entrepreneurs
Small Business Owners

Below are some solid statistics from a past ICF client survey. While the data
is several years old, the general characteristics are still relevant today,
although we might expect a trend towards more lower-income and nonprofessional clients embracing coaching:
65 of the respondents were male (31%), and 145 were female (69%).
Average age was 45 years, with respondents being within the age
range of 24-67 years of age.
Most were employed as professionals.
Education gained: 82% had gained degrees, with one third gaining a
Masters degree or higher.
Now that weve had an overall look at the coaching industry, lets look at
how to jump in and get started!

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Section 2: Strategy
2.0 PRACTICAL GUIDE TO GETTING STARTED
So, you're considering a career as a life, business or corporate coach, but
are wondering, What's the best way to enter the field? Do I need to do a
training course? Do I need to get accredited? Where will I get clients? And
do I have what it takes?
Most coaches agree on the best way to begin a coaching career: Work with
someone who already is a coach! Simple, eh?
In other words, do a month or two with a coach. Someone who has already
built the type of business or career you want to have and who can then help
you do the same only faster and more efficiently.
Here are the key steps:
1. Interview 2-3 coaches to find out more about the career and lifestyle
you would be getting into. They can tell you the good and the bad;
how easy or difficult it is; and ... how they got started.
2. Hire a coach and experience coaching for yourself. But don't get
coached on Becoming a Coach. Not just yet. Get coached on
something else you want to achieve or something you want to alter in
your life. This will give you the best feel for whether or not this is the
career for you. AND, it's actually the best training you can get.
Training from a live course, teleclass, book, or online environment is
great. But there's no substitute for the experience of personally being
coached, and seeing how an experienced coach moves you forward.
3. Once you've decided to go ahead, consider professional coach
training. This will give you resources, insights, tools, and support. It
will also help you to build your coach network other coaches you
can call on for help and advice. You should pick a school which has
happy, successful coaches. Do you require face-to-face training, want
the flexibility of teleclass (phone conference calls) training, the
multidimensional impact of online learning, or a combination of these?
And shop around prices vary. For a list of training schools and the
specials weve negotiated, visit: http://www.becomeacoach.com

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4. Work with a coach to build your practice. Some people skip Step 3
and jump straight to working with a coach to enter the industry.
People in this category are usually those with existing transferable
skills (e.g. counselling, or a lot of personal development training). Or,
they are people short on cash, who want to generate some revenue
from coaching before they invest in a proper training course. A coach
can help you avoid common mistakes, and build your practice faster,
with less effort than you would on your own. What business systems
do you need in place? Where will you find clients? How will you keep
your clients? And how do you keep your chin up if you lose three in
one day!?
Some new coaches like to combine Steps 3 and 4 by finding a training
program which supplies them with a coach.

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2.1 NOTE FOR PROFESSIONALS ADDING COACHING TO YOUR


SERVICES
Many professionals are being attracted to the coaching industry. You may
want to switch entirely into coaching or add coaching as a service you
provide. Trainers, teachers, consultants, therapists, counselors,
psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, social workers, financial
planners, fitness trainers, masseuses, and energy healers are just some of
the professions were seeing join the coaching ranks.
One advantage is of course that you get an additional revenue stream. And,
you may be able to cross-sell from one service to another. For example, a
financial planner may be able to sell financial planning services to her
coaching clients and sell a coaching program to her financial planning
customers.
Another advantage is you increase the variety in your work which will help
to keep you both creative and fulfilled.
Whether you transition full time into coaching at some point is up to you.
Either way, in the beginning you have an edge over people starting from
scratch: you have an existing client base!
The simple strategy to leverage this asset is to offer every single client and
past client a complimentary, exploratory (or trial) coaching session. As youll
read later theres no obligation and no cost. And its available until (set
a date, say two weeks from now). Its a thank you for being a customer.
You let them know it will help you build your practice, and you trust that if
they enjoy it theyll want more sessions, and let their friends and colleagues
know about it.
Further, at the end of the session you can let them know that as part of
your business strategy youve allocated three complimentary sessions for
friends of theirs. Again these are available for just the next two weeks. So,
is there anyone they would like to give this gift to? Anyone who wants to
make a major change? Anyone who could use a little more support right
now? Anyone who reads self-help books and would just love to experience a
free coaching session?
Remember this is an additional, separate service to the current service
youre offering. The ideal situation is normally to have your existing clients
continue using your current service AND to sign on as coaching clients for
say three months. Down the track you can choose which you enjoy more!

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2.2 NOTE FOR CORPORATE COACHES


Many of the principles in this book can be directly applied to the corporate
coaching market. For example, youll still need to consider but not be run
by accreditation. Youll still need a mentor coach. Youll need to build your
confidence and to produce a sound bio. The only thing that really changes
is the group of people youre working with.
However, Ill cover a few extra points here, to make sure youre able to
break into the corporate market. Skim this chapter now and then read it
thoroughly at the end to refresh yourself.
Firstly, decide what you mean by corporate coaching. Some people coach
the company itself, by working with the leadership team. This usually
involves some kind of organizational development background. Other
coaches work with CEOs and executives helping them produce specific
results for the company.
Or your idea of corporate coaching might be working with individuals
within the company on whatever goals they like to set. You might work
with senior executives, middle management, junior staff or all three.
They might pay for the coaching out of their own pockets, the company
might pay, or it might be a combination of the two. When the company is
footing at least some of the bill it is common to have at least one personal
goal, and at least one company or corporate goal.
Deciding which of these groups and what you work on with them, will
determine how you approach the company.
Three Testimonials
Coaching is still relatively new, so if this were a baseball game your First
Base to get to would be getting three solid testimonials. Do whatever it
takes to get three managers or executives to work with you for three
months each. Take a pay cut if necessary, coach in exchange for a donation
to charity, or even better charge what you like and offer a 100% money
back guarantee. Let them know up front that youll ask for a testimonial
backed by their name and company at the end, which you will only expect if
youve done a great job.

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Your Approach
Everybody loves a pilot project, so here is one approach:
Start with your network and get on the phone to HR people & senior
managers whom you know. If you dont know any, call your network and
get referrals for these people.
Give them your rough pitch and see if you can get to a meeting to discuss it
further. A great offer is to do three staff members for three months as a
pilot project. If they get great results, you get paid, and a corporate
testimonial. And you start rolling coaching out to other key staff. If they
dont get great results, then no fee is necessary, and thanks for your time!
Or, if they dont want to bring in other people at this stage, invite them to
trial coaching for themselves. They can do an Exploratory Session to set
some goals and then decide if they want to trial three months of coaching.
Similar deal to the above.
I wont go further into corporate coaching at this stage and please bear in
mind its not a focus for me personally. But I wanted to include a section
here to assist you if thats your cup of tea! The rest of this Manual will use
setting up a life coaching or business coaching business as an example.

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2.3 TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION


You do not need to be accredited to begin coaching. At the time of this
writing I know of no country which requires certification. However, long
term, I believe it's important for your career and for the profession of
coaching.
A good reason to get certified is because you believe in the philosophy of the
training school you choose. And, because you want to continually improve
your coaching skills.
A bad reason to get certified is because you think that will get you more
clients or in some way make you worthy as a coach. My experience has
been that it does neither. It might look good on the wall and it feels good to
be able to say it but in coaching two hundred clients, I think ONE asked
me if I was certified. Dont try and use it as a crutch you dont need it.
Ironically, the International Coach Federation requires at least 250 paid
coaching hours under your belt before you get to their first certification level
(ACC). So youll need to become confident coaching without the crutch of
certification which I think is a good thing. Use it to support your coaching;
dont rely on it. Fortunately, there are other ways to demonstrate credibility
one of which is discussed later (see Testimonials).
It looks like the International Coach Federation (ICF,
http://www.coachfederation.org ) is and will continue to be the primary
certifying body. They are expanding rapidly into other countries and have
the advantage of being independent of any coach training organization.
CoachVille now trains coaches and their program doesnt satisfy the
requirements of the ICF. Thus, CoachVille seems to be making a move to
overtake the ICF in terms of members, hoping that size will make the
difference and people wont be bothered by the fact that their training is not
ICF certified. While CoachVille has superior marketing, superior numbers,
and excellent value for coaches, they are not independent of a training
school (because they are a training school). I suspect this will be the major
factor stopping CoachVille from becoming the primary certifying body. (This
isnt a commentary on their training but rather a comment on which
certification might carry more weight in the eyes of the public in future
years.)
For an extensive review of certification and training issues, download our
free Independent Report on Coach Training and Certification at:
www.becomeacoach.com/freedownload.htm

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Which Training School to Choose?


If you are not going for ICF accreditation, then any school/course which
provides effective training may suit you.
However, if accreditation is or will be important to you, you are looking for
one of two types of schools:
1. A school, which the ICF calls an ACTP, which means it has the ICF
official "stamp", or
2. A school whose training is "aligned with the ICF requirements" - also
known as the "Portfolio Track" to accreditation. (To be "aligned" the
training must be coaching specific, be aligned with the eight training
competencies specified by the ICF, and provide at least 125 training
hours, of which at least 100 are face-to-face or teleclass training.)
What is the difference? The ICF has made it clear that neither path is easier
- you jump through the same amount of hoops, regardless of which path you
choose. Choosing an ACTP means you have most of the hoops in the same
place, although understandably it comes with a higher price tag.
A word of caution: if your school does not mention the ICF, or specifically
that it either has an ACTP or that it meets the requirements of the Portfolio
Track to ICF accreditation, there's a 99% chance it doesn't.
You will find a list of ICF accredited schools, and non-accredited schools
(many of which should still satisfy the Portfolio Track to ICF accreditation) in
the Appendix.
Again, for a comprehensive coverage of coach training and certification,
download our free Independent Report on Coach Training and Certification
at:
www.becomeacoach.com/freedownload.htm

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2.4 HOW BIG WILL YOU PLAY?


For the next three months, you can decide to play full out, reaching between
10 and 20 clients and exceeding $2000 per month in revenue. Or, you can
aim simply to take on a couple of non-paying clients - it's up to you. You
create your game.
Either way, one of the key principles of coaching (See SOME COACHING
PRINCIPLES) is to get clear on what you will make happen.
Time Frame
I suggest a time frame of 3 or 6 months. If you're working with this time
frame, write the date 3 or 6 months from now. Target Date: ____________
Target Clients
Pick a target number of clients to have at the end of that period (suggest 210 for 3 months): ____________.
Target Income
Now write down the monthly income you would like to be aiming for
(suggest $150pm to $3,000pm, or 100 to 1,000). Pick something that
feels like a stretch, but realistic. It will depend on your experience and
training, confidence, network, commitment, and mentor coach:
$_______________
Supporting Structures
Now, write down the supporting structure(s) you will use to keep you in
action (e.g., mentor coach, buddy doing this with you, regular time
scheduled in the diary, registering in coach training program): _________
___________________________________________________________
If you're committed to this process, write down or print out the above and
put it somewhere you will see it regularly. Then put in place the supporting
structure you have chosen and come back. Tell three people you are doing
this and ask if they can think of a way to support you. (If you chose "Get a
Mentor Coach", see the section Choosing a Mentor Coach)

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2.5 CHOOSING A MENTOR COACH


If youre lucky, your training program should you choose that path will
provide a mentor coach at no extra charge. If it doesnt or if you want to
leave training aside for now, youll need to find your own mentor coach.
Look for someone with experience in getting new coaches started. Anything
from A$400 to A$800 is reasonable, providing they can demonstrate results
and have testimonials.
You can do a search for "mentor coach" at any internet search engine e.g.
www.google.com
You might try the coach referral service at coachfederation.org which
allows you to limit your search to the coaches who offer mentor coaching
(note this does not mean they have experience in this) or even are
certified mentor coaches. And if that isnt enough, you can try
coachreferral.com.
Most coaches are willing to answer some of your questions, and even do a
free trial session before you sign on. Some good questions to ask are:
How long have you been coaching?
What training have you had?
How many coaches have you mentored or are you currently
mentoring?
What kind of results have you had?
Can you provide email addresses of a couple of coaches you've
worked with?
What is the most important thing you will provide to help me build a
successful coaching practice?
Lastly, you want to feel comfortable with this person. Interviewing, trialing
or studying up on one to three coaches should be sufficient. They no longer
have to be in your country - just make sure if they're overseas that they are
willing to cover the cost of phone calls or factor this into your monthly fee.
If you're concerned about the investment, consider what your return on that
monthly investment might be. In most cases, you only need two to three
paying clients to cover the cost of your mentor coach. And if your coach
can't help you increase your client list by MORE than two to three,
something's missing! Also consider the cost of NOT hiring a coach.

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It can be very empowering to hire a mentor coach and set a goal of bringing
in enough coaching income to cover the cost of your own coach by a
particular date.
Remember, you don't need a mentor coach. No one NEEDS a coach. It's
just a slower, less fun and often more expensive road without one.

