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Mar
15

Training to be a life coach – How can I promote myself as a life coach?

By | Coaching As A Business, Coaching Resources

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We often get questions from new life coaches about how to promote themselves as life coaches.  They want to know how to get the word out about what they are doing and how they are helping their life coaching clients.

One idea I like to share… is… share an idea.

I know.  I know. That may sound like circular logic… and it might be.

But here’s what I’m getting at.  Try not just promoting yourself… but try…

promoting an idea.

Here’s a recent example from my own life coaching practice.

One of my speaking and corporate coaching clients has been the ITA Group.

The ITA Group is an organization that helps companies to tap into the immense power that comes from fully-engaged employees, motivated sales people and channel partners, and ignited customers.

I love working with them and I’m been wildly blessed to get to partner with them on several projects.

But recently, I was talking with the editor of the ITA Group’s “DRIVEN” magazine.

Click here to check out the full magazine

DRIVEN is an amazing quarterly publication… and it goes out to their current and prospective clients… as well as many others in the business community at large.

The editor and I were discussing topics for an upcoming edition and we started to brain storm.

We landed on the idea of me potentially guest writing a piece… but the key was to not promote myself.

The key had to be to promote an idea.

Obviously… they wouldn’t have been interested if all I was going to do was talk about my coaching clients or my experience as a life coach.

Nope.  I needed to bring an idea to the table that would help the ITA Group to achieve it’s goal of bringing value to it’s readers.

So… after talking for a while… we landed on a subject and I’m wildly blessed to say that the latest edition of DRIVEN included an article I wrote about the “Intellectual Immune System.”

You can check out the full magazine by clicking here.

So it was an honor to get to work with them on this project!

But… more importantly… I’m hoping this story plants some ideas for you as you are thinking about promoting your life coaching practice.

The keys here are… think of ways to:

  • Partner with someone who might need content.
  • Bring value to your perspective partner (whether they are a newspaper, a tv station or an organization with a publication)
  • Promote an idea instead of promoting yourself. (That idea can point back to you and/or the examples you can site can involve what you do… but make sure the idea helps the audience… as opposed to just functions as a promotion for your life coaching business.)
  • Have a creative tag line that incites curiosity and makes people want to get in touch with you!
  • Make it easy for them to find you (via a website or blog, etc.)

Make sense?

So yes… when you are wanting to promote your life coaching practice… think of who you can partner with… and think of ways to promote an idea that would help!

Now… get to it and start blessing people’s socks off… as you spread some of your great ideas (that will eventually point people back to your coaching practice!)

BONUS: OVERCOMING THE INTELLECTUAL IMMUNE SYSTEM

As a bonus I wanted to share the actual article with you!

In the article, I talk about ways that individuals and organizations can overcome something I call… “the Intellectual Immune System” to make for longer lasting change.

Click here to download the PDF

  • Are you a Life coach who wants to inspire your coaching clients to change?
  • Are you a manager who is trying to bring change to your team or organization?
  • Are you an individual who knows you need to try something new (a diet… a time management system) but you are getting stuck?

This idea might help you get it done!

Click here to download a copy of the article!

Keep dreaming BIG and helping others to do the same,

Mitch Matthews

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Feb
18

Training to be a life coach: Logos and the law

By | Coaching As A Business, Coaching Resources

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As you know, we continually get questions from aspiring, new and experienced life coaches.  We get questions on coaching strategy, business concepts and marketing.

Today’s question is from a new life coach.  She’s actually taking our Coach Mindset Elite Life Coach Training and is in the process of developing the brand for her own life coaching practice.  She had a great question, and I thought I’d share it with you!

RegisteredTM

Image via Wikipedia

Today I have a question about trademarks, copyrights and patents—-where does all this fit in with logos for my life coaching practice and it is necessary? And if so, which one should be the focus? Thanks! 

Here’s my response.  Now I will remind you that I’m not a lawyer and I don’t pretend to be one.  But I’ve been an coach and entrepreneur for over 10 years, and we’ve developed a number of products over that time.  So I base my response on that experience.  It would probably be smart to consult a trusted attorney if you still have questions on this, but wanted to share my thoughts with you.  I hope they help!

Great questions!  Okay, here’s the quick legal skinny on all of that.

Trademarks are for things like logos.  Copyrights are protecting things like content (book content, etc.) and patents are for protecting ideas (light bulbs, specific technology).

So when it comes to logos and your branding, we’re talking trademark.

Now, whether you should be focused on protecting your logo or your brand with full legal trade mark protection is up to you.

To have a lawyer walk you through the process will vary from between $500 and $2,000 depending on who you work with.  Again, you can decide on whether you want to make that full investmentnow, later or never.

BUT something you can do in the meantime is put a “TM” by your logo… right now.

You may have seen a “TM” by a lot of things and wonder what that is.  You may have also wondered how that was different from the little “R” that you see sometimes too.

