My Essay Blog

This is one of the most frequently asked questions, particularly by new coaches. Of course, there is no single correct answer. You should do what’s right for you and for your vision of your coaching business. As such it’s critical to stay mindful of your objectives.

There are generally 4 reasons why as a coach you would undertake pro bono work:

1. You are a new coach and want to build your confidence and coaching hours.

2. You are a coach that has been practicing for some time and perform pro bono work for benevolent reasons.

3. You use a free session as part of your sales process.

4. You are a practicing coach that performs pro bono work as a strategy to build your business.

Here are our thoughts on the above:

1. As a new coach it’s very important to build your confidence. Your confidence (or lack thereof) will play an integral role in your success or otherwise. With this in mind, offering pro bono sessions in the early stages of your business can be worthwhile.

2. Offering free coaching sessions for benevolent reasons is simply a matter of personal choice. As a coach you should have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. If delivering free sessions for benevolent reasons fits into your vision, then go for it.

3. Many coaches offer free introductory sessions as part of their sales process. Their reasoning is that a free session upfront assists the potential client understand the coaching process and builds rapport. Whilst we strongly advocate testing different strategies to improve your business, this may be a dangerous practice. Offering free introductory sessions can devalue your service and attract a lot of ‘tyre kickers.’ We suggest that you try a twist to this strategy. If you want to offer a free introductory session, you do so as part of a longer term contract with a guarantee. IE You get your prospect to sign up for a 3 or 6-month coaching contract, and as part of that contract you provide a free introductory session. This will ensure the prospect is serious, and upsells them into a larger contract that may otherwise be difficult to achieve later. This strategy can work well when used in conjunction with a guarantee. You simply say to your prospect that if they enter into the contract, you will provide them a free introductory session, and if they feel for whatever reason that coaching will not assist them achieve their goals, they can opt out of the contract at any point.

4. Many coaches provide pro bono sessions to assist them build their business. They achieve this by very carefully selecting their pro bono clients. A pro bono client can assist build your business if they are well networked within your niche and willing to provide referrals or can assist you in other business building aspects of your business. IE They can assist you get public speaking arrangements; are willing to be a ‘specialist’ on your tele-class session; will provide a testimonial etc.

If you decide that you want to deliver free sessions for whatever reason, here are 6 important things to keep in mind:

1. Treat all pro bono clients as paying clients. There is nothing worse for word of mouth than undervaluing the coaching relationship with a pro bono client. Remember, word of poor service spreads 10 times as far as word of good service!

2. Find them, don’t let them find you.

3. Get testimonials. Testimonials are a very powerful endorsement of your service. When prospects consider contracting your services they can be dramatically influenced by testimonials. Even more so if the testimonial is from a recognised leader, expert or acknowledged person within your niche.

4. Get clients from your niche, and preferably someone that can help you into a network. If you can do this, it will be a powerful leverage for your business.

5. Get paying referrals. Always get referrals from pro bono clients. And don’t offer pro bono work to referrals of pro bono clients.

6. Don’t overload. This stands to reason. Your time is your commodity. If you spend all your time providing services for free, you’ll have no time left for paying clients.

It is that time of year again. Xmas is just around the corner and then a week later we will be toasting in the New Year. Streets, offices, and coffees shops are already buzzing with all the talk of the resolutions we plan to start on New Year’s Day. However, more often than not, the 1st of the year rolls around and we are still too full of the joys of the season to bother with our resolutions, but we resolve to start our plans in the new week. Unfortunately that date is often not adhered to either for a variety of legitimate or not so legitimate reasons.

What do we do? Well most of us almost literally take a club and beat ourselves up for our half-hearted attempts. We manage to pull off a few weeks or months during the year where we take some form of action in trying to reach our goals, but don’t really get anywhere and then all too soon New Year creeps up on us again.

It seems that the expectations we set ourselves up for at this time of year perpetuates yearly cycles of self-defeat, loss of self-esteem and entrenched beliefs that we are weak and cannot trust ourselves to make promises and goals and stick to them.

I feel that if approached differently we can turn this around and get to see the self-confident and goal-oriented individuals that we are. Why do we need to set ourselves up for failure? We know that more times than not most New Years’ resolutions are not adhered to. Lets face it, just how practical is it to start that diet on the 1st of January when all the delicious leftovers of the season still fills our fridges? Even more ridiculous is the idea of climbing on a treadmill when you are still full of the celebratory champagne of the New Year’s Eve function the night before.

I am going to suggest you be bold and step out of the self-defeating mould that we set ourselves up for around this time of year and TAKE ACTION NOW! Whatever it is you want to achieve, there is no time like the present to start making your dreams come true. If you are prepared to wait until after the new Year, maybe you need to rethink your goals and check if it is something you really want or not. What better motivation for the New Year than to already be 2 weeks into your New Year Resolution by the time the 1st January 2006 knocks at your door?