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2.6 GOLDEN RULE: COACH 50 PEOPLE


What holds back most coaches in the early years is lack of confidence. The
best way to bust through this barrier: coach fifty people! It doesnt matter if
its just a practice session or if it turns into three months of coaching.
Clients are "gold" for you - no matter what the fee. So don't let your fee or
lack of confidence stand between you and coaching many people. (See Fee
Negotiation and Confidence.)
Every client you have gives you:
The feeling that you are really a coach, not a fraud
A practice that looks a little more busy ("Sorry that time slot is not
available.")
The potential for referrals
Free training!
More and more confidence with every session you do, and lastly
Possible revenue either immediately or down the track
Tony started the CoachStart program with me after 6 months of training
with a major coach training school. He had no clients, and had done only
one trial session. No experience led to reluctance to invite people to do a
trial session, which led to no clients, which led to no experience. He had to
BREAK this cycle. Five weeks later he'd extended several invitations, done
three more trial sessions, and got his first client at full fee!
Clearly, Tony has broken the cycle and feels like a professional coach now
having the confidence to invite many more people to try coaching.
So coach a LOT. Its OK if youre nervous, or even terrified of doing your
initial sessions coach anyway. And dont worry, well cover many tips in
later chapters to help increase your confidence and make the whole process
much easier for you.
In the extreme, if you had 20 pro-bono (i.e. non paying) clients, you would
attract many more clients and feel very comfortable charging them your full
fee. You would also be getting a lot of training and experience under your
belt. However, it doesn't have to be for free...
Once you have 10-20 clients, with the assistance of your mentor coach,
your practice will naturally grow in number of clients, client retention (how
long they stay), and income. Once you have say ten clients, you might
begin to look at longer-term, sustainable marketing methods.

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Don't get sidetracked in the early stages by developing brochures,


stationery, web sites, or other long-term marketing methods. Even business
cards, registering a business and your welcome pack can wait. You want
practice, practice, practice! And you know enough people already to get this
practice, without using any fancy methods. Don't distract yourself with longterm methods they can be a way of avoiding coaching right now. Work
through your confidence, and explore coaching with your current network.
If you would like more information on exactly how to have fifty people say
yes to a coaching session with you, youll be glad to know this is covered in
detail in my ICF Conference speech: Getting the First Fifty Clients. You can
access this online (and on CD) at:
http://www.FirstFiftyClients.com
While the Manual you are reading covers many aspects of your coaching
business, the above speech is focused solely on getting you those first fifty
clients.

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Section 3: Getting Ready


3.0 CONFIDENCE: WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER
The biggest difference I make with the new coaches I mentor, is in the area
of confidence. Sure they're looking for coaching structure, marketing
methods, etc. But the biggest block is confidence. We're usually worried
that without four years of university training in this area, we might be called
a fraud. Or what if, at some point in the session, we don't have the answer,
or know what to say?
So here's my message for you: YOU HAVE A LOT TO OFFER! Even BEFORE
we consider coaching training, here are some things that everyone can
offer:
1. The way you listen
Most people listen from: "When is it my turn to speak?" Or from:
"That's entertaining, I'll keep listening", or "This is boring". A coach
listens from: "Is this moving forward? Does this sound like what they
really want? Do we have some practical action steps here?" Simply
by you both coming to the session looking for the best way to move
forward, the client is getting something they don't normally get.
2. Being there each week
It's amazing how much people will get done when they know someone
will ask them next week: "Did you do it?" By being there
across
the table or on the other end of the phone, you're helping them put
their attention on what's important in their life. (It's like without a
running partner, you may not run as far, or even at all! With one,
you're attention is on running you'll run more often, further,
smarter, have more fun.)
3. A sounding board
Simply being able to talk about their issues will often help clients
become clearer. As they speak it, they get clarity around it. Value for
them is gained in simply speaking aloud what's been in their head all
week.
4. A second head
You might see what they're doing in a new light. They might have
blind spots they can't see, but which are really obvious to you. You
may have an idea they haven't thought of.

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5. Your life experience


No matter who you are, you've learned things that could be helpful to
someone else. You might be married, divorced, in love, out of love,
healthy, unfit, rich, poor, a parent, an orphan, an employee, a boss,
etc. You may have worked at a summer camp, played in a band, run a
marathon, switched careers, or grieved for someone lost. Regardless,
things you've learned along the way can be useful to another.
6. Your prior training
You may have done a communication course at work, a personal
development course, read personal development books, or spoken to
groups of people. It all adds up.
7. Support
A coach doesn't judge (well, we do - we just let go of it quicker). You
can hear things they don't feel able to tell anyone else because you're
listening from how to support them, not how to judge or criticize
them.
And this is without any specific training in coaching techniques! Imagine
how effective you will be once you have specific coaching training on top of
all this!
Confidence Tip: Change your Perspective
When we wear the hat of "coach", we often feel like we're supposed to be
some kind of guru all-knowing, all-wise, having all the answers to people's
problems. The biggest fear is usually: What if I don't know what to say?
What if I can't help and I look silly? This is a common perspective we
automatically create or come from.
So change it! Reframe your perspective to something that empowers you.
How about: "We're going to view this session as an exploration. I'm not
here as some kind of guru to tell you what to do. The goal is to help YOU
get clear on what you really want, and the best way forward."
Now doesn't that feel better?

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3.1 WHAT I DO, AND WHO I COACH


Unfortunately, if you try to become an expert in everything, and to
everyone, you may end up with no clients! In this section youll begin to
define your target market a critical step for a successful business.
Top Advantages of Narrowly Defining Your Niche
1) Their challenges get more uniform as you go narrower. Therefore,
you can become an expert in their specific issues, instead of a
generalist in everything.
2) You can research this particular group to learn more about what they
need. And, you can test-market your wares to see what they are
buying.
3) In your literature, you can appeal specifically to this group instead of
to everyone. So your target market will be attracted to you instead of
passing you by.
4) Your material (e.g. newsletter), can be targeted and of value to your
target market, instead of a little bit useful to everyone (e.g.
newsletter articles).
5) You can work out where they hang out, (e.g. health magazines), and
focus your marketing campaigns.
6) When you want to get paid advertising in YOUR newsletter and on
your web site, advertisers will actually be interested because you have
a targeted, qualified audience for their product.
7) You achieve more credibility than someone who appears to handle
everything.
8) You can create specific products and services that appeal to this
group; e.g., Find your Career Direction form. (If you coach on
everything, you need 10,000 forms! Better one form that 10 people
use a week than 100 forms that each get used once a month.)

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What You Do
We asked the question: What do you do? and If you did specialize in a
target group, what might that be? Here we look at the issue in much more
depth.
Its important to get clear on what it is youre out to make happen for
people. Youll start with the intellectual stuff: er I help people set and
achieve goals, which inspire. Balderdash! You want to get right down to
it, in clear English that everyone can understand.
Here are some examples:
I help people do whatever it is they need to do so they have zero regrets at
the age of 80.
I ask people What do you want? and What are you doing about it?
I help people get off the fence, and start living their life.
I help people get clear on whats really important to them, and then keep
them in action!
I insist people live the life they were born for.
I have my clients stop waiting.
I work with women who are not ecstatic in their relationship, to help them
get exactly what they want and deserve from the relationship.
Does that help? You want to get clear on WHY you are a coach and what
you want for people.
I had a shift while I was preparing for a radio interview. I was worried that I
or the coaching profession would be challenged as having no value or
credibility some new-age mumbo jumbo. Suddenly, it became clear to me
why coaching was valuable for me. People get caught up in their
patterns; we are trained to focus on, and complain about, what is not
working. Society is not set up for regular time out to ask ourselves: Am I
going for what I really want? And am I going about it the smartest way
possible? Coaching provides a structure to take regular time-out of our
busy lives to take the 30,000 foot snapshot to increase the chances that
were heading where well be happiest, and that were taking the easiest and
most fun path.

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So coaching became less intellectual and more real for me when I got in
touch with why I feel it is really important. This helped me relax and have
fun during the interview.
Tapping into your passion, by getting to the truth of what you do, will have
you soaring high in your new profession.
Who You Coach
Theres nothing wrong with coaching, or attempting to coach everyone. OK
spouses, lovers, and family are generally accepted no-coach zones, but
dont let the fact that its challenging daunt you. If your client is truly
willing to be coachable, and you will suspend your opinions, judgments and
agendas, it doesnt matter who you are. One of my amazing UK clients,
Sarah, coached both her mother and her father, and they both paid her!
Her father is progressing in leaps and bounds and his colleagues keep
remarking on the difference in him.
To make a difference to your confidence, however, it helps if you gain some
clarity around types of people you would like to make a difference to. For
example, I found that I love helping women realize that its OK to want more
in a relationship and helping them to get it.
So whom would you like to help? Someone wanting to switch careers?
People wanting to begin treating their bodies well? Or children dealing with
puberty? 30-35 year old women looking for a partner? Bachelors over 50
wanting to organize their life?
If you focused on a particular client type, what are three possibilities? Who
would you really like to contribute to or do you feel a connection with?
(Small business owners? Women? Kids? Artists? Butchers? 50-60 years
old?)
If you concentrated on three coaching areas, what would they be? What are
three things you might like to help these groups with? (Switch careers? Get
over divorce? Clean their cupboards?)
i

_________________

ii _________________
iii _________________

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You dont need to choose; its OK to spend the next couple of years seeing
which groups youre attracted to. But again, getting an idea in the early
stages of whom you would like to contribute to, will assist your motivation
and confidence. Factor this into your one-liner about what you do, make it
express what youre passionate about, and start coaching these groups!
Exercise
Complete the Target Market worksheet in the Appendix.
Note: Its up to you how broadly or narrowly you define your niche.

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3.2 MY BIO OR RESUME


You might be surprised how credible you can appear with a well-worded Bio
(biography). We have seen many coaches blossom once they have put pen
to paper and seen how professional they sound. There are things about you
a prospective client might like to know, and you dont even realise it. When
you start to dig, you will find you have a lot of life experiences, and perhaps
some training, which will assist you in coaching your clients.
Here is a list of things you might consider including in your biography:
Your passion to help people
The way in which you have already been helping people (e.g.,
unofficial coaching, mentoring, shoulder to lean on, teaching, training,
managing)
Specifically WHAT you provide for people
Your successes (e.g., promotion, career, financially, health,
relationship/marriage)
Your adventures (e.g., climbing a mountain, travel to different
countries)
Challenges that you have overcome (e.g. divorce, a death,
bankruptcy, health issue)
Anything unique or interesting (e.g., scuba dive)
What you love; what you hate (e.g., kids, flowery e-mail signatures,
poetry)
Your training (e.g., communication, corporate experience, people
skills, self-study such as books and courses, business, any diplomas or
degrees or certificates that are relevant or show you have
accomplished something, or on-the-job training)
Membership of any relevant associations e.g., National Speakers
Association, International Coach Federation, Toastmasters, Chamber
of Commerce, any volunteer positions on industry committees
Any current coach-training course you are undertaking.
Two to three paragraphs should suffice. Dont include anything that does
not give you credibility or a reason why you might be a good coach for them
i.e., keep every word relevant. Two powerful lines are better than half a
page of waffle. Oh and of course keep it honest! For example, no saying
Gina coaches executives from major organisations until you have at least
one, or Bill is a professional speaker if youre not yet. As always, you
decide what is authentic and what isnt.

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If your background and training are a close fit with coaching, you can
mention how it was a natural progression. If they are completely at odds
with coaching (is there such a field?) you can mention why youve made
such a switch.
Before you begin the exercises, you might like to refer to my bio in the
Appendix to get some ideas.
Exercise
List the Top Ten Reasons someone should hire you. What are your
strengths?
List everything you can think of that you have done in your life
including training, experiences, insights, etc. Cross out anything that
doesnt add to your credibility or express who you are. (Suggestion:
check with a fellow coach on this to make sure you are not throwing
out valuable information that you are blind to.)
Write a half page Bio. Then go through and cut it down to two to three
paragraphs that really describe you well.
Search the internet and print off three bios that sound attractive to
you (yet dont rely on hard facts you cannot replicate; e.g., a
Doctorate in Psychology). Use these to inspire ideas and rework your
bio.
Have a friend who is good with words or marketing, edit it to give you
a Bio that sounds great! A great sounding Bio can make an amazing
difference to your confidence.
Run your Bio past three friends or colleagues who you would like to
coach and that represent your target market. Use their feedback and
suggestions to further improve it.
Put your Bio on your web site, and in a handy electronic file where
you can easily find it (to insert in an e-mail, or to forward to a
prospective client or audience).

