2012 - Inner Firewalking

Top Ten Steps To Peace

The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.

1. Tidy your room (and for a bonus – the apartment/house! Consider getting help doing it.)

2. Get/understand that anything you do above securing food, shelter and clothing, is all entertainment. (You’ve made it dramatic!)

3. Arrive 15 minutes early to all appointments (including those with yourself).

4. Stick to the speed limit (drive with peace…let others overtake you)

5. Schedule BLANK TIME in the day – 1-2 hours where nothing can be scheduled. When it comes, you can use it to walk on the beach, work, make love……. It doesn’t matter.

6. Lower the Bar – Examine what you THINK you need to do this week, and then think again.

7. Drop something. There are 1-3 things you’re about to do this week, which do not support you having peace in your life (or maybe anything good!). TV? Obligation? Draining person? (Oops – can I say that?)

8. Identify what your needs really are, and get them met. (This is easiest using a coach with experience in this area)

9. Handle a drain i.e. something you’re putting up with.

10. Schedule at least two hours per week for YOU. Time where you get to reflect, think, walk, paint, write, and quieten the mind.

Laura Berman Fortgang’s Model of Coaching

The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.

David: Okay. So, I know a really nice model of coaching – I heard this from Laura Berman Fortgang at the ICF conference, and I really like it. Her model that she is using is very simple, and that is to begin each question with the word ‘what’.

So don’t ask them ‘why’. Never ask clients, ‘Why do you want to do that?’ or ‘Why do you feel like that?’ Just ask them ‘what’. You can ask them ‘how’, but again, try to start with what. It was really funny when we did the exercise, we had someone tell us about a problem, and we had to say ‘what’. Like, ‘Okay, what’s the solution?’ and they’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I probably need to lose some weight.’ Then I’d say something like, ‘What’s the first step?’ and they’d say, ‘Oh, I probably should go to go to the gym.’ and I’d say, ‘What are you going to do at the gym?’ It was really amazing how it just focused them in, even if they didn’t know the answer. In five ‘what’ questions, they had it.

Coaching Tips and Hints

The following is an excerpt from Top Coaching Techniques.

Learn to trust your intuition

If someone is stuck figuring out what they love, ask them “what do you hate?”

Remember your mission as a coach: to discover or create who your clients really are.

Make a list of 10 to 15 powerful fallback questions to help if you ever get stuck in a session. Here’s a couple to get you started:

How could I best help you with that?
If you were the coach right now, what coaching would you give yourself on this?
What’s something that you could do to move forward on this goal?

Convert more prospects by helping them to clearly see the gap between where they are and what they want. Then get them excited about achieving what they want.

Exceed the expectations of your clients. Give them more value than they pay you in money.

Stay educated. Never stop learning about your specialized field. Become an expert.

To help draw out a client ask them about different areas of their life. Go through the standard areas (relationships, finances, health, and career) and ask them to score each one out of ten. This will help you find out where to start with the client.
Dealing with resistance: Start with building awareness of the resistance. Set targets you can actually achieve. Try double padding. You set the target for each day; estimate how long each will take and double the time. Another thing is to set spaces in your day, like an hour space in the afternoon.

Future vs Past

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

People love their stories! They love their past, reasons, and complexities, perhaps because they validate who they think they are.

As a coach, I’m not interested in 90% of the past. I don’t want to know why you spent 5 years in an unhappy marriage or the list of complaints you have about your boss. I’m more interested in what you want, and – what you’re going to do about it. It’s 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.

Choosing a Mentor Coach

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

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.

Ten Reasons Why You Must Increase Your Web Presence

1.) A website works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It’s like having an office or store that is always open for business. Can you imagine how much it would cost to keep your business open 24/7 using a rented space and round-the-clock staff?

2.) Web purchases are increasing!

People are buying more and more over the internet.

3.) Take orders automatically

Wouldn’t you like to check your inbox and find you had two clients sign up overnight? Without you spending 30-60 minutes ‘selling’ them on your services? With the web you can.

4.) Online advertising is cheaper

Compared to other forms of advertising, online advertising can get you a much greater return on your investment.

5.) Interactive marketing

Your website isn’t just a print article. It’s a rich multimedia experience with print, pictures, audio, and even video! People can click to read the information they are most interested in, and even fill in short quizzes. This interactive experience increases the chance they will actually purchase from you.

6.) Automated contact!

You can’t have a print ad send people 20 follow-up emails providing them with items of interest, automatically. You can with the web!

7.) Slash your marketing time.

A website is a hugely COST-EFFECTIVE form of marketing. You can explain your services and/or products and answer the most frequently asked questions on your website just once. Imagine all the time you’ll save not having to answer the same questions over and over again!

8.) Reach a worldwide audience

You can now reach a worldwide audience more economically, across every time-zone.

9.) Create additional income streams

Once you have a consistent stream of targeted visitors, you might start selling advertising on your site, or promoting other people’s products.

10.) Want media attention?

Journalist often do online research and find people to interview after studying their websites.

Archive

Yearly Archive for 2012

Top Ten Steps To Peace

Laura Berman Fortgang’s Model of Coaching

Coaching Tips and Hints

Ten Reasons Why You Must Increase Your Web Presence