You have time now to ask yourself: “Is this really what I want?” Are you that interested in making your dreams become reality? Have you considered what a difference it might make to you if you not longer put off what you can start today?

I challenge you not to wait until the morning of the 1st January 2006 to start your list of resolutions. Take up the challenge and start today.

Don’t worry about doing whatever you want to do perfectly. Just start it! You can always make changes along the way. The idea is to take action. It is much easier to take action when you don’t expect precision. Then, obstacles will not frighten you. Being flexible is part of the learning process. Expect some hiccups, be prepared for them, and know that action, perfect or not will bring results.

Why wait until the New Year knocks at our door?

Quote of the week

“Action conquers fear.” Peter Nivio Zarlenga

Powerful question for the week

What New Year’s resolution are you considering that cannot be started tomorrow or the next day?

Many coaches use the ‘wheel of life’, some know HOW to use the information and some don’t.

Are your needs been met by being asked to complete the wheel of life?

What information does the wheel of life hold?

Well you can answer the first, and I guess you may not know if the wheel has actually helped.

Just because you score low on a wheel of life in a particular area doesn’t mean that that area is to be worked on immediately. Yes it may need work however what reason have you been given as to WHY?

The answer is in the calculation required to properly evaluate the areas that need immediate attention.

It is recommended that the wheel of life be completed at least twice in one 12-month period, more if required. However the areas covered in the WoL are not trivial they cover the 8 major areas of all our lives, because this is the case it may take more than a few weeks to make any significant changes, requiring multiple stabs at the wheel.

Here is the correct way to use the wheel of life and calculate the average of your scores. In doing this you will be highlighting what areas on the wheel you need to concentrate on first.

You can draw your own wheel or you can download one from .successbydesign.ltd.uk/wheel.jpg.

The below descriptions are supplied by Glen Mcquirk of the purpose club; I am an authorised distributor of his products in the UK and founder member.

The areas covered are FAMILY, MENTAL, PHYSICAL, FINANCIAL, CAREER, SOCIAL, RECRIATIONAL & SPIRITUAL.

For each area there are a few guidelines to consider before rating your score.

FAMILY: Relationships. Spouse. Children.

If you are un-married, your parents and siblings (brothers and sisters) or perhaps your boyfriend or girlfriend. Relationships with friends and strangers or extended family would also fall into this category, but are far less important for this evaluation.

MENTAL: Personal development. Problem solving. Ideas. Inventions. Innovations.

The brain is the most exciting creation in the universe. Are you feeding it? Are you continually growing? Do you have a personal development programme?

PHYSICAL: Health. Exercise. Eating habits. Weight. Dress. Grooming.

Your body is key to your success. You cannot do without it. The poorer it is looked after, the more difficult it is to sustain the energy required to reach great goals. Do you have an exercise programme? Do you eat healthy food? Do you dress well? Are you your ideal body weight? Do you injure your life sustaining body cells through smoke inhalation, alcohol or any other drug intake?

FINANCIAL: Money. Wealth accumulation. Lifestyle.

How much do you make and how much do you keep? Do you earn a residual income? Is your income continually growing? If your income stream stopped today, how long could you maintain your current lifestyle? Do you have sufficient income to realise your dreams?

CAREER: Job. Business. Hobby. Purpose. Mission. Vision.

Where are you going? Are you doing what you were born to do? Do you love your job / business? Have you a plan to improve your position? When have you planned to take your next promotion? Do you have a career plan? Is this career going to allow you to reach your dreams?

SOCIAL: Community. Environment. Giving. Voluntary service.

Do you give back to society? Do you support others financially or in kind? Do you contribute to or do any charitable work? Do you use your expertise to help and benefit others? Giving to those less fortunate than yourself is most rewarding: it energises you. Are you taking care of your environment? Are you making a difference in your community?

RECRIATIONAL: Holiday. Time out. Rest. Restoration. Recuperation.

Rest and Restoration, when did you last go away and just do nothing? Taking time out is more important than you think, to recharge your batteries. Holidays are enjoyable, but sometimes they can drain you. What are you doing to ensure that you have adequate rest and restoration throughout the year?

SPIRITUAL: Creator. Relationship. Worship. Scripture. Meditation. Prayer. Faith.

Do you have a personal relationship with a creator? Is this a strong relationship? What are you doing to strengthen it? Do you know and understand your purpose? Are you thankful? Do you exercise faith or fear? Have you investigated your faith? Do you pray/meditate regularly?