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3.3 YOUR COACHING SERVICE THE DETAILS


Remember that most people have never worked with a coach before. In fact
a coaching structure is probably new to them (and you!).
You dont have a coaching service they can buy, until you have the details.
You need something they can get their mind around wrap their arms
around so they can buy it or commit to it.
Is there a minimum commitment? How long are the sessions? Face-to-face
or via phone? Is e-mail support provided? Are results guaranteed? What
will be expected of me? What can I count on the coach for? What are your
coaching hours? Are there any bonuses you provide? Are you available in
between sessions? Do I have to pay in advance? What forms of payment
do you accept? What if I want to stop half way? What if I want to miss or
postpone a session?
Once you have answers to these questions, you have a coaching service. At
this point you will have something your potential clients can say YES to,
when you invite them at the end of an Exploratory Session.
Now before we get into such details, Id like to make a very important
distinction.
A Coaching Structure vs. Random Sessions
Many new coaches I work with make a very simple mistake in their early
sessions. How did your Exploratory Session go last week? I ask. Great!
they say. Im going to call her next week to set up a time for another
session.
Can you see whats missing here? They are still not this clients coach.
They are just someone to talk to if the client has time next week and still
feels interested in coaching next week. You know how you can pick up a
self-help book whenever you feel like it and put it down when you feel like
it? In the above example the coach is playing the role of the book! Thats
not coaching. Or more precisely, its not a Coaching Structure.
One thing that separates coaching from many other professions is the
clients commitment to his/her coaching goals and to a particular time frame
working with the coach. This way, it doesnt matter if the client gets busy
next week. Their session is scheduled for 3pm Thursday, and thats that.
It doesnt matter if the client doesnt feel like working on his/her goals or
turning up to his/her session. Twelve consecutive sessions are scheduled,

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and more importantly paid for up front! (Or at least the first month should
be.)
Now lets see an example of how this coaching structure might look.
My Practice
Here is an example of a coaching structure using my practice as an
example. Ive actually expanded it to include the most common questions I
find clients have in their head when considering hiring me.
HOW MY COACHING WORKS (THE PRACTICALITIES)
What are the Logistics?
The base coaching is three 25-minute phone sessions
per month. On the fourth week we rest! Phone charges are
included in your coaching fee, regardless of where you
live in the world. This is supplemented by e-mail coaching
at no extra charge, and 'power coaching' calls in the
interim when needed. You take on as much homework/homeplay
as you choose, and most of the learning/growth/action
happens between the calls.
Note that phone coaching allows me to effectively coach
clients anywhere in the world {Note: my system actually
inserts their country but thats a longer story}.
How Long Would We Work Together?
We'll usually start with a 3-6 month period. And,
I ask my clients to simply stay with me as long as they love
the coaching, and are getting much MORE value than the money
they're paying. This could range from three to twelve months,
or even a couple of years.
What Does Coaching Provide?
This is different for each client. Most often I
hear words like: accountability, direction, inspiration,
focus, sounding board, validation, challenge, support. But
the bottom line is, we're normally after a specific result
that makes a difference in your life.

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Do you have any Specialties?


I most enjoy working with women and men on relationship
issues, people looking for a new career direction, small business
owners/managers, and executives. I also work with people who
want to get their own coaching business started via the CoachStart
Program. (Visit www.CoachStart.com)
What is the Cost?
Note: Following are fees for regular personal or business
coaching. For fees for the CoachStart(tm) mentoring program
to become a coach, please visit www.CoachStart.com.
You will note below that I provide an incentive for clients to
commit to a specific period to achieve their goals.
USA/Japan
The investment for three months of coaching is US$1,080
(which saves $360 over the monthly rate). The investment
for six months of coaching is $1,920 (saves $960 over the
monthly rate). Or you may choose to pay monthly at the
standard rate of $480 per month.

Europe
The investment for three months of coaching is 750
(which saves 255 over the monthly rate). The investment
for six months of coaching is 1,350 (saves 660 over the
monthly rate). Or you may choose to pay monthly at the
standard rate of 335 per month.
Canada
The investment for three months of coaching is C$1,800
(which saves C$600 over the monthly rate). The investment
for six months of coaching is C$3,210 (saves C$1,590 over
the monthly rate). Or you may choose to pay monthly at the
standard rate of C$800 per month.

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Australia, New Zealand, Asia


The investment for three months of coaching is A$1,980
(which saves A$660 over the monthly rate). The investment
for six months of coaching is A$3,540 (saves A$1,740 over
the monthly rate). Or you may choose to pay monthly at
the standard rate of A$880 per month.
***
Note: Once we've completed the initial coaching term, some
people like to have just one phone session per month for
maintenance, which is available at a reduced fee.
Do I have any Guarantee?
If, once you have received your welcome pack and
completed your first coaching session, you do not feel
completely happy that you have made the right decision,
I will cheerfully refund your money in full.
This is a one-time option, which you may exercise at the end of
the first session only (i.e. it's your back door!).
What if I decide not to finish the coaching term?
If at some point during the coaching you're not getting
value, we'll both know it. You may cease coaching at the end of any
four-week cycle, and get a full refund for the unused portion.
You would then be charged at the normal monthly rate for the
coaching you have used, rather than the discounted rate.
Who are your clients?
I find I'm coaching some men, but more women in the
30-50 age range. Mainly professionals. And a lot of people
wanting to become coaches, or at least explore the possibility.
I love working with people who KNOW their relationship could
be better. Two other favorites are: helping people with their
expanding business or in finding a career direction that inspires
them!

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Who are you?


Firstly, a coach. I've been a management consultant
in New York, professional entertainer in Sydney, and have
played with many hobbies from acting to hang gliding.
Now I live and coach from Byron Bay, occasionally
speak to organisations on 'Creating A Life You Love',
and most enjoy my partner Bronwyn, hang gliding,
friendships, and continued personal growth.
I began coaching in 1997, and normally work with fifteen
to twenty-five clients, who to date have come from the US,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Italy, Sweden,
Switzerland, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Japan. I'm privileged to be a
founder of the International Coach Academy, a global coach training
company.
Recently, I've enjoyed coaching on camera for Channel 9 and
SBS two Australian television stations.
**************************
If you know, or suspect coaching could make a big difference
in your business or personal life, I suggest you call me, or visit my
site to fill in the Application & Discovery form and set up a chat.
If you feel a friend could benefit from coaching, I'd appreciate
you passing them this e-mail.
(www.lifecoachingresource.com)
Exercise
Complete the Practice Design Form in Section 8.4. As you complete this,
your practice becomes a real business!
Exercise
Now that you have the details worked out, write your own About Coaching
document which incorporates exactly how YOU want to coach. Not how I
coach, or how you think it should be done. But how your practice looks.
Remember, you can always trial this and change/tweak it for the rest of your
life based on what you learn. I do.
While you cant copy my example above, you can certainly use it for
inspiration to generate your own unique document.

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3.4 WELCOME PACK AND AGREEMENTS


Rather than go through the theory of what you could provide when you start
coaching, Ill simply tell you what I provide:
A List of Common Coaching Goals
A Self Coaching Form (Preparation Form to fill in for each session)
The 6/3 Goals Form (which helps them set out three goals with
milestones and possible strategies)
Our Coaching Agreement (which includes my policies and procedures).
While these forms will be available to coaches later in the year as part of a
paid package, I wanted to give you one of the forms here free of charge:
Ive included my coaching agreement here to give you an idea of the areas
you could consider covering. Please note that as I am not a lawyer I cannot
give you legal advice. I therefore recommend you get legal advice specific
to your country and do not rely on this agreement for legal protection.

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SAMPLE COACHING AGREEMENT


Please take the time to read this agreement so that you can get the most
out of our relationship, and so that we are in alignment. These items form
part of our coaching agreement. This document is intended to have legal
significance (particularly the Liability section) and as such, I recommend
you consult with your legal advisor.
To continue with our coaching arrangement, please send the full
agreement back to me, AFTER FILLING IN THE AGREEMENT SECTION
at the bottom.
Coaching Sessions
The base coaching is 3 sessions (one per week), and then a rest on the
fourth week. (Feel free to send me your self coaching form in this rest
week, or simply rest!). Sessions are 25 minutes long. Your support in
finishing on time is appreciated. If you are on a reduced plan, you may
receive two or even one session every four weeks.
Client Bonuses
Extra Time: I'm available! You may call me between our session times if
you need coaching on an issue, or cant wait to tell me about
something great. I do have time between our regular sessions
to speak with you, if needed, and enjoy providing this extra
level of service. I do not bill for this additional time, but I do
ask that you keep any extra calls brief (e.g. 5 minutes).
E-coach:

Feel free to e-mail me during the week to a) share a win, b)


clarify a point, c) have me review something, or request
coaching on a particular issue. Its up to you how much you
use me this way.

Friends:

If you have a friend, family member or colleague who would like


one-off coaching on a particular issue, I am happy to spend
15 minutes with them. I can usually move someone forward in
a specific area of his or her life in one session. There is no
charge for this.

Free Week: See Referrals below.

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Self-Coaching Form (SCF)


This will help you get DOUBLE the value from your coaching sessions. It will
take 5 to 30 minutes each week for you to reflect on what you have
accomplished, what is yet to be done, and HOW you will use me in the
upcoming session. Please fill this in before EVERY session, and e-mail it to
me no later than 24 HOURS before your session.
If your form arrives on time, I will read the coachs section before our
session. If it comes late, it will still be valuable for you; however, I will not
read it before our session. If you havent done your form at all, I will ask
you to hang up, and call me in 5 minutes after filling out the form.
Note: If you absolutely hate forms, then ask me if we can drop this SCF. We
can do this if youre still well prepared for the session, and know how you
want to use your coach.
Fieldwork
I will ask you to identify what you will accomplish between one session and
the next. If the suggested actions are too much, say so. If you want to
achieve more, just ask. Remember, I expect you to do what you say youll
do if something comes up, you agree to renegotiate with me rather than
get to the next session with items not complete.
From time to time, Ill also make direct requests, such as Will you
accomplish X by the end of the week? Please feel free to accept, counteroffer, or decline.
Referrals
I love referrals! A referral coming from you feels like an acknowledgement
that Im doing a great job, and is much more rewarding than a client from
the yellow pages. If you know someone who could use a coach, simply refer
him or her to www.lifecoachingresource.com to request a complimentary
consultation, and have them mention your name. For a referral who
becomes a client, I offer a free week of coaching for you as a thank you.

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Rescheduling Sessions
Please make your coaching a priority, after all, we are working on the things
YOU have said are most important. Sessions dont carry over to the
following week, and are not cancellable. If you give me prior notice, I will
offer you another time slot within my standard coaching hours in the same
week if available. However, if you miss a session, you will be charged for
the session.
Billing
Billing is by credit card every four weeks in advance (not Amex or Diners
sorry). I will accept checks for clients who pay three months in advance.
If you are serious about putting a coaching structure in your life, you may
elect to pay for 3 months coaching in advance (25% discount) or 6 months
of coaching in advance (33% discount).
Please note I offer reduced fee rates after we have been working together
for 3-6 months. Some people find that after three to six months they have
the momentum they wanted, and two sessions per month (30% discount),
or even one a month (60% discount) supported by e-mail, is fine. After
six months, ask me about Just in Time Coaching too, where we dont
schedule sessions, but you call when the time is right.
Termination of Agreement, and Non-Refundability
You may terminate the agreement at the end of any billing cycle. Coaching
goes for as long as you're getting great value for your money. If you're not,
we change something, or we stop!
Please note your coaching investment represents a commitment to coaching
and to your goals. As such, your monthly payment is non-refundable. This
is particularly true where the refund request is based on priorities changing
or a lack of available time for your goals.
If you have paid several months in advance for your coaching, you may
terminate the coaching at the end of any four-week cycle. In this event you
will receive a refund for the unused whole months. However, please note
you will be charged the standard monthly rate for the months used, as your
discounted rate is no longer applicable.

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In addition, you agree that I have the right to terminate the relationship at
any time if on more than one occasion you fail to be on time for your
coaching sessions, fail to complete your promised actions/fieldwork, or are
late in payment. (Im not an ogre about it this clause is just for clients
who continually slide, and where continuing in coaching could be draining for
at least one of us!)
Liability
Responsibility
I work on the basis that you are fully responsible for your own life and
decisions. I will offer suggestions, options, and coaching, based on my own
life and professional experience, and I will work with you to identify solutions
to your problems, but any decision about a course of action is yours, and
you accept full responsibility for such decisions. You should carefully
evaluate the consequences of various options, and decide accordingly. I
make no representation, or warranty to you that any of the coaching
methods, Sessions, or activities will work for your particular circumstances
and in no way guarantee any results.
Agreement Not to Hold Liable, and Indemnity
You acknowledge that the Coaching Sessions may be personally,
emotionally, and physically challenging and that there may be occasions on
which you will feel such challenges including, but not limited to
frustration, annoyance, and stress. You agree to cancel any Session in the
event that you are not well enough to continue. You will not hold me liable
for any loss or cost incurred by you (or any person related to or associated
with you, including but not limited to your customers) in the event of
mental, physical, financial, emotional stress, or distress (or other ailment or
condition) caused either directly or indirectly in relation to the Coaching
Sessions. You shall indemnify me in the event of any such claim, including
but not limited to any claims made against me by any person related to or
associated with you, including but not limited to your customers. Anything
said by me verbally or in writing shall not be constituted to be advice of
any kind, including, but not limited, to medical, psychological, legal, financial,
counseling, business, or actuarial advice.
You warrant that you do not have a history of mental illness. Further, you
warrant that you are not currently undergoing therapy of any kind, or that if
you are; you have obtained the express permission of your therapist to
engage in this coaching arrangement. If you cannot make these warrants,
you have an obligation to inform me of any such history, or any past therapy
sessions, so we can discuss if coaching is appropriate for your

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circumstances. If you begin therapy during our coaching, you agree to


immediately obtain the express permission of your therapist to continue
being coached, or you will cancel all future coaching sessions.
I reserve the right to terminate our sessions immediately, and without prior
notice, if I believe therapy would be more appropriate for your situation than
coaching. (In such case you would receive a refund of the unused sessions).
Jurisdiction
However unlikely, in the event of any disagreement or dispute between us,
you agree that the laws of New South Wales, Australia shall be applied to
this agreement.