Well, the “TM” stands for “trademark” and you use that until you get the full legal protection of a trademark and have the legal paperwork in hand.

Then you can switch that “TM” to “R.”

BUT… by putting a “TM” by your logo and tracking the date you started using it, that actually has some legal protection that comes with it too.  Because you can say when you started using it as a logo and that you intend to trademark it.  (Again, it’s up to you when and if you want to officially start that process.)  But by having the “TM” and the date you started to use it, you can defend your Trade Mark some day if someone says they had it first, etc.

Now, nothing is better than actually having the full legal protection that a registered trade mark affords you, BUT in leiu of a full investment in that legal step, starting to use the “TM” right from the start can really help.

TECH TIP: If you use Microsoft Word software, when you simply type ™, the software will automatically reduce the size of the “tm” and raise it.

Now, just to offer a little perspective.  Personally, we have walked through this complete trademark process with our game series (www.doyouQ.com), because we invested in this heavily and wanted to make sure it was fully protected.  But we have not invested in this with some of the other logos and brands that we have developed.  Again, the decision is yours!  But I hope this helps!!

You’re awesome,
Mitch

We hope this helps you as you start to think through branding for your own life coaching practice.

Lastly, if you’re just getting started in the process and you’re wondering whether becoming a life coach would be a good fit for you… then we invite you to check out our 5 Critical Questions mini-course.  This no-holds barred mini-course is free and it will ask you the 5 questions I wish someone had asked me before I got started in life coaching!  Plus it will help you to make the decision on whether life coaching is for you!  Click here to sign up for the free course.

Keep dreaming big and helping others to do the same,

Mitch Matthews

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Feb
08

Training to be a life coach: When marketing look for the win-win

By | Coaching As A Business

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We often have new life coaches ask about marketing strategies for growing their life coaching practice.

We dive into strategies in the Coach Mindset – Elite Life Coach Training and Certification.  In fact, we call our process “A Promotional Blueprint.”life coach training

But let me offer a strategy that life coaches can use… immediately.

LOOK FOR THE WIN-WIN

Sure… Stephen Covey suggested the “Win-Win” approach in his 7 Habits for Highly Successful People.  And this rule applies to branding and marketing too!

Here’s how it might apply to you and your life coaching practice.

As you get clear on your AVATAR (your coaching practice’s ideal client), you can start to think about other organizations that might also have a similar AVATAR.

For example, for my own coaching practice… my AVATAR is someone who wants and needs to dream big again.  They are successful, fun people but they are dissatisfied.  They want to achieve more in their life.  They want to get clear on that next big dream and they need help doing that.  Plus, they need help putting a plan in place to go after that dream once it’s clarified.

That gives you a picture of some of the aspects of my own life coaching practice’s AVATAR.

Now, when I started to think about organizations in my area that have a similar AVATAR, I thought of one of our local radio stations.  They are “Positive 107.1.”  They are a family-friendly station with an uplifting message and great music for the region.  They have the 3rd highest rated morning show in the area too.

And… in many ways… their listening audience has many of the same traits as my ideal client.

WE TALKED GOALS

So… we met. We talked about their goals.  We talked about my goals.

As it turned out, through a little divine providence… the morning show team was looking for a way to bring something fresh to their weekly format.  They liked my message.  I really liked their station.  So we looked for the win-win.

They didn’t have money to pay me to come in each week.  BUT they were also willing to think “win-win.”  They did have a large listening audience.  They were also willing to give me the recordings from each show.  And not only that, but they were willing to produce CD‘s of these recordings when I wanted to.

What I brought to the mix was a positive message from a new perspective.  I promised to bring new and original content each Friday.  I promised to not sell from the mic.  And… I agreed to make my schedule work (although they were also willing to be super flexible!).

WIN-WIN.

Here’s a sample of our segment:

Life Coach Mitch Matthews

Mitch rockin' it on 107.1!

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CONTINUED WIN-WIN

Last year, when I launched my book IGNITE – A little book to spark your big dreams, the station helped to promote it.  In fact, we did a number of segments around the book launch!
Plus, I’ve been able to strategize with them and help in other capacities along the way.  It’s been fun and a true success for both of us.

AN ADDITIONAL EXAMPLE OF WIN-WIN

We recently had a graduate of The Coach Mindset work with a local high-end spa in her area to create an event.
This particular life coach’s AVATAR was a successful woman who needed balance in her life.  So she worked with the spa to create a win-win.  They created a half-day event that women could come and be treated at the spa and this life coach made a presentation as well as worked with many of the women one-on-one.
It sparked a number of new coaching clients for her… and for the spa.

Where might you find the win-win?

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Step 1: Think through your AVATAR (your ideal client).

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Step 2: Think through other organizations that might have a similar AVATAR.

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Step 3: Explore the win-win

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Join in the conversation.  Share some ideas on who you might partner with to find the win-win.  We’d love to hear from you so click comments and let us know.
Keep dreaming BIG and helping others to do the same,
Mitch Matthews
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