Spirituality is a difficult area and often substituted in the wheel, however it is very important. We are all spiritual entities so belief in yourself would appear in this area. If you believe in a God or the Universe then here is where you would rate your belief. If you are not sure then this area would score a low rating and may need some work.

The key is to score yourself by comparing where you are in relation to where you want to be. Not to score yourself in relation to other people. Their position has no relevance to your future success.

After drawing your wheel or downloading it you will then start from the top of the list and score yourself, taking into account the subject guideline. A score of 10 would mean that you have reached all your goals in a particular area of life and you are totally satisfied with where you are. A score of 0 would imply that you have neglected that particular area totally and feel that you need to take some action to rectify your identified imbalance. Don’t spend too much time analysing each area psychologically or scientifically, but rather go with your instinct, your gut feel.

Work in a clockwise direction and continue to score yourself, use a pencil in case of errors and place a dot adjacent to the area under consideration.

Join all eight dots.

How smooth is your wheel?

The steps that follow show how you should go about achieving a balanced life. Calculate your average score by adding all eight scores and dividing the total by eight. EG (5+6+7+4+4+7+2+3+5)/8 = 38/8 = 4.75. Draw a circle in dotted lines representing your average score. The areas whose score falls below this average line are the areas that require your urgent attention. Your first goal is to raise these scores to equal the average line.

Once you have successfully raised your low scores up to the average level, you are ready to take the next step towards living a balanced life.

Draw a circle to mark the score of your best performing area, in the case of this example the score as a 7.

All areas falling below this line must be raised in order to achieve balance. This you do by strengthening your areas for improvement in all areas that fall below the perfectly balanced wheel.

Most coaches get involved in coaching for one extremely compelling and valuable purpose &ndash because they want to make a positive impact to the lives of others.

As a coach, the extent to which you are able to fulfil that objective is contingent upon two factors. Firstly, your skill and effectiveness as a coach; and secondly, on the number of clients you are able to affect through the application of your services. The purpose of this article is to focus on the second factor.

In the process of assisting people, it’s also possible for coaches to develop a fruitful lifestyle for themselves along the way. In fact, these objectives are entirely complimentary.

Many business people, including coaches, fail to recognise the important ethical role that marketing plays in their business. In doing so they develop a mindset that is self defeating to themselves, their business, and their clients.

As a coach, you are in business. How effectively you operate your business is entirely contingent on you. There are enormously successful coaches (in terms of client numbers, income and coaching outcomes), and coaches that are barely able to etch out a living. The difference between these extremes is not their coaching competency, but rather their mindset. You may be an incredibly skilful coach, but unless you have people willing to use your services, your skills are of little to no value.

So what mindset does it take to be a successful coach?

A successful coaching mindset:

- Puts the needs of prospects and clients first;

- Actively seeks to assist clients attain their objectives;

- Is empathetic to the needs of clients and prospects;

- Doesn’t limit the service offered to clients, and

- Acts as an ethical adviser.

It takes a Marketing Mindset to be a successful coach.

We regularly hear of coaches that feel as though marketing is ‘leading’ and ‘unethical.’ They feel as though it’s too ‘salesy’ and don’t feel comfortable with it. For those coaches, we’re going to explain why marketing is both ethically valid and commercially crucial.

Ethical Validity

There is an enormous (and growing) volume of people in society that would benefit from coaching services. Let’s call these people prospective coaching clients, or prospects. These prospects have specific goals they’d like to achieve, or challenges they’d like to overcome, with a view to leading a better and more fulfilling life.

As a coach you have a certain duty of care to assist these people. You can only begin to assist them once they’re utilising your services. Marketing is the link between the prospects desire and your ability to assist them fulfil their desire.

Marketing only becomes unethical in the circumstance that you are not able to fulfil your marketing promise to your client. In this instance you’ve misled your client, either knowingly or unknowingly, and have acted unethically.

On the premise that prospects will seek a coach to assist them attain their specific goals, it’s the ethical obligation of coaches to help prospects select a coach that will best be able to assist them. To do this coaches should fully, comprehensively and transparently disclose to prospects what services they offer; where their specialties lie; what experience they have; how they’ve assisted people with similar desires in the past; and how using their services will benefit them. Or to state it more simply, to undertake marketing.

Commercially Crucial

Marketing is commercially crucial because it links prospects that desire a certain outcome with skilled professionals trained to assist them achieve that outcome. It identifies you as someone that may be able to assist prospects with their pre-qualified needs. By seeking out information on coaching services, prospects have already identified for themselves:

1. That there are certain things in their life they’d like to attain or challenges they’d like to overcome.

2. That a coach is a person with the requisite skills and experience to assist them.

3. That they are willing to invest financially in the process.

The above is an extremely important point, and one that coaches need to accept.