AGREEMENT SECTION
I understand, and agree to the above terms and conditions.
Your Name: ____________________
Date: ______________________
(Please return this agreement by e-mail before your first coaching session)

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3.5 SOME COACHING PRINCIPLES


Suspend your opinions and judgments
Coaching is not advice. Its coaching. As a human being, you will have
opinions regarding what a client should do. But you need to be really clear
about when this is your opinion, versus helping them get clear for
themselves on what they should do. At different times, your client will want
both.
Should I break up with my boyfriend? A coaching response might be:
What is best for you?
I had a client looking to make extra income. She was actually considering
applying to work for an escort agency. My initial reaction, which I stifled,
was Surely theres an alternative to prostitution! But remembering I
had my coaching hat on, I asked her why. It seemed she didnt have any
moral judgments about it, and thought it might actually be an interesting
experience. She did have other options, so it wasnt coming out of
desperation. In fact, I discovered the main thing holding her back from
pursuing this avenue, was worrying about what a future partner might think
of her which I dont find a powerful reason for any decision! In the course
of time, she made her own decision not to follow that path. But she wasnt
stifled by the judgments and opinions of her coach.
Future vs Past
People love their stories! They love their past, reasons, and complexities,
perhaps because they validate who they think they are.
As a coach, Im not interested in 90% of the past. I dont want to know why
you spent 5 years in an unhappy marriage or the list of complaints you have
about your boss. Im more interested in what you want, and what youre
going to do about it. Its a conversation about the future, rather than the
past. Many people can describe exactly what they do not like about their
lives. However, when asked how they would like the situation to look, more
energy is required. Our job is to have them look in that direction.

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Action
It is true that people receive value from growing awareness, or insights
about their life. I am sure there are coaches who help their clients gain
clarity during the session, and then leave it to the client to decide what, if
anything they will do before the next session.
However, a generally accepted principle of coaching is ACTION. Without
action, results do not occur and many of your clients will be seeking
results. Also, action provides the opportunity for new insights its not until
you go and ask three girls for a date that you can learn more about your
fear, including how to get past it.
It has been said: If the client is not left in action, coaching did not occur.
A strong statement, but I tend to lean in this direction.
***
If you would like further information about how to coach, then I recommend
you view our coach training libraries at:
http://www.CoachingClips.com

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Section 4: Getting Paying Clients


4.0 THE EXPLORATORY OR TRIAL SESSION
Saying yes to coaching can be difficult for most people because they do not
know exactly what it would provide, or what they would have to do. There
may be many concerns from I dont want to open up too much, to Does
that make me a loser, to Ill be obligated to do something!
However, it is much easier for someone to say yes to a one-off Exploratory
or Trial Session. Make it clear that it is free and there is no obligation to
continue. You will have a chance to give someone the experience of
coaching and to help convert that person from being someone wanting to
make changes to someone making changes.
The trial session is often very different from ongoing coaching sessions. For
starters, this might be the last session! (i.e., you dont have a client yet and
they may have questions about you or coaching.) Secondly, you don't know
what they want to work on.
Lets take a look at what you want to achieve from your trial session. This is
an important step before you design it. So you can feel comfortable and
authentic, there need to be objectives that you could openly share with your
prospective client up-front. If you have an objective you cannot share, then
you have a hidden agenda, which a person will most likely sense. A coach
always has the clients (even prospective clients) best interests at heart
and when she doesnt, shell disclose this.
Exercise
Note: I recommend you do this exercise BEFORE you look at the suggestions
following.
1. Pretend you're the first coach on the planet. (This way, you don't
have a perspective of trying to get it right! You're simply looking for
what works). Write one to four objectives for the trial session
(What's an outcome you want? What's an outcome they might
want?).

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2. Now do an Alignment Check. Are these objectives you could openly


share with the prospective client up front? If not, revise your
objectives.
Suggested Objectives of a Trial Session
1. The client has a strong sense of the possibility coaching could provide
in their life.
2. Client has a strong sense that coaching can help him/her move
forward on their particular issue.
3. Client understands what coaching is, can communicate it, and agrees
to refer you to people. Client knows how to do this (e.g. web site,
e-mail, phone, knows your invitation).
Exercise
Note: I recommend you do this exercise BEFORE you look at the suggestions
following.
Again, pretend you are the first coach on the planet. You have asked Julie if
she would like a regular call each week to support her in her life. Julie has
asked: What would we work on?, and Why should I invest my time and
money in this? You have 30 minutes before the Trial Session where these
questions will be answered for Julie. Draft a 5 to 7 step outline of the
process you intend to go through.
Suggested Outline of a Trial Session
1) Set the context
a. What do you want to achieve in this session? Put another way,
what would you like to leave the session with?
b. What I want to achieve (see if it makes sense for us to work
together).
Note: If they dont bring it up, ask if theyre looking for a coach
or have considered the possibility. Leading to So would you
like to know by the end of the session if Im the right coach for
you? ... if it makes sense for us to go forward together?
c. What interested you in or drew you to coaching?

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2) Get clear on the goal/vision/picture


a. By when?
b. Maybe pick a 12 month goal, then where they need to be in 3
months.
c. If they have several goals, work only on the most important
one.
3) Help the client see the path
a. How will you get there?
b. What needs to happen for you to reach that?
Note: dont try to handle the whole issue for them in 30-60
minutes! It takes too long. Just help them see a possible path
(e.g., wed work on A, B and C).
4) Ask why the coach is needed
(You dont want them to say well thanks Ill go do that!)
a. Why havent you achieved this already?
b. What would coaching provide that you havent had in the past?
c. If we go forward together on this, what would you get from me
that would be most valuable? (Support, accountability,
direction, focus, validation, challenge, motivation, etc.)
5) Uncover any hidden objections
a. Is there anything left that you need to know about how I
coach, or about who I am, for you to know if youd like to us to
work together on this?
6) Close the Sale
a. Is that something youre interested in?
b. So how does all this feel so far?

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c. How important is this goal to you?


d. Let me tell you how I set up with new clients, and you can tell
me if thats something you would like to try. (We pick our
regular time slot, I send you a welcome pack, and I give you
fieldwork so you can get started straight away. Is that
something youd like to do?)
e. Is there anything else you need to know about coaching or me
for you to decide if it makes sense to move forward on this
now?
f. What will probably happen if you dont hire me as your coach?
g. Are you willing to accept not achieving this goal in the next
couple of years?
h. I dont mind if you work with me or not, but sitting on the fence
isnt part of coaching. So I invite you to choose either way, but
choose now.
7) Double Close
a. How do you feel about us working together?
b. Could you give me some feedback regarding how this session
was for you?
Once you are comfortable with your Exploratory or Trial session, you should
find it quite simple to adapt this process to your second, third and ongoing
sessions. Its mostly a matter of checking how they are, how are the goals
going, and whats needed this week to keep moving forward and to stay
excited and empowered.

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4.1 WHERE TO FIND CLIENTS


I believe it makes sense for your client-gathering strategies to depend on
how far you are along the coaching curve. If you have at least a years
experience in coaching, and an existing client base, then I suggest you jump
ahead to Advanced Marketing Strategies.
However, if youre still building up your confidence, then Im going to outline
here a strategy, which I have found to be the fastest for building confidence,
and getting your initial clients. (Once you are confident and have a full
practice, revenue increases, your attraction increases, and youll know more
about who you want to coach.)
Leveraging Your Current Network
Start with people who know you or know of you. Most people dont even
know what coaching is. So as you can imagine it might be an even less
certain prospect to discuss a new concept with someone they dont know!
Its much easier to practise with your existing network even if they dont
go on to become regular clients. Youll build your confidence, youll build
your referrals, and once you have enough people for practice, youll start
charging a reasonable fee.
Dont worry you dont have to sell to your network; this isnt Amway. In
the next couple of sections I explain how you can approach your network so
that they dont feel under the slightest pressure in fact they enjoy the
process and you can feel totally comfortable (or at least empowered
enough to keep moving forward!).
Exercise
List (preferably using a computer) the people you know who might either:
a) be interested in working with a coach
b) be interested in experiencing at least a one-off trial session, to see
what it's about
c) know someone who might be interested in a free trial coaching
session, or
d) be interested in knowing that you're now starting a new business in
life coaching, just because they like to know what you're up to, or
because they'd like to be able to refer you if they bump into someone
looking for a coach.

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Note: Almost everyone you know should be on this list! Include friends,
colleagues, family, etc.
Then prioritize into three groups:
GROUP A) people who might be really interested,
GROUP B) people probably interested, and
GROUP C) well they made the list, but I'm not sure it would be
worth calling them.
Don't worry about what to do with these people for now; we'll cover that in
the next chapter.
Exercise
List the people you know who might really be able to use coaching right
now. i.e. the people YOU feel might really be able to use some help, or who
you feel you would like to contribute to.
Next to each one, write the issue, and how you think you could help.
For example:

Name
Lynn

Issue
Getting over divorce

Brad

Complained about job


for 2 years
Very timid

Jill
John

Overwhelmed and
stressed

Wendy

Lonely

Glen

Completely
disorganized

Mary

Constantly pleasing
people

Possible Ways Coaching Might Help


Keep her in action to socialise; help
her take care of herself; weekly
support.
Help switch jobs.
Help her see her strengths, and build
confidence (and stand up to Jack).
Help him use time more effectively,
plan, and slow down! More time for
himself.
Help her enjoy time with herself more
and look for a partner.
Help him handle the things he's
putting up with (eliminate tolerations)
and organize his life.
Support her in working out what she
really wants and to start saying "no"
to people.

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Richard

Feels overweight

Monica

Wants a record
contract

Greg

Resigned and
apathetic
Wants more money

Bruce

Jane

Has always wanted to


work for herself

Betty

Working 14 hours a
day in her own
business

Help him set clear goals and develop a


health plan and supporting structures.
AND, to accept and love his body.
Help her develop action plan, network
of contacts, and schedule necessary
other steps.
Help him get in touch with his
passion/create an inspiring project.
Help him create a worthy goal to
spend the money on (a reason for
savings), to start saving, and a
strategy for getting a promotion and
pay raise at work.
Start fleshing out a picture of how the
future business could look! And start
looking at the steps needed to get
there.
Look at the steps needed to remove
her from the business. Look at the
systems needed to automate the
business. Help her understand the
distinction between having a job in
her business, and owning a business.

In the next Section Ill explain exactly how you can approach these people in
a way that feels authentic and comfortable for you, and so that they see it
as an opportunity.
Note: For further information on how this process works, you might like to
refer to the ICF Conference Speech I delivered on Getting the First Fifty
Clients, available at:
www.FirstFiftyClients.com

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4.2 THE INVITATION


Getting people to go from 'hello' to sign me up as your client can be a big
ask especially when they don't know what coaching is! So earlier I
suggested you do an 'Introductory' or 'Exploratory' session first no cost
and no obligation.
Then, in the last section you made your lists of people. Now how to
approach them?
How do you offer this Trial Session, so that they say 'yes'?
Here I'll explain exactly how to get plenty of trial sessions, which is the first
step to plenty of clients. Ill make a brief comment on the Cold Invitation
which is for calling people you dont know. Well then cover the Warm
Invitation, which is the one I recommend you use with the lists you just
made (because you know these people and you are calling them). Well also
cover the Hot Invitation, which is the one you use when someone for
example, at a party says, What do you do?

1) Change Your Perspective


Firstly, are you trying too hard?
Making a shift from: "I need to get people as ongoing clients", to "Let's see
how many introductory sessions I can provide this year" can be useful.
Come from a place of service. The sessions are very fulfilling and great fun!
This new perspective will have you free and relaxed to offer trial sessions.

2) Cold Invitation
This is where you call someone you dont know and offer them coaching.
We wont be covering these. Who wants to do that? Especially when youve
got your very own network of people where you already have a relationship,
and many of whom want to support you getting your practice off the ground.

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3) Warm Invitation
A Warm Invitation is one where its not a Cold Invitation because you know
the person. But its also not a Hot Invitation, because youre not face-toface with them while they bring up the subject by asking you how coaching
is going, or what you do for a living is.
So its a Warm Invitation you know them, or at least know of them
through a contact, and you are calling them.
Heres a sample script you might use:
"Hi Jack, how are you? I'm calling about coaching. I'm setting up my
coaching practice and I'm looking for high energy [INSERT YOUR OWN
DESCRIPTOR] people to do some trial coaching sessions with.
[PAUSE/LISTEN].
But first, if you have a couple of minutes, I'd like to check and see if
us doing a session together even makes sense, because I don't want
to waste your time with this.
[PAUSE/LISTEN]
OK, great. So let's find out if there's something worth working on.
What's one thing you'd like to alter in your life? (Or: What's the
biggest pain in your life? What's one thing you'd love more of, if you
could only have more of one thing?) [INSERT YOUR OWN QUESTION
EXPERIMENT WITH THIS]
[PAUSE/LISTEN. QUICKLY FIND WHAT THEY WANT/THEIR 'BUTTON'.
DONT GET INTO IT YOURE NOT TRYING TO SOLVE ANYTHING
RIGHT NOW]
OK, so if we could find some strategies to help you do that, would that
be worth spending half an hour on? Great, I won't be charging for
this. If we find a great goal that coaching could make a big impact on,
we can look at setting up a coaching structure for you. If not, then I
appreciate your time in helping me with my training and development.
Do you prefer Wednesday or Thursday? Face to face or phone?"
(Thanks to Deanna Sorensen and Alanne Whitaker for their help in
developing this script).

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Exercise
Practice this with three friends from the lists you made in Section 4:1
Where to Find Clients, to see how it feels for you.
Exercise
Use the Warm Invitation (or your version of it) to begin going through your
lists of people. Polish off Group A within the first week or two, and then
Group B within two weeks after that. Aim for a yes ratio of, say, 80%.
Tip: Its much easier to call ten people in an hour (to set up Exploratory
Sessions), than it is calling one person a day for ten days. Once you have
done the first couple and gotten into the flow, you can call anyone with
confidence. But if you do one a day, you may never get into this zone.
4) Hot Invitation
How many times are you at a party, meeting, in an elevator, etc., and
someone asks you what you do? This is an excellent opportunity to invite
someone to experience coaching with you. However, firstly you must give
them a REASON or INCENTIVE to do so. Secondly, you must extend an
INVITATION!
A HOT INVITATION is one extended when you are already talking to
someone, and coaching comes up (as opposed to a warm invite where you
call someone you know to discuss coaching). Youre on the spot heres an
opportunity to turn a conversation into a trial coaching session.
So the prospect has asked what you do, or what coaching is, Now what?
Most of these tips assume you're at some kind of party or networking
function, but they can work for anywhere:
1. Keep your answers short and let them drive it e.g., "I'm a coach".
They'll usually ask follow up questions.
2. Speak of what you do for people, not about what coaching is e.g., "I
move people forward"; "I work with professionals to grow their
business"; "I help women expand their community of friends"; "I do
A, B, and C for people"
3. They've asked 'How does it work?' Great. You might like to use
Agassi or Tiger Woods as an example. They have coaches. It's not
fixing their game; it's about being even better or having even more in
your life.

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4. Another answer to this question might be: "I look for what's missing.
Some people come to me for direction; some want accountability, so
that stuff gets done. Others can simply use support or a sounding
board. (Others are focus, inspiration, and challenge.)
5. Another great answer is: "If you could do anything, what's the
number one thing you would change in your life?"
6. Put it back on them after all, that's what coaching is.
7. Many people will say, "That's interesting." Don't let this pass. Ask
them "What about it do you find interesting?" and go from there.
8. Other great questions: "Have you ever considered working with a
coach?" "If you had your own coach, what would you get started on
first?"
The Invitation
Sometimes all it takes to set up the session is for you to invite them to have
one! (I know rocket science, right?). It might sound something like:
"What I usually do for people who are interested in coaching is to set
up a 20-30 minute chat to talk about their goals and give them an
experience of being coached. I don't mind if they become clients or
not; it helps me develop my skills, and it's one way I develop
referrals. No charge. Would you be interested in that?"
Full Hot Invitation Script
Suppose coaching comes up and the person says: Thats interesting.
Here is a series of questions that will often lead to a strong trial session:
Really? Have you ever considered working with a coach?
[PAUSE/LISTEN]
Whats one area you would focus on first, if you had your own coach?
[PAUSE/LISTEN]
Do you think coaching might make an impact in that area?

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Well why dont we find out? Id be happy to offer you a 20 minute


consultation no obligation, and no charge. If it turns out coaching
cant really help, at least youll leave with a good sense of what
coaching is all about. If it turns out it would have a big impact, well
look at what kind of coaching structure would best support you.
[PAUSE/LISTEN]
Great how do I reach you? Hows Friday for you?
Exercise
Practise your hot invitation at least once this week. You might be in a store,
at a bus stop, talking to the telephone information service, or at a party.
When someone pops that magic question: What do you do? be ready.
Note: In both the Warm and Hot Invitation you might notice we found a hot
button/area, extended an invitation, and removed any obligation or pressure
to continue with coaching. Thats the secret formula!

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4.3 FEE SETTING AND NEGOTIATION


Once you have worked out what youre going to cover in an Exploratory
Session and you have the people lined up to do them what happens at the
end of the session?
Firstly, bear in mind that its totally fine if they decide to leave it at that. It
was still good practice for you, and theyll send you referrals if you let them
know you want them and how to send them.
But suppose you come to the end of the session and they say: How much
does this cost? Whats your answer? Do you charge the same as
experienced coaches? Do you charge nothing because you are starting out?
Here are a couple of Golden Rules to follow.
Golden Rule: Value your services
I said earlier in this book that you should not let fee stand in the way of a
client when you are starting a practice. However, I did not say you should
give coaching away for free.
If I approached you and said: "I really want you to be my client. Please be
my client, I won't charge you anything, and you need to spend 30 minutes
per week with me", how attractive would that sound to you? There is no
sense of value in this for you; it's all for me.
However, if I said: "My regular coaching fee is $300 per month, but my
coach has told me to take five people on at a big discount for my own
training and development. How would you feel if I charge you only 50% of
my fee for the first two months?"
Another thing: the act of paying money is a great way to demonstrate
commitment or that the client is willing to take the coaching seriously. If
you offer the coaching for free aside from it not sounding attractive you
may have problems with the client sticking to the coaching sessions, doing
his or her fieldwork etc. Basically, it's an issue of respect.

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So you might suggest the client (even if it's a friend) would get more out of
the coaching if they pay even a nominal amount. For example: "I'm happy
to waive my fee for the first two months. However, I think you'll get a lot
more out of the coaching if you pay a nominal amount. You know how when
you pay for the gym up-front you've got a better chance of using it? So
what would you feel comfortable with as a token amount? OK - $50 - so
that will be $100 now for the next two months."
Golden Rule: Find what the client is comfortable paying
So how do we marry the first two principles? How do we take on as many
clients as possible, yet value our services, and get as much revenue as
possible?
Simple: Ask the client what they're happy to pay!
Consider the following role play I might do with a new coach playing the part
of a prospective client:
Scenario 1
Client: "How much do you charge?"
Coach: "I charge $300 per month."
Client: "Well OK - how do we get started?"
Scenario 2
Client: "How much do you charge?"
Coach: "I charge $300 per month."
Client: "Hmmmm....well I don't think I can afford that right now, but I
appreciate your time."
Coach: "Well let me ask you, IF price wasn't an issue for you, would you be
interested in working with me on this issue for 2-3 months?"
Client: "Hmmmm... yes - IF price wasn't an issue, I suppose I would."

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Coach: "OK - since I'm still building my practice, and I want to coach you,
I'm happy to make an investment in this. In fact, right now, the money isn't
that important to me. So tell me, what would you feel comfortable paying?"
Client: "Well I suppose $150 would be OK."
Coach: "Great, if you're willing to commit to working with me for 3 months
on this, I'm willing to take you on at 50% of my fee for that time. At the
end of that period, we can revisit it."
See how it works?
Setting Your Rack Rate
I ask my coaches: Imagine you have ten clients, who keep hiring you
month after month, are clearly getting value, and have referred you to a
couple of people. What would be a reasonable monthly fee to charge?
So whats your answer to that question? Think maybe three 45 minute
sessions a month, with one rest week. And dont undervalue it. Society is
used to paying a couple of thousand dollars for a holiday, but not paying a
couple of thousand dollars to vastly improve their life! So dont get drawn
into that trap. Envision the kinds of changes these clients can make with
your help, and try and put a value on that. And if youre still having
trouble charging, you might consider offering a money back guarantee, so
you are sure theyll win from the deal.
Ill give you my estimate of a reasonable rate to charge for a new coach.
This will change once youve coached fifty people, and it changes if you have
specific expertise in your area of coaching (e.g., if youre a management
consultant coaching executives). In Australia I suggest about $200 to $400
per month, depending on your existing network, any client base you have,
and your belief in your value. In the US I estimate about $150 to $250 per
month. And for the UK, Id guesstimate about 80 to 160. But youll get a
better idea by surfing the net and seeing what coaches are charging.
Please dont take these as Gospel. You can charge much more if you can
demonstrate the value to the client up front, or remove the risk (e.g.,
through a money-back guarantee). And of course you can always charge
less if they are a friend or you need to negotiate to get your initial clients
but were talking about your Rack Rate: the one you mention BEFORE you
negotiate. And, you can charge much more if you are working with clients
who are relatively wealthy and/or you are working on an issue they value.

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(For example, Ive noticed people seem to be willing to pay more to change
careers or start a business, than they are to work on their relationship.)
I suggest you charge at least monthly in advance, and consider three
monthly in advance too. After all it supports most clients to commit to
this process.
Timing
Dont get too hung up on the charging issue for your first twenty clients.
Dont worry if it doesnt come smoothly. The first skill to practice is inviting
people to do Exploratory Sessions and getting yeses to that invitation. The
second skill to practice is agreeing on a time commitment to their goals and
the coaching relationship: i.e., having the sign up for a coaching structure
for one to six months. The third skill to worry about is to comfortably
negotiate and charge your fee.
And you dont have to learn/practice these skills all at once! Take your time.

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4.4 TESTIMONIALS
Testimonials are easy to get.
And they serve a couple of purposes. Obviously, they help a prospective
client see that you have helped someone else, which is likely to give them
more confidence in signing up with you. This is particularly valuable in the
first couple of years while you may be working on a certification.
But secondly, they show YOU that you have helped others, and that you
really do make a contribution!
In this section, Ill ask you to get three clear testimonials that you can use to
promote your credibility, your confidence, and your services. Note it can be
as simple as a couple of lines from someone you have assisted. Of course it
must be their words and you need their permission. Its ideal if they are
willing for you to put identifying information such as their full name, job title,
company, city, and even e-mail address at the bottom. And who knows,
maybe even age? This allows a potential client to better relate to the
situation. And if their company is known, and/or they have a
professional-sounding title, it gives you added credibility. I also like to ask
for a scanned photo so people can see its a real person.
Testimonial Tips:
Get in the habit of asking for a testimonial whenever you finish with a
client, and make sure you follow up. Another good time to ask is
when they are excited about something they produced from the
coaching.
Dont hesitate to ask someone even if youve done just one
Exploratory Session together. They have still experienced your
coaching, albeit briefly. (You can replace these later as you get more
solid testimonials.)
You might ask them to start with the situation they were in: e.g., I
was struggling with XXXXX and wanted to find a way to XXXXX.
Then mention specific results.
Most clients are happy for you to do slight edits, and send it back for
confirmation. This lets you frame it in the best possible light.
Start collecting positive e-mails and letters from your clients. Every
line is a possible testimonial down the track or even now. What I do is

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wait until Im redoing my testimonial page and then show them their
old comments and ask if they are happy for me to use them.
Here are three possible sources for your initial testimonials:
Your Friends and Colleagues
Given you want to become a certified coach; chances are you have already
helped people in your past. Obvious roles are where you have mentored
someone, managed someone, counseled someone, or simply given a friend
support, encouragement, or advice that really helped to move them forward.
Dont you think its likely this friend or colleague would be happy to support
you by jotting down how you helped them? Even better, offer a coaching
session so they become one of your very first coaching clients
Your Very First Coaching Clients
This is not rocket science <smile>. Call a friend and say, Hey I need
some testimonials. Ill coach you for a month for free on XXXXX. All you
need to do is give me an honest couple of paragraphs at the end on how it
was for you.
Past Clients
Financial planners, teachers, consultants, therapists and trainers are
examples of people who may be able to get testimonials from their past or
current client base. It will most likely not mention coaching, but Thank you
Jan, for helping me get my finances in order, or Thank you John, for your
help with my relationship youve certainly made a difference, are very
powerful statements.
Exercise
View the testimonials at www.10SuperCoaches.com. How would you alter
them if it was your site?
Exercise
Collect a minimum of three testimonials that show how you made a
difference to someones life no matter how large or small. Have them
available in an electronic file to send to prospective clients, or include in
marketing mail outs.
Bonus Points: Place these testimonials on your web site.

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4.5 DEVELOPING MARKETING ENGINES


OK weve covered the basics. Now its time for the big guns!
Its one thing to have filled your practice by getting on the phone and
offering lots of free or discounted sessions or consultations. But we dont
want you to be calling people for the rest of your life! We just recommend
this to ramp everything up quickly to build your confidence, expertise,
public profile, and testimonials.
What you need now are Marketing Engines, which send you a steady stream
of clients. In the next three chapters well cover the most fun and productive
strategies:
How To Get Clients Via The Internet
How To Get Clients Via Alliances
How To Get Clients Via Public Speaking
Caution: Dont use all of these strategies. Doing a little of each will usually
be a waste of time. You want to pick one or two, and go deep. Use them
consistently for six months or preferably twelve and you should see some
great results. Once you are getting results from one or two engines, only
then should you consider adding a third.

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4.6 AVOID THIS MISTAKE


Long-term marketing engines are wonderful! However, it can be a mistake
to begin focusing on these strategies too early in your practice.
As Ive mentioned above, the quickest way to build your confidence and to
get initial clients is to use your existing network. Not the only way, but a
very effective way. I encourage you to delay potentially time-consuming
exercises such as elaborate web sites and brochures, until you have coached
at least twenty people.
Why? Because its a way to distract yourself from coaching! Many new
coaches spend lots of hours on activities like these and dont coach. Then
six months down the track they wonder why they dont have any clients.
The first reason is they are nervous about coaching. And the second reason
is that web sites and brochures tend to take time to produce results.
However, if you currently have several clients and are starting to feel pretty
confident, youre probably ready and anxious to start building your longterm marketing engines. Youre ready to apply strategies that will bring you
clients automatically, without you putting hours into it every week. In that
case lets get started!