As we explained earlier, coaches generally come from one of two schools of thought with respect to marketing.

The first school of thought perceives marketing to be ‘leading’ and ‘salesy.’ They come from the paradigm that by marketing you are proactively influencing someone in their decisions. Or specifically that you may make someone do something they would not otherwise do. We call this train of thought the Influencing Paradigm.

The second school of thought accepts that prospects are people that have identified for themselves their need to invoke change. And they’ve identified that a coach will assist them make that change. They recognise that the prospect has made the intellectual link between their needs and how they want those needs to be fulfilled. We call this train of thought the Service Paradigm.

The thought processes of these two perspectives are entirely dipolar. One positions the prospect as someone reluctantly influenced into utilising a service, and the other positions the prospect as a proactive individual capable of determining their needs that has actively sought out coaching services.

As a coach, it’s critical that you put yourself in the second paradigm of thinking. Only then will you be able to ethically fulfil your objective of assisting your clients. And only then will you be able to fulfil your symbiotic goal of building a successful coaching business.

By putting yourself in the Service Paradigm of thought you will recognise that to assist clients meet their objectives, you should:

a) Actively promote your services through compelling advertising that clearly describes what you can offer clients.

b) Understand that as a coach and a trusted advisor you are often in a better position of knowledge to ascertain your client needs to assist them attain their goals.

c) Be empathetic to the needs of your clients and actively offer solutions to them through various products and services.

d) Value your client’s intellect and decision making ability.

e) Do not pre-empt your client’s wants and hence limit the range and scope of products and services you offer them.

f) Always acts as an ethical adviser.

Once you embrace the Service Paradigm to marketing, you’ll realise that marketing provides you with a much greater opportunity to fulfil your primary objectives &ndash to assist your clients, and to build a successful coaching business. These objectives become complimentary and you create a truly win-win situation between the desires of your clients and your own desires.

In the second part of this article we’ll provide you with further information on how to develop your Marketing Mindset and a Service Paradigm.

While an individual would like to improve an aspect or certain aspects of their life so they can achieve a specific goal, or set of goals.

I haven’t got time to relax &ndash really? Have you got time not too?

Being able to relax is important to achieving optimal performance and health. You name it; being relaxed will increase your productivity in it. If you’re not relaxed, everything you do will be a struggle. Relaxation provides mind-body integration necessary for peak performance.

It is important to relax to get your mind clear and your body tension free; to regain focus and to cool down and to help return to a balanced physical state. Relaxation is vital for a healthy mind and is required to maintain motivation and interest in our lives and careers. Not being able to relax and unwind can be damaging to your health. Even when there are huge demands on your life, you may have a large family, an important career, and a home amongst your other weekly commitments - it is still necessary to find your own time and space to relax.

It is very important that throughout the day we find time to relax. Twenty minutes, two or three times a day, is preferred. If you can’t manage twenty minutes, it’s important to realise that whatever amount of time you do manage to get to relax will be beneficial to your mind and body, even if not noticeably so.

When time is short there are a number of things you can do: reading, writing, daydreaming or just sitting quietly. Quite often what ever you do to relax will be personal and work for you, so you need to find what works best.

As a Life Coach I have worked with numerous people with issues relating to relaxation and stress etc. It’s interesting that initially many find it difficult to slow down and see the benefits of taking more time out. However after a few weeks and a couple of life coaching sessions focused on this area, and a bit of commitment on their part, most change their ways and wax lyrical about the benefits to their lives.

Some of the common benefits of relaxation are:

• It improves your ability to concentrate. It will help you in your ability to tune out distractions and gives you better sensory awareness.

• It improves body awareness; you need to know when you are under or over doing it.

• It speeds up healing time following an injury and fatigue, the body needs to recover fully if it’s going to perform at an optimal level in the near future.

• Learning is enhanced, it is much easier to introduce new thoughts and ideas when your mind is clear and you are relaxed. Skills are best learned when you are in a relaxed state and there is an absence of tension.

• It helps you sleep better

• You become more efficient

• It puts your focus back on the present and gives you a sense of control

• It increases energy

If you don’t take the time to unwind and relax regularly, you might be putting not only your own health and well-being at risk but also that of others as well.

In relation to your responsibility to the health and safety of others; we only have to think of driving a car, or operating machinery, and how our ability to do these tasks diminishes when we are tense, tired and stressed. So in fact our responsibility to relax is not just for our own sake but also for that of others.

With regards to our own health and emotional well-being, if we don’t make time to relax regularly we are putting our health and mental health at risk of failure. Some of the effects of lack of relaxation are below:

• Headache, common ones being tension headaches and migraines. Controlling tension and relaxing can help migraines. Tension headaches are susceptible by definition to treatment by relaxation.