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Section 5: How To Get Clients


From The Internet
5.1 CREATING A WINNING WEB SITE
Ive been fortunate to learn early in my coaching career how to fill my
practice using the internet. In fact, 95% of my clients have come from the
internet. In this section well discuss important guidelines for creating a web
site that converts visitors to clients, AND Ill then show you how to drive
traffic to your site.
Your web site shows people who you are and what you can do for them and
its a great chance for people to check you out safely before they call you.
But its much more: your site can actually build a relationship with your
visitors.
Your ultimate objective is usually to make a sale, but the short-term goal is
to find a way to make repeated contact with your visitor. As your site can
be interactive, you can collect their e-mail address in exchange for the free
content you offer (e.g., Ezine or newsletter).
As you advance your practice, you can also use your site to deliver
information as opposed to having to go through everything on the phone.
When I talk to potential clients, they already know the details of how I work
with people, so we can talk about their life instead of my coaching practice.
They also get time to get used to the idea of working with me, instead of
having to decide everything fresh during our phone call.
Here are some important tips to help you create an effective web site:
1) Keep it Simple
Better to get a four page, basic, professional looking web site up quickly,
than to spend 6 months creating a monster that may not convert clients.
Later you can upgrade it in fact youll be doing this for the rest of your
life.
As well discuss in a moment initially all this site has to do is have
people call/e-mail you for your services, or sign up to receive your
newsletter.

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2) Promote the Ultimate Benefit Not Your Service


Think of the end benefit, rather than the service. (e.g., if youre a fitness
coach, then instead of selling coaching services, you might be selling a
healthy, happy body.) Promote that.
3) List the GRADUATING ways people can get to know you

Web Site Objective


If you cant get them to buy today, then get
their email address.

You dont (well rarely) ask a first date to jump into bed with you straight
away. You start with a phone call or perhaps dinner.
Similarly on the internet, not everyone will buy your Gold 12-Month
Package straight away. So you need different bite sized pieces that they
can consume along the way. For example, a masseuse would want to be
in front of potential clients regularly so that when they feel like a
massage, or someone asks where they can get a good massage, they
think of you.
So sure youll have the Gold 12 Month Package on your site. Youll even
have the one-off massage maybe with a special offer for their first
time. You might even have a gift voucher an excellent idea around
birthdays and special Holidays.
But lets see if theres something even smaller they could bite on.
How about a free report they can download on the benefits of massage?
This would of course have your details in it, including your special
invitation. Or a relevant free ebook you have found on the internet
which youre allowed to give away? You should also offer a regular ezine
(online newsletter), or a regular mailed newsletter.

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4) Your Ezine
If youre selling a product or a service, it usually takes several instances
of contact before someone will buy from you. Enter the Ezine! I suggest
that with the free download mentioned above, you offer a regular
newsletter.
This can initially be regular updates of whats happening or special offers.
But you want to pretty quickly move to at least a quarterly ezine
providing articles of value, and maybe monthly or weekly.
And heres a very valuable tip: You dont even have to write the articles!
Most authors will give you permission to reprint if you include their
contact details.
Note: For over forty relevant life-coaching related articles you can reprint
free of charge, visit www.SolutionBox.com/archive.htm
To see how to craft an offer which achieves subscription rates of up to
25%, see www.lifecoachingresource.com, and the first two pages of
www.10supercoaches.com. Youll also get to see the type of information I
collect from my customers.
5) Ask yourself the top five questions a prospective client would want
answered.
And answer them on your site. You might extend this into a general FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions) on the service your market is looking for
(e.g. coaching, massage, financial services).
6) Approaches to Targeting
Many people ask me: What if I have multiple target markets? How do I
speak to many people from just one web site?
OK. Suppose you decide that you would like to work with professionals,
artists, sales people, managers and business owners. You could put up
the following menus on your site: Professionals, Artists, Sales people,
Housewives, Singles, Managers, Business Owners, etc. so people can
click based on WHO they are. Then in the resulting pages, speak to those
specific people with their needs. (e.g., on the Manager page you speak
to the needs of a manager, and how you work with managers.)

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Another way to do it is instead of by WHOM you work with break it


down by WHAT problem you solve. For example, a coach might put up a
menu: Relationships, Career Coaching, Fitness, etc. which describes
your services. Each word they click on takes them to a page where you
can speak specifically to a person who is interested, for example, in
fitness.
Which menu is best? Why not put up both one down the left hand side
of the page, and one across the top?
7) Who you are (bonding)
People will hire you because you have something they want; e.g., a great
lifestyle. I encourage you to have a section describing your experience,
values, and your passion. Give them a feel for you, perhaps make it fun.
When you have the money, invest a couple of hundred dollars in a good
head shot. People are much more likely to hire you if they see a picture
they like.
Ive gone further on my site and really described what I love, my
strengths, and my weaknesses! Ive put up personal pics, and now gone
as far as including video clips, such as my first stand up comedy routine,
my first sky dive, and me playing guitar in a kilt.
For really advanced stuff, you can hire someone to film you and create a
10-minute web video/interview of you. (See my example at
www.vid.lifecoachingresource.com)
8) Put value on your site
This is classic web marketing. If you have articles, newsletters, links,
resources, downloads, the idea is people will come back, tell their friends,
and eventually hire you because they can tell you know what youre
doing.
Be seen as a resource in your particular niche!
9) Interactivity
To get clients from the web, you have to engage them.
To get clients from e-mail, you have to engage them.
I'm talking about interactivity....

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You can't just put up a blurb and a bio you need to give them
something enticing to click on.
As Ive mentioned, one way is to offer a valuable free download. This
captures their email address and begins a dialogue between you. (If you
don't have one of your own, you're welcome to use one of mine; e.g., To
use the 50 Power Questions download on your site, to attract signups,
download it from www.solutionbox.com/50powerquestions.htm, and have
your web designer offer it on your site once they have given you their email address.)
Another way is to give away a free mini e-course; a series of e-mails that
provides value in some way.
But even better....is.
An Interactive Quiz!
Offer your visitors an interactive quiz which inspires them. One which
helps them create possibilities in their lives, which may then require your
services!
After all, if Bill Bloggs has no goals, he has nothing to work on with a
coach. But if after 5 minutes on your interactive quiz he has three
inspiring goals then he's excited! You now have a potential client.
Note: If you dont want to create such an interactive quiz yourself, along
with all the programming fees and hassle, youll probably be very happy
to know Ive created one for you! One you can host on your site. You can
put your own name and logo on it, and it sends you an e-mail when your
visitor fills it in, complete with their contact details. Currently this is free
of charge, but you should know I plan to charge for it as soon as I find
time to make the programming changes (which could be quite a while!):
http://www.FreeGoalsReport.com/register.asp

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5.2 CHOOSING YOUR DOMAIN NAME


One approach is to choose a domain which describes WHO you work with;
e.g., www.babyboomers.com or www.highenergywomen.com.
Another is to choose a domain which describes WHAT problem you solve for
them; e.g., www.careerdirection.com, or www.relationshipbliss.com.
You may even be able to fit in both; e.g., www.happymarriage4women.com.
Its also important to have a name which is search engine friendly. For
example, I chose www.life-coaching-resource.com and
www.lifecoaching.com.au. Why? Because when people search for life
coaching in the search engines, the search engines see that I have life
coaching in the domain name, and decide my site should come up pretty
high in the list. So work out your target key words the words people will
use to search for you, and get a domain that contains those words.
But clearly you cant always do all of the above in one domain name. Dont
let search engine traffic run you. A name you like, which is memorable, is
key. And its OK to have two domain names one which will be
attractive to the search engines and one which you really love to tell people.
I dont recommend having dashes in your domain name. There was a time
when the search engines really seemed to like this, but I feel that time has
passed, and its just a pain spelling it out to people. So while I do have
www.life-coaching-resource.com, I quickly got
www.lifecoachingresource.com, which I prefer.
And finally, try very hard to have your domain name match your business
name. If you have Body Bliss as your business name and heading at the top
of your site, and your web domain is www.blissfulbodies.com its confusing
for people. People want to see consistency, so dont confuse them by
diluting your brand.
Which Domain Extension to Get? Local Domain or Global?
If your target market is in your home country, then I suggest a local domain
name (e.g., ending in .com.au if in Australia, .co.uk if in the UK, .com if in
the US). However for non-US markets, theres no harm in getting the .com,
if available, in case you one day branch out to be global or target the US
market.

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For example, if you are a dentist in the UK, and only see people face to face,
youll be happy with www.happyteeth.co.uk. However, if you feel you may
one day sell e-books, books, and CDs globally on dental hygiene, you would
try and get www.happyteeth.com.
I dont like getting .net or .org or .info extensions. Its harder for people to
remember, and they come up lower down in the search engine listings.
However, sometimes youll just love a domain name so much, you may
prefer to www.happyteeth.org than to settle for
www.happyteethandgums.com. I registered www.truthaboutwomen.net
because the .com was not available, and the name was important to me.
Same with www.freecoaching.org. In fact, sometimes the .org can make it
look like its much bigger than just you kind of like an organisation, which
is not a bad perception to have out there.
Where to Look
You can search for names and variations at www.MyDomainFriend.com a
very powerful free tool.
But dont register the domain there as its a bit expensive. Once you know
the domain(s) you want, go to www.godaddy.com and register a name for
only US$9 per year.
Youll also want to check the name is not trademarked in the country where
youll do business.
Dont get discouraged if even the first twenty names you want are taken.
This is just the way it is. Keep being creative and youll soon have your
perfect domain name.

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5.3 HOSTING YOUR WEB DOMAIN


Once you have chosen your web domain and registered it, you have to find
someone to host it.
When you register a domain you pay a yearly fee just to have the rights to
the domain. A central database keeps a record that it belongs to you, and
you tell this database where your site is going to actually sit on the internet
(called Delegating your DNS). When someones web browser comes looking
for that domain, the central database (or registry) tells the browser where
your web site actually lives on the net.
This is where hosting comes in. You have to pay rent, or a monthly or
annual hosting fee to keep your web site somewhere on the internet. Now
you probably already have an Internet Service Provider (ISP) who gives you
access to the internet, and probably e-mail services as well. Many ISPs will
also host your web site for you, sometimes for free. So firstly check out this
option.
However, their customer service may not be so good. Or, they may charge
you too much for web hosting (more than US$20 per month is probably too
much). And as you expand, you may want more bells and whistles from
your web host. So whats the alternative to using your ISP for web hosting?
Unless youre good with technology, I recommend you have a web person
handle your domain for you including hosting the domain, design changes
to your site, and uploading changes to your site. In this case I recommend
you host with www.neureal.com they are amazingly cheap and allow you
to host unlimited domains for one low fee.
However, if you are not good with technology, yet still want to handle things
yourself, best not to go with Neureal. They only have e-mail support, and
without a very savvy web person, I think its best if in this case you get
telephone support so you have someone to hold your hand through the
process.

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5.4 DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE (BASIC)


A web site is not much use unless you have people seeing it! Here are some
simple and inexpensive ways to generate some quick traffic:
List your web site in your e-mail signature
List your web site on your flyer/coupon/business card (see Alliances
below for how to get these distributed widely)
Include your site in your advertisements
Include your site in your Yellow Pages listing
Reciprocal Links: Ask web sites similar to yours to put a link to your
web site, on their site. And you do the same for them. It gets you
both more traffic, and can increase your ranking in the search
engines.

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5.5 DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE (ADVANCED)


If youre really keen to get a lot of web traffic, here is a quick overview of
some advanced strategies, which Ive used very successfully:
Search Engine Optimisation
A long term, and very effective method, can be to submit your sites to the
major search engines. If you have crafted your pages properly, you will
come up near the top when people search for your target key words; e.g.,
'life coaching', 'motivational speaker', 'corporate training'.
At the time of writing, I did a quick web search for "life coaching" world wide,
and my site(s) came up at #3 on Alta Vista, #7 on Google, and #5 and #15
on Yahoo.
People ask me: Why do you come up in almost every search engine? How
do you get these top listings? And how do you get over 1,000 visitors a
week?
Let me explain my secrets to free traffic. For those new to the web, Im
talking about how to come up in the top ten listings (rankings) when
someone searches for something like "life coaching" or "business coaching"
on a search engine like AltaVista, Google, or Yahoo.
Firstly I'll outline the three ways you can go about it, and the one I
recommend.
Option 1) Pay a professional US$1,000 and more to handle it
I think this is overkill until you are sure your site is making money (say
$10,000 p.a. in revenue coming from your site). Why pay for traffic if you
can't be sure that traffic will turn into dollars? Keep your expenses low until
you can justify the investment.
Option 2) Buy reputable software to handle it
These days software can do everything from ensuring your
search-engine friendly, to submitting your 20 pages to 100
times a year (that's 24,000 submissions!) while you sleep.
coming down to below $200, this option now makes Option

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pages are
engines, 12
With prices
3) obsolete.

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Option 3) Do it yourself
This is definitely doable for example, you can submit your web pages for
free at www.addme.com to many engines. This is the approach Ive always
used but then again, Im a total geek-nerd when it comes to this stuff.
There are a couple of problems with this. Firstly, you don't know the
hundreds of tricks to make your page come up in the top ten rankings on
engines, and would be stabbing in the dark. Secondly, it will take you a lot
of hours to submit every single page to the major engines and that's just
the first time you do it! After the third time you sit down to do this, you'll
kick yourself. Also, when you want to know how visible you are on the
engines, do you really want to search all 100 engines, for each combination
of key word, for every page on your site (easily 10,000 combinations)? Or
would you prefer to leave your computer for an hour and come back to a
summary report of your top rankings, including which rankings have
changed recently?
Without hestitation, I recommend Option 2 to over 90% of professionals.
(Note: That's unless you already have $10,000 in revenue from online
sources, or plenty of startup capital then go for hiring a professional)
What Software to Buy?
It's probably most useful if I mention the key things you should have in any
software you buy. Then you can surf the web and research to your heart's
content. Or if you prefer to buy the one I use and recommend, Ill give you a
link to the free 30-day trial version at the end of this section.
http://www.BecomeaCoach.com/webposition.htm
Look for the following major features in whichever software you choose Great Articles and Advice:
You want a powerful knowledge base so you can learn what the search
engines are looking for. Also you'll want tips and tricks for how to get listed
on the major directories like Yahoo. Ideally get one that updates its
Knowledge Base regularly.
Page Creation:
Your software should help you tweak your pages so they rank highly on the
search engines, including automatically creating the much talked about 'Meta
Tags' in your pages, so you don't have to do it. Some will even create initial
pages for you!