• Chronic fatigue, your body is in a total sate of fatigue. You suffer from total lack of energy and motivation all of the time.

• Cardiovascular disorders, high blood pressure and heart disease, heart attack.

• Gastrointestinal problems, diarrhoea, constipation and stomach ulcers as well as indigestion and heartburn.

• Poor immune system, becoming susceptible to illness

Early warning signs that we need to have a break and relax are:

• Yawning/sighing

• Lack of concentration

• Feeling the urge to stretch and move about

• General drop in performance

• Feelings of stress and irritability

• Performing uncommon errors

• Tiredness

If we are aware of the signs and take notice of them and take a break etc, you could avoid a lot of stress and fatigue, you will be more rational and focused, and better equipped to carry on, and be far healthier.

Spending a lifetime of ignoring the signs could impact heavily, not only on your health, well-being and happiness but also those around you. Relationships could suffer as well as your career. On a personal note, the consequences of not taking time to relax over a lifetime could mean you pay the ultimate price.

You say you don’t have time to relax. I say you don’t have time not too. You are your own best resource; you need to take time to nurture and look after yourself.

In a previous article we discussed the distinction between an Influencing Paradigm, and a Service Paradigm, to marketing your coaching business. We discussed how marketing your business is both ethically valid and commercially crucial, and how marketing is a critical process in achieving your coaching objective of having a positive impact on the lives of others.

To quickly surmise, we explained that people with an Influencing Paradigm mindset perceive marketing to be ‘leading’ and ‘salesy.’ They come from the paradigm that by marketing you are proactively influencing someone in their decisions. Or specifically that you may make someone do something they would not otherwise do.

People from the Service Paradigm school of thought accept that prospects are people that have identified for themselves their need to invoke change. And they’ve identified that a coach will assist them make that change. They recognise that the prospect has made the intellectual link between their needs and how they want those needs to be fulfilled.

To be a successful coach, or in fact successful in any business, it’s critical that you embrace a Service Paradigm mindset toward your marketing.

In this article we’re going to further explore exactly how you can develop a Service Paradigm marketing mindset.

Before we can begin to discuss how you can develop your Service Paradigm mindset, let’s look at some of the characteristics. Coaches with a Service Paradigm recognise that to assist clients meet their objectives, they need to:

- Recognise that everyone in business is in the business of marketing. Without clients they’ll have no one to deliver their services too and hence no one to assist.

- Actively promote their services through compelling advertising that clearly describes what they can offer clients.

- Ethically promote their services with vigilance.

- Recognise the cycle of life of their prospects and regularly promote their services for as long as prospects allow.

- Understand that hey are often in a superior position of knowledge to ascertain what their client needs to assist them attain their goals.

- Be empathic to the needs of clients and actively offer solutions to them through various products and services.

- Value their client’s intellect and decision making ability.

- Not pre-empt their client’s wants and hence limit the range and scope of products and services they offer them.

- Always acts as an ethical adviser.

As a coach, to outwit your competitors you must create a niche; and to build a successful business you must attain a Service Paradigm marketing mindset.

To develop your Service Paradigm marketing mindset:

1. Be determined to succeed. You need to be absolutely determined that you’re going to succeed. If you just want to succeed, but you’re not willing to go the extra mile, you’ll get swept aside by those that are more determined. If you are truly determined, you’ll be confident and this confidence will automatically show in your business and be transparent to prospective clients, peers and the general public. Prospective clients will want to be associated with you, and clients will want to continue their involvement.

2. Persevere. Coaches with a marketing mindset embrace challenges as part of life and part of business. If you perceive challenges as impassable barriers you’ll never develop a marketing mindset. It’s crucial you accept you’re going to confront hurdles as part of business. How you perceive these hurdles, as opportunities or barriers, will drastically influence your level of success. Perseverance is a key ingredient in developing a marketing mindset.

3. Remain positive. Literally nothing destroys a marketing mindset more than a negative attitude. A marketing mindset is a ‘can do’ attitude. Faced with the same challenge, the coach with a positive ‘can do’ marketing mindset will find a way; the coach with a defeatist attitude will submit and fail.

4. Set Goals. As a coach this is something you should know a lot about. Set yourself specific, achievable, stretch goals.

5. Plan a strategy. Establish a specific plan of action to attain your goals. Identify what resources you’ll need and the possible challenges you may confront.

6. Implement your plan. This is the most difficult part. Implementation of your plan. Modify it where required, change your goals as others are attained, modify your plan if flaws are perceived, but always continue implementing. Non-action is the precursor of business failure. If you continue to implement, your business will always sustain forward momentum. If you have momentum, your direction (goals and plans) can always be adjusted.

7. Keep marketing. Your success or failure hinges on your marketing. Always maintain your marketing mindset. Always be focussed on marketing. It’s a common trap to get caught up in the day to day ‘operation’ of your business and put marketing aside. This is a recipe for disaster. How effectively you market will be the most influential determinant on the success (or otherwise) of your business. Marketing is not difficult or confusing, but it does require significant ongoing diligence and attention. The moment you lose focus on marketing your business is the moment your business performance will suffer.

The term “culture shock” originated in the 1950s. Basically it describes the physical and emotional discomforts that occur when someone moves from one cultural environment to another. There are several stages to culture shock which start when you first enter the new environment right through the acculturation process and back to re-adjustment when returning home. Culture shock has no steady line of progression. Each stage you go through can vary in length of time, or occur at clearly defined times.

In the holiday stage, which is the period just before and just after the move everything is new and exciting. One feels very energetic, enthusiastic and hopeful about everything in life. This is followed by the deterioration/ falling apart stage during which there may be great feelings of dissatisfaction. Things are difficult and one’s excitement turns to distress. One goes through communication difficulties, impatience, anger, grief, and a feeling of inexperience. There is more hope during the adjustment stage. This is when you can see some direction, you are able to laugh at yourselves again and life begins to feel a bit more balanced. During the orientation stage there is an increasing feeling confidence and a sense of belonging. One starts to make connections within the new culture, and starts to enjoy many aspects of many of the customs and cultural conventions. It becomes easier to adopt these practices and make them part of your life and daily routine. Lastly, repatriation is when one returns to the “home country”. A “reverse culture-shock” is often experienced. Re-adjusting to the old culture is as hard as, and may be even more difficult than the original move.

So in effect “culture shock’ is a result of carrying out your everyday life in a way that you are not used to. Added to this is the fact that one is removed from familiar places and faces. It is quite natural then to undergo homesickness, stress, fear, and confusion. I have known people who did get on the first plane heading back home. But then there are many who stay. It is important to know that it is OK to experience all the feelings and frustrations one goes through, but also that there are ways to help you handle the challenges that you will face…

These tips may seem easy and oversimplified, but they work and before you know it you will be well on your road to recovery. You will be able to enjoy your new adventure and new aspects of your self-identity that you might not have had the opportunity to previously explore.

* Don’t expect yourself, others or situations to be perfect.

* Have an open mind.

* Be active and participate.

* Speak to support groups and/or individuals.

* Stay in touch with family and friends.

Your time abroad is definitely a unique and special time in your life. It is sure to be something you’ll never forget. If you are aware of the stages that are bound to happen and follow the easy, but effective tips suggested, you’ll be able to handle it successfully and have the time of your life.

Quote of the week

“Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being.” Thomas Carlyle

Do you need help and support?

Dear Expats, like me you all took that giant leap to move to another country for various reasons. This is a large transition in your life.

Are you are having problems with:

* culture shock

* adjustment

* mental isolation

* acceptance and integration

OR

Do you want to make the most of your expat experience and take a giant leap forward in one or more areas of your life namely:

* love

* career

* another life transition

* financial

* self-confidence

* family

* business

* spirituality

* stress levels

I can help you to produce the stepping-stones needed to make these changes. I take into account your human and environmental factors that stand in the way of you achieving your goals.

If you are interested in finding solutions to any problems you may have or want to upgrade your goals and achievements to magic heights, I as a life coach, would love to help you get there.

Please take advantage of a FREE trial session with me. NO obligations are attached.

Best wishes

KIM

What’s the single most important process determining whether or not your coaching business is successful?

The correct answer to this question can completely change your coaching business forever. It can change your perception of your business. It can change your focus in your business. It can change how you go about operating your business. And most importantly, it can determine the success or otherwise of your business.

We asked dozens of coaches this question and got a broad array of responses. But only 4% of them were even close to the mark! Most coaches answered: quality service; number of clients; pricing; branding; advertising copy.

…And whilst all these issues are critical, the single most important process is your marketing methodology. Whilst you must have all the other elements as well, it’s your marketing methodology that ultimately determines the success or otherwise of your business.

Let us explain…

Nearly all coaches use a marketing methodology that’s a sales-based marketing methodology. This is understandable as most traditional marketing methods teach sales-based marketing methods. We’re all impacted by sales-based marketing at every turn &ndash on TV, newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio &ndash everywhere. And when coaches research marketing methods, they are most likely to learn about traditional sales-based marketing methodologies &ndash print ads (in newspapers, yellow pages, journals, magazines etc), direct telephone calls, radio, flyers, direct mail letters, etc.