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Automatic Submission:
Make sure your software will submit to all the major search engines
automatically. AND that you can schedule it to do a little submitting to
the engines each day, so you don't get flagged for spamming the engines.
Reporting:
You'll want a reporting engine so you can say, "Tell me my rankings for all
my web pages on say the top 50 engines, for the keywords 'life coaching'
and 'life coaching Canada'. I'll be back in an hour!" This will show you where
you're doing well, and where you need to do some more tweaking or
submitting.
Traffic Monitoring:
If you get a good one, you'll be happy to have this included without paying
extra. Let's you view how many people visited your site, say in the last
week or month, what search engines they came from, the pages they
visited, and ideally, what key words they entered into the engine!
***
So search the web for some good software. If they're any good, they
probably come up near the top in the listings! (After all, that's what they
do). Or if you want to try the one I use I'm so happy with mine I made
them one of my preferred affiliate providers. It handles all the above
recommended features plus a few more, and last time I looked the price was
still under US$200. You can read more about it here:
http://www.BecomeaCoach.com/webposition2.htm
Or go straight to downloading the free 30-day trial version here:
http://www.BecomeaCoach.com/webposition.htm
Paid Google Traffic
I use Google Adwords to gain most of my customers these days. For
Adwords you pay per click for certain keywords. Someone will type in, say,
"Life Coaching" in the Google search bar. When the search results come in,
the ads on the right show up in correlation to the key words typed in. You
only pay if someone clicks on the ad.

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The secret for me is that the products the customers buy when they come to
my sites, pay for the web traffic. As a bonus, I get lots of newsletter
subscribers.
I use Overture.com too but I don't seem to get very much traffic and it's
quite expensive.
Further Resources
If you would like a really comprehensive step-by-step guide to driving lots of
traffic to your web site, converting visitors to clients, and creating passive
revenue streams (i.e., information products), I recommend our new DVD
entitled:
How to Get 95% of Your Clients Via The Internet
(http://www.solutionbox.com/internet-marketing.htm)

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Section 6: How to Get Clients


Via Alliances
6.0 INTRODUCTION
Would you prefer to get one or one hundred clients at a time? This is the
difference between working solo, and alliances.
If you call possible clients, you make say 10 calls, and get two clients.
If you call possible alliance partners, you make say ten calls, and get two
alliance partners. These partners could send you fifty clients each over the
next year. See the power of alliances? Ten calls get you one hundred clients
instead of two.
For example, suppose you are a masseuse and do a deal with the local gym:
the gym hands out your Free Reflexology With Your First Massage coupon
to every new member. In return you make sure your clients receive the
gyms flyer once a year when you send out your Christmas mailing. Here
everyone wins. The gym wins because they get in front of perhaps 50-300
people who are committed to their well-being. The customer wins because
they get introduced to a first-class masseuse and gym, possibly with free
bonuses. And you win because you get a steady stream of clients possibly
for the rest of your life from one days work!
Or approach a local car dealer and suggest they offer one free massage with
every Mercedes sold to celebrate the sale! The car dealer pays you for,
say, two packs of ten massages (which are discounted already), and hands
them out when a sale occurs. Even better, they tell the customer youll be
in touch to set it up, and call you with the details. Pro-active is best! If they
dont go for the full price, consider offering a free book of 10 to get things
rolling, hoping theyll pay from then on. Even if they dont, bear in mind
youre being exposed to high-income clients, hopefully in your area, who
have high-income friends.

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6.1 FIVE STEP PROCESS


Heres a simple 5-step process to setting up streams of clients from
alliances
1) Target Market
In 3.1 What I Do, Who I Coach above we discussed picking your
target market i.e., WHOM you will serve. Write down characteristics
of your target market; e.g., age, income, interests, clubs they belong
to, publications they read (books, magazines, ezines). For massage
clients, you know they need to have a certain level of disposable
income, live within your area or a neighboring suburb, and be
interested in health and well being. If youre going for the corporate
sector, youre looking for progressive companies with a history of
innovation and looking after their employees; e.g., Sony Music.
2) List Providers
Make a list of who sells to this market. Who already has a relationship
with these potential clients? Order the list, starting with the most
likely and most productive at the top. Here are some examples for a
professional in say, the massage industry:
gyms
yoga studios
cafs
book clubs
health spas
dance schools
sporting clubs (e.g., tennis clubs, football clubs, squash clubs)
life coaches
counselors and therapists
accountants & financial planners
dentists
doctors
other masseuses with different styles (e.g., a deep tissue
masseuse and an aromatherapy/relaxation masseuse should
be cross-referring)

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3) They Scratch Your Back


For possible alliance partners, write next to their name what they could
do for you. Here are some examples they could:
Issue your flyer/coupon to new members.
Issue your flyer/coupon in their regular mailings.
Make your flyer/coupon/business card available on their premises
(e.g., counter or registration desk).
Display a sign at their premises, advertising your special offer.
Send a special letter or e-mail to their members advertising your
wares.
Sell your product directly; e.g., upgrade to our premium yoga
membership, and receive a voucher for 6 massages! They collect
the money, and pass the agreed fee to you.
Invite you to do a free speech for their members. Provide value
and expose your services subtly or through a special offer for their
members.
Publish your articles in their regular newsletter or magazine.
One free massage (or discounted massages) for senior staff, or all
staff who deal with the public (a great referral source!).
Pay commission on sales you send them.
4) You Scratch Their Backs
Then in the next column, write what you can offer them. You could:
Issue their flyer/coupon to your new clients.
Issue their flyer/coupon in your regular mailings.
Make their flyer/coupon/business card available on your premises
(e.g., counter or registration desk).
Display a sign at your premises, advertising their special offer.
Send a special letter or e-mail to your members advertising their
wares.

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Sell their product or offer with your product; e.g., Buy a 10-pack
of massages, and receive three free gym visits! or Buy our Gold
12-Month Program and get 3 months gym membership for 20%
off. You could even sign them up, collect their money for the gym
membership, and pass it on to the gym.
Do a free speech or teleclass (teleconference call) for their
members.
Write valuable articles for their regular newsletter or magazine.
One free massage (or discounted massages) for senior staff, or all
staff who deal with the public (a great referral source!).
Pay commission on sales they refer to you. (For a good referral
partner, you could pay them 20%, increase your fees by 20%, and
youre marketing is handled at no cost to you!)
As you can see, there are many varied possibilities. Whats important is
not the actual ideas or the details, but the principles involved. Youre
creating an exchange of value so that everyone wins. Pick one or two
ideas from the above list, or create your own! Float to your potential
alliance partners and see what comes up. Dont make it too complicated
you want it to be simple, profitable, and fun!

5) Action!
Contact at least ten possible partners over a period of 2-4 weeks. This
will be an incredible learning experience. Youll get to see what types of
alliances are most likely/responsive, which are most productive, which
are easiest and quickest to set up, and which are the most fun. You can
print our Coaching Alliance Form from Section 8.5 to assist you.
Note: It takes time, focus, and persistence to set up fruitful alliances; you
may have to chase them to set it up. But the results are worth it so do
not get discouraged! Somewhere in your area, there are many companies
or clubs hungry to increase their sales and/or increase benefits to members.
And if you supply services or products interstate or even globally, your
alliance potential is mind-boggling!

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Section 7: How to Get Clients


Via Public Speaking
7.0 INTRODUCTION
Public speaking is a great way to get clients. You speak to local clubs or
organisations (usually for free, or you get a nice pen) and give their
members a 30-minute talk at their regular meeting. You help them with a
particular issue they might be facing, youre positioned as an expert, and
they get a strong sense of who you are.
If you make it easy for them to give you their information, you can follow up
and build a relationship; e.g., through your ezine (see How to Get Clients
Via The Internet above).
Some in the audience will want to have you speak at their club or company,
and it may not be long before youre starting to charge a fee.
And, when you have a great talk, you can record it and sell it on CD!
I gained several long-term clients, and my first paid corporate speeches, out
of free speaking on the local club circuit.

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7.1 CREATING YOUR SPEECH


So what to speak on? And to whom?
Pick your topic, niche, and target market
You need to decide who you will speak to. In 3.1 What I Do, Who I Coach
above we discussed picking your target market, i.e., WHOM you will serve.
Who do you want to help?
Women? Teens? Corporations? People in Rehabilitation? Spiritual people?
When you know who you will speak to/help, you can start to try and find
them.
Ideally, choose people who would pay for your services who have money.
Pick a topic which solves a problem people have. If you speak on
enlightenment for underprivileged children youll likely command a lower
fee than if you speak on how to make your customers choose your company
over others. Of course if money isnt important to you, this wont matter.
Speak on something thats VERY important to you and which you feel makes
a difference to the world. If you dont come from the heart and say what
you really feel/mean, you wont get the gigs, youll be unhappy, or both.
You should also speak on something where you truly believe you have
something to offer. I believe helping women through menopause is a
valuable topic. But I know absolutely nothing about it!
Create a title for a talk something thats IMPORTANT for your target
market. And come up with three to four topics you would cover in that talk
(in a 30 to 45 minute talk you cant normally cover more topics, especially if
youll leave time for questions.)
Now, before you waste time putting it together, check with your friends
ideally people who are in your target market and see if they have interest
in hearing it. I mean a real spark. If people wont get in their car and drive
to hear it, its a dud. If you dont get a good response, ask them what they
WOULD drive across town to listen to.

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Exercise:
Imagine you will die at midnight tonight.
Your friends and family have been invited to come to a great hall to hear you
share what you have learned, that you wish to pass on to others.
At 9pm you walk onto the stage. You look around at their smiling, loving
faces. They are listening, ready to soak up what you have to pass on.
You have 30 minutes to speak. Write down what you say to them, that it
may be passed on from generation to generation.
Introduction:

- Tell them what you are going to tell them


- Include what gives you credibility to speak on the
topic, and WHY you left home to come and speak on it

Main Section :

Tell them what you want to tell them


Point, story illustrating point, point
Point, story illustrating point, point
Point, story illustrating point, point

Conclusion:

- Tell them what you told them


- Reiterate why its important
- Possibly let them know briefly what you do and how you
can help them
- Consider leaving them with an action they can take;
perhaps invite them to email you the results.

Questions:

- (Optional 5-10 minutes)

Prepare Your Handouts


The actual speech is important. However, they will rarely hire you for your
services on the spot!
Therefore, its important to give them something they can take away, that
has your contact information on it. Give them something of value that they
might want to keep. It can be a simple Top Ten list, or even a Fridge
Magnet.

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Also I highly recommend you find a way to get THEIR information. I like
to use a feedback sheet that allows them to make suggestions to my speech.
On the same form, I ask what they might be interested in (free coaching
session, free newsletter, more information, products, speaking at their
company), I ask for a testimonial (optional), and their contact information
(optional). At the end of the talk, youll have a few handy leads to follow up.

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7.2 PRACTICING YOUR SPEECH


Firstly, go through it on your own, until you can finish it on time, and
without looking at your notes too often.
Record your speech and listen to yourself; youll learn a lot and get several
ideas of things to change.
Preparing notes is fine you dont have to memorise it. But, I recommend
knowing your talk so well that with just a glance at a list of bullet points you
can know whats next, and then speak directly to your audience on each
point.
Its not critical that you deliver it word for word. Whats more important is
the energy of your talk; that youre connected with and passionate about
your topic. Feel free to ad lib, as long as you stay within your time limit.
Once you have your speech ready, prepare a final bullet list of points
these are your notes, just in case you need them.
Invite some trusted friends over to hear your talk, and offer them dinner
(even if you just pay for pizza). When the time comes above all let go
of your attachment to the outcome!
Give up your ego, and go there to a) be authentic, and b) contribute to
them. If you actually chill out and have fun, not caring if youre invited
back, they are likely to have a good time. YOU MUST BE YOU!
At the end of the talk, ask them to give you honest feedback how they
felt, what was useful, and what you can improve.
Also ask them to write out a testimonial; e.g., I really enjoyed Jennys talk
on Choosing Your Dream Career. I feel motivated to start researching my
next career, and Im going to the library tomorrow!
Of course they need to be honest, writing down whats authentic for them.
If theyre willing to include their name, title and company even better!
After including your friends adjustments to your speech, and practicing
again, youre ready!