But there are several extremely powerful forces at play against coaches employing a sales-based marketing methodology…

Most coaches invariably feel uncomfortable delivering a ‘sales pitch.’ Coaches generally have better technical skills than marketing skills. They’re therefore uncomfortable talking about themselves and endorsing the quality of their product. This means they don’t close, and comes across to prospects as a general lack of confidence in themselves, and their product and service.

Sales marketing is extremely expensive &ndash narrowing your net margin on your service. The more you spend to get a client the less net profit you’ll retain at the end.

Generally people are very sceptical and defensive against sales approaches. This exponentially increases the barrier of making a sale. When you employ a sales-based marketing method, most prospects have already closed themselves off to learning about your services due to their natural tendency to put up a defence against sales-based marketing.

There is no trust and rapport built through a sales-based marketing approach. For a prospect to buy from you, there needs to be an element of trust. Your prospect needs to trust that you can deliver on your promises and that they’ll gain a positive return on their investment. This level of trust is extremely difficult to build through a sales-based marketing approach.

You build no reciprocal obligation on the prospect to investigate your offer or purchase from you. It’s a natural human tendency to reciprocate in kind what’s been given to you. You can not build reciprocal obligation through sales-based marketing.

You attract price sensitive shoppers and ‘tyre kickers’ that take up a lot of your time and result in extremely low conversion.

It’s difficult to maintain contact with prospects for long enough to build rapport and trust &ndash it generally takes 4 to 6 contacts before a prospect will buy from you.

So, we can hear you shouting “If sales-based marketing is not going to be effective, what’s my alternative to get clients?”

And the answer is… Education-based Marketing. Education-based marketing is simply the process by which you attract and convert highly-qualified clients by giving them what they want &ndash valuable information and advice that solves their problems - and removing what they don’t want, a sales pitch.

Education-based marketing is generally undertaken by delivering Credibility Marketing techniques such as public speaking, information based teleclasses, publications, networking, hotlines, free educational give aways (such as reports, assessments, tools, ecourses), etc.

As opposed to sales-based marketing, education-based marketing means…

- You give your prospect what they really want &ndash highly valuable information. And you take away what they don’t want &ndash a sales pitch.

- You maintain your dignity and feel good about yourself as you never make an effort to sell.

- Your brand recognition and respect will skyrocket! Education-based marketing is the ultimate brand builder. By positioning yourself as the ‘expert’ or ‘specialist’ by solving, through your education products, the most pressing issues your niche confronts. You become the only logical choice in your market.

- You can establish yourself as a credible authority as prospects depend on you as a reliable source of valuable advice.

- You significantly reduce your marketing costs &ndash and can in fact get paid to market yourself. This vastly compounds the net worth of every client you attract &ndash you can actually earn double the net profit with only half the clients!

- You don’t have to seek out new prospects &ndash prospects come to you (to have their problems solved).

- You can maintain (mutually beneficial) contact with your prospects through the sales process because they don’t feel pressured by a sales pitch and value your information and advice.

- You reach prospects early during the first stages of their decision making process.

- You attract ‘moderately interested’ prospects that may otherwise be afraid to call you but are not afraid to request your information.

- Due to the high level of trust and rapport built early on you’ll be perceived as an adviser, not a salesperson, making added-value sales dramatically easier.

- You dramatically increase your referrals from prospects as they feel loyal to you &ndash due to a relationship built on trust and reciprocal obligation and your efforts to help them &ndash even if they don’t hire you! And your referrals will come much earlier in your relationship.

- You gain compounded advantage as your information is passed freely between prospects within your niche.

- You gain a competitive advantage because not many competitors are using education-based marketing.

- You achieve a highly leveraged advantage as you can put forward your marketing even when you are not present.

- You save valuable time as you often are delivering your message directly to your most highly qualified target audience.

As you can see, education-based marketing is the exact opposite to sales-based marketing, and can make an extraordinary difference to your business, and your enjoyment of ‘doing’ business. So, ask yourself, “How much education-based marketing am I currently doing?” and “How can I develop a marketing plan significantly comprised of education-based marketing methodologies?”

Ok…so you have seen The Secret. Now, it’s time to get rockin’ with the Law of Attraction.

So many times people get all jazzed up when they learn about the Law of Attraction - but implementing it gets tricky and that “jazz” fizzles out.

So let’s talk about the Law, and then I will give you the “how” on implementing it. Are you game?!

What do you think of when you hear the word “attract”? How would it feel to be able to ATTRACT what ever you would like INTO your life? It’s possible. You can come to depend on the Universal Law of Attraction, just has you have come to depend on the Physical Law of Gravity.

You may have heard the Law of Attraction referred to in different ways throughout your life, but it has no doubt shown up. Here’s a few ways we have talked about it…

1. What you sown you reap.

2. What you put out you get back.

3. Like attracts like

4. Law of supply and demand

5. What comes around goes around.

6. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7

7. Emerson called it the Law of Compensation

Catherine Ponder, author of the Dynamic Law of Prosperity defines the Law of Attraction like this: “What you radiate outward in your thoughts, feelings, mental pictures, and words you attract into your life.”

Abraham-Hicks, defines the Law of Attraction like this: “That which is like unto itself is drawn.” Yes, like attracts like. What does this mean for you? It means that when you are focused upon what you WANT to create in your life you will attract that….and when you are focused upon what you DON’T WANT to create in your life, you will attract that too. It means that you are indeed a magnet, and it means that you are a magnifying glass. What you focus on gets bigger…and comes to you quickly.

You may have had the experience in your life where you have wanted something very badly, and out of that passion, out of that pure desire, you were able to create it. There was no stopping you. You believed that it was to be, and you did not doubt that it was to come into your life. You said YES! to having that “something” come into your life.

You may also have had the experience in your life where you have wanted something very much, and have not been able to create it. Think about money for a moment… You want very badly to create the flow of money into your life, but you don’t. You say, I want more money…but I hate paying bills, I hate that others have it and I don’t, money is evil, or you just focus on the fact that you indeed can’t create it. You take action, you ask, you pray and it still does not show up. You focus on the fact that it’s not here, you focus on the lack of money in your life. What do you think you will create?

So, if like attracts like….and you focus on the negative aspects of anything, or focus on what you do not have - you will create more of what you do not have. If you focus on what is, you will create more of what is. If you focus (and sometimes we do very strongly) on what you DON’T want in your life, for example, I don’t want cancer…I don’t want poverty…I don’t want this or that or this or that….you are saying NO to it, and that as well will bring it into our lives. What we give our attention to comes into our life…it is the Law of Attraction. Whether you are saying yes or no to something does not matter - it is the focus that carries the vibration and causes us to attract unto us. Be careful what you say no to.

The key would be to focus on FEELING GOOD and focus on what you DO want! The key is to consciously be aware of your abundance mentality, and know that you attract what you radiate and vibrate into the world. Nothing is more important that feelings good! How you are feeling and where your attention is, is your point of attraction. Period.

You must remember that the universe is abundant - completely. There is no lack, only our perception of it. You must remember that there is always enough, and what you ask for is given to you. You must remember that you were meant to prosper… be wealthy on all levels of life. There is nothing that you can conceive of that you can not be, do, or have.

Most of the time we walk around creating by default…now it’s time to create using the Law of Attraction. You can be or do or have anything that you desire in this life. You must acknowledge yourself as the powerful creator that you are and choose thoughts and feelings that make you feel good, and that are in alignment with what you really want in your life.

As mentioned in Part 1, there are some countries that are very popular now amongst the expat community. They all have their own appeal and it can be quite confusing and stressful deciding as to where to start.

My proposed 10-step program is designed to help you decide on a country you would like to make your paradise.

Make a list of the world’s top overseas havens.

Step 2: Write down a list of your personal preferences and priorities. Write them down in order of priority. The list may include things such as climate, cost of living, taxes, culture, language, healthcare, accessibility to your home country infrastructure and government incentives for foreign investors.

Step 3: Consider the pros and cons of each of these countries according to your priorities. Make a tally sheet for each country.

Step 4: With the information you have gathered, limit your choice down to 3 countries.

>Step 5: My next step and motto is always: “Try before you buy”, so plan to spend time in each of the countries chosen.

Step 6: While you are in each of the countries use your time wisely and look into, living costs costs, employment or business possibilities, transport means, education standards, schools, personal safety issues, postal services and banking services, Internet availability etc.

Step 6: Meet with seasoned expatriates who are living and working in the country.

Step 7: Look at as many properties for sale as you can.

Step 8: Set up meetings with experts on residency for all 3 countries.

Step 9: Look at all your facts and identify which country aligns most with your priorities and preferences as well as your values and the kind lifestyle you want to live.

Step 10: Make your choice, plan an extended stay if possible, don’t look back and enjoy the process.

To summarize, I am not saying it is easy not to look back, but always keep in mind that you’re not alone and not without a plan. Use the outline of the 10-step program, do your homework, speak to experts in the field and if you really want to live a different and better life, commit yourself to getting into action and maybe this is the year that it will make happen for you.

Next week, in part 3, I will post suggestions for what you need to do to when you are about to take up residency.

Quote of the week

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not to put the plan into action.” Napoleon Hill

We would love to hear how your plans for expatriation are progressing? Which country are you moving to? What helped you make your decision? What difficulties have you encountered if any? Your share could help someone else in a similar situation.