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7.3 GETTING THE BOOKINGS


1) Create your sales material
The simplest thing you can start with is a bio or Biography. A simple Word
or pdf document that you can hand, fax, mail, or e-mail to a speaker-seeker.
Work out what will give you credibility when creating your bio. Include the
topic of your talk and the key benefits to your audience and a good head
shot. If you have done other talks, list the groups and the topics.
(While its not specifically a speaking bio, Ive included my bio as an example
in the Appendix.)
You can start to expand this until you have quite a comprehensive
promotional package. You may include articles that have been written by
the speaker or about the speaker (i.e., media mentions), a couple of
testimonial letters, and ultimately a short video. Many groups will request
testimonials, even the ones that are not paying.
And of course list your web site, which may eventually include several
dynamic pics of you speaking, audio clips, and ultimately streaming video.
2) Select target organisations
Who would benefit from your talk and ideally would pay for it (associations,
clubs, charities, corporations)? Some will pay; some are just a training
ground, testimonial builder, and a place to get individual clients! Source
them from friends, yellow pages, people in the speaking industry, Chambers
of Commerce, Libraries, a local chapter of The National Speakers Association
(NSA). All will have a list of service groups, associations, etc... that want
and need speakers. Joining a Toastmaster group is also a great idea, and
they have a speakers bureau, which supports their members in getting
speaking engagements.
Call or email your friends and colleagues and ask them which clubs they
belong to which might need a speaker.
You might provide lunch and learns at companies and organizations. These
are for free or fee, and are provided during the employees lunch hour. It is
a way for the company to provide self-development/educational programs
and for you to get in front of decision-makers and show them what you can
do. Your friends within corporations might be able to put you in touch with
the right person who organises or approves these within the company.

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3) Construct your offer


What can you offer the speaker-seeker? (e.g., free talk, talk with a money
back guarantee, talk in exchange for a testimonial, workshop, keynote for
conferences?) Most talks in the beginning are free to service groups,
associations and such.
Also offer to supply an article or a series of articles, for the organisation or
company newsletter. What a great way to consistently get in front of an
audience and for free! It also gives the audience a chance to warm up to
you before you speak to them.
4) Develop your plan for approaching your targets
Will you e-mail the groups? Followed by a call? Cold call? Letter plus call?
Note: You might score a speech/lunch time talk, particularly if you mention a
solid fee and let them know you would discount if they provide a testimonial
and couple of referrals if they are pleased with the talk.
But likely if they are willing to put your information on file you will get a
call down the track or be considered for their conference. See if you can find
out when they will be thinking about a speaker for their conference or event,
and make a note in your diary to call then.
Write out your action plan, and include by when you will complete each
item.
5) Take massive action
Well this one is pretty self-explanatory.

6) Develop a relationship with a successful speaker


Ask for referrals of the ones he/she is not willing to do; e.g., they cant pay
enough. Offer to go along and assist at their talks. Many really are open to
this kind of help. Or ask them what kind of help they could use. Many new
speakers apprentice, and again, a local chapter of the NSA is a great place to
find a speaker that one can shadow. Also, the local chapters of NSA have
mentoring programs that match up new speakers with experienced ones.

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7) At the end gather testimonials


Always ask for a letter from each group you speak to; this will build your
testimonial file. When you go out to speak for money, these letters will come
in handy.
Use a feedback form (see Preparing Your Handouts above) to get
testimonials from participants, collect their personal information for your
newsletter, and to see if they would like a free session. Follow up promptly,
or better still, find someone else to input and follow up!

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7.4 ADVANCED TIPS


This section is for professionals who want to move to paid speaking; i.e., not
just speaking for food, or speaking to get clients.

Hone your speech


Get feedback using evaluation forms and improve it. Get videoed and
consider work with a speaking/comedy coach. At the very least tape
yourself giving your talk, and then listen to yourself and evaluate how you
did. Also, tape every talk you give. The insights that you will get will be
invaluable and will allow you to continually improve your presentation.
Come up with ONE SPEECH which, is truly excellent and has your audience
telling everyone about it. Make it interactive, fun, funny, memorable, and
give them something to take away to remember you that has your contact
details on it. Perhaps give away prizes for participation.

Your web site


Promote your speaking on your web site. Include photos of you speaking
and perhaps a brief audio segment. When youre ready, include streaming
video.
Have a button where they can order your promotional package, which might
include a video of you speaking.

Create product
Once youre out there speaking, youll want products to sell. Create a tape
series, book or video. Also partner with someone else who has something
you dont sell, so you sell their product and they sell yours. Give away one
from the platform as a prize. If you have a speech, you have a tape. Once
you get your talk perfect, go into a recording studio and record it, or even
better record it professionally during a live speech. Have it professionally
packaged and sell it in the back of the room at all your talks.
(Note: More information on creating product and passive revenue is included
in our new DVD: How to Get 95% of Your Clients from the Internet, found
at: http://www.solutionbox.com/internet-marketing.htm)

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Fee negotiation
When asked to speak at a corporation, theres no harm in trying for a fee.
Rule of thumb: whoever mentions money first loses. When asked how much
one charges, ask what the budget is. This gives you an opportunity to see
what they are charging and if you are willing to speak for that. When calling
a service group or organization one can always ask what the budget is for
speakers. Many have honorariums that they provide to speakers.
If they are not forthcoming, and you have to mention an amount, something
like $150 or $200 is reasonable to start with, moving up to $500 when
youre well known and have a killer speech. And its up to $10,000 when
you really get up there, and are doing keynotes at national conferences.
But initially, if you just want the gigs for clients, experience, a testimonial,
and a chance at some paid work, then still ask for a fee but negotiate
down as far as zero if you have to. Well, because Im going to get A, B, C
out of it Id be willing to do a freebie.
Sometimes you can ramp the fee up a little by offering a coaching session or
package to senior staff.

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***
OK you should have enough material to last you for a very long
time!
I trust you have enjoyed this Manual, and encourage you to apply
these strategies thoroughly to your practice.
Fill your practice and give your gifts to the world!
Best regards,

http://www.CoachStart.com
http://www.BecomeaCoach.com
http://www.SolutionBox.com

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Section 8: Further Resources


First Fifty Clients
How to get your first fifty clients - without being 'pushy'. Lessons
from Davids speech delivered to the ICF Conference, available on
audio CD.
www.FirstFiftyClients.com
10 Super Coaches Share Their Secrets
What's the fastest way to a build a thriving coaching practice?
Get inside the minds of people like you who've built a hugely
profitable practice from scratch and learn exactly how they
did it. In this e-book are interviews with top coaches on how
they built successful coaching businesses.
www.10SuperCoaches.com
Explode Your Coaching Practice
This 6x Audio CD set contains live recordings of Davids most
powerful coach mentoring sessions. Have David as your mentor
coach, and save yourself the fee! Covers the full range of practice
building techniques.
www.ExplodeYourPractice.com
Top Coaching Techniques
Get what the coaching schools cant give you: access to Real
Life coaching sessions! With his clients generous permission, be
a fly on the wall for Davids most powerful coaching sessions
plus hear feedback on each session by a Master Certified
Coach. 7x Audio CD set.
www.TopCoachingTechniques.com
How to Get 95% of Your Clients From The Internet
Ready to attract a steady stream of clients via the internet? This
information-packed double DVD will show you how to drive traffic to your
web site, convert that traffic to visitors, and how to turn your valuable
knowledge into products so you can get paid while you sleep.
http://www.solutionbox.com/internet-marketing.htm

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8.1 COACH TRAINING SCHOOLS


If youre searching for the right training school for you, I know it can be
quite confusing. So Ive compiled:
-

A list of coach training schools


Summary information including cost and ICF accreditation
status
Reviews from students of those schools
Details of training specials offered by the schools

You may view this compilation online here:


http://www.BecomeaCoach.com

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8.2 SAMPLE BIO


David's job is to ask: "What do you want?" and "What
are you doing about it?"
As an actuary and management consultant in New
York, David advised some of the largest corporations in
the world on incentive schemes for their employees
around the globe. He presented to such organisations
as IBM, Sony Music, Exxon, Ford, Chrysler and General
Motors.
Now, after extensive training in communication,
relationships, goal-setting and coaching, he's chosen to
work with people, instead of money.
He normally works with between 10 and 20 clients, and coaches via phone
from his base in Byron Bay, Australia (and occasionally from Sydney and
New York). To date, David's clients have been based in the US, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Italy,
Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Japan. He has coached oncamera for two national television networks.
David has been awarded the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) designation
by the International Coach Federation based in Washington, D.C., and is one
of seven coaches at the time of writing to hold this designation in Australia.
He enjoys fun with his partner Bronwyn, friendships, high-energy coaching
sessions, developing new coaching products, and watching the West Wing!

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8.3 TARGET MARKET WORKSHEET

Possible
Niche

Their Key
Problem(s)

Your Key
Benefits

e.g. Men over


50 who are
overweight

Overweight,
cant get dates
or sex, scared
of heart attack

Fit and
trim, abs
of steel,
confidence,
reduce
risk of
heart
attack

Your Services
/ Products

Book on willpower,
ab cruncher, diet
pills, gym
membership

Where to
Find This
Group

Gym
Newsletters
and
noticeboard,
Health
Magazines,
Referrals
from
Doctors.

1.

2.

3.

4.

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

100

8.4 PRACTICE DESIGN FORM


This form will help you design your coaching service. In some cases you
might like to choose more than one option, to create more than one service.
For example, have both structured weekly calls and random calls when the
client feels the need, or print off two forms to create two services.
The Policies section is particularly important. Without clearly defined and
communicated policies, including consequences, the client may not respect
the coaching relationship and therefore may not get the results. To put it
another way, expect most clients to walk all over you!

Coaching Format
I offer coaching by:
Face-to-face

Phone

If face to face, at:


My home/office

E-mail

Clients home/office

Neutral location

If e-mail, e-mail is.


Unlimited Limited to one cyber session per week
Limited to ____ e-mails per week.
If phone:
I call client

Client calls me

Between sessions, client is allowed:


0

Unlimited calls if needed

I pay for calls:


Local

101

National

International

No calls

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

Coaching Hours
(Its a good idea to have clearly defined times)
The times and days I coach are:
__________________________________
I will make exceptions:

Yes

No

Session Duration
30 minutes

45 minutes

1 hour

1.5 hours

Breaks Between Sessions


0

15

30

60 minutes

Coaching Cycle and Number of Sessions


Four weekly cycle:
One session each week for four weeks
One session each week for three weeks, rest on the fourth week
Monthly Cycle:
One session each week for one month (i.e. four sessions some
months, five sessions other months)
One session each week for one month, but resting on any fifth
week.
Free-flowing Cycle:
Client has ____ session to use whenever they like during a
____________ period. (When final call is made, client is billed for a
new cycle)

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

102

Contract/Agreement Term
4 weeks/1month 12 weeks/3 months

26 weeks/6 months

Billing
Fee for above service: _____________ per cycle or period
Willing to discount?
Minimum Fee:

Yes!

No

____________

Payment Methods:
Cheque/money order
Cash
First Payment Due:
Pay by first session

Major credit cards


Contra deal (value exchange/barter)
Send check within 24 hours

Next payments due:


Before the 5th, 9th, 13th etc. session
On the ___ day of the month
(Note: if you want all client cycles to begin the same day each month,
you will need to charge a pro-rated payment to bring them up to your
standard billing cycle.)
Guarantee
No Guarantee

103

Guarantee ________________

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

Refund Policy

If you cease coaching before the end of a cycle, you receive:


No refund Pro rata refund

Full refund

Exceptions:
_____________________________________________________
If I stop the coaching before the end of a cycle (e.g. because
you have not met your Requirements), you receive:
No refund Pro rated refund Full refund
Exceptions:
_____________________________________________________
(Note: if your policy is to provide a refund if they dont meet your
requirements, we suggest not communicating this up front as it may
weaken the accountability and can provide an easy way out for your
more slippery clients!)

Reschedule Policy
With _____ days/hours notice I will _______________________
____________________________________________________
Without this notice:
____________________________________________________
Additional guide:
I am a sap and will let sessions slide to the next week for any
reason
Sessions may only be postponed in the event of
____________________________

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

104

Late Call Policy


If you are late for your call,_______________________________
_____________________________________________________
If you are consistently late for your call, ____________________
_____________________________________________________
Additional guide:
You forfeit the missed time
I will make up the missed time only if your excuse is excellent and
non-repeated
Missed Session Policy
If you miss your session without prior arrangement, ____________
______________________________________________________
If you consistently miss sessions, ___________________________
_______________________________________________________
Additional guide:
You forfeit the missed session
I will make up the missed session only if your excuse is excellent
and non-repeated
Cancelled Call Policy
(Often similar to Missed Call Policy, and may be merged into that
policy)
If you cancel your session ________________________________
______________________________________________________
If you are consistently cancel sessions, ______________________
______________________________________________________
Additional guide:
You forfeit the cancelled session
I will make up the cancelled session only if your excuse is excellent
and non-repeated

105

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

Late Payment Policy


If your payment is late, I will immediately _____________________
_______________________________________________________
If you are consistently late, I will ____________________________
_______________________________________________________
Additional guide:
You forfeit the cancelled session
I will make up the cancelled session only if your excuse is excellent
and non-repeated
Standards for Your Practice
(Dont take on more than you can implement)
I make/receive every call exactly on time
I never miss a coaching session
I respond to all calls & e-mails a) within 24 hours b) the same day
I tell the truth always
I do not withhold anything from the client
If I have an agenda or hidden objective, I will disclose it immediately
I will act at all times as a model for my clients
My papers and client notes will be filed neatly
I invoice on time, pay my bills on time (including refunds), and bank
payments within three days.
Other: ______________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________

The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

106

8.5 COACHING ALLIANCE FORM

My Target Market:

Alliance
Providers

What Can They What Can I Do


Do For Me?
For Them?

Contact
Information

1.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

107

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The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

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The CoachStart Manual


SolutionBox 2000-2005
www.SolutionBox.com

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