David Wood | Inner Firewalking

About David Wood

For 20 years David has helped entrepreneurs around the globe to grow their results, by growing themselves. A former consulting actuary to Fortune 50 companies in New York, David quit corporate life to pursue his inner journey, which now deeply influences his work. A digital nomad, David is currently dancing salsa, paragliding, and coaching his rock star entrepreneur clients from Colombia. His specialty is doubling your productivity and profits, while halving your stress. If you become a highly authentic and inspirational leader in the process, well….that can’t be helped.

You Have So Much To Share

The following is an excerpt from the book Get Paid For Who You Are.

Your passion, hobby, skill or life experience is valuable — literally. Whether it’s being married, or getting divorced. Whether having a child, or losing someone dear to you — it’s valuable. Whether you like stamp collecting, investing, riding horses, parenting or catering. Maybe you created a million dollar business, or failed at three start-ups. Perhaps you simply found a way to stick to your diet, or handle an angry spouse or upset child, or make pottery, or can help people find a fishing guide, or any of a myriad of skills, interests, or abilities — it’s all valuable.

If you already have a business, you’ll be happy to know this process is powerful for anyone with a product or service: professionals, small business owners, chiropractors, dentists, florists, potters, inventors. You can make more revenue and work less.

Now, i’m not promising you’ll make internet millions. it took hard work for me to reach $40,000 a month. I also won’t promise you a “4-Hour Work Week”. The author of that book and i work many more hours than that, although it’s entirely by choice. While it is completely possible to make a fortune and never work again by following the steps in this book, it’s also normal if you have some healthy skepticism. and i know not everyone wants to aim that high.

So let’s take a look at more down to earth goals that are easier to wrap the mind around.

How would your life be enhanced if you made an extra $3,000 per month while keeping your day job?

How would it feel to cut back to a job working only two or three days a week because your “how to” Cd or book is starting to sell really well?

What would it be worth to you to transition to doing something you really care about and receive five testimonials a week from people you have helped?

Leza Danly on Discovering Your Niche

The following is taken from David’s interview with Leza Danly in 10 Super Coaches.

What are your coaching niche(s)? How did you discover this?

In the beginning, I had a niche of actors and entertainment people just because they were the people I knew. I loved helping actors make successful careers for themselves. It had been my favorite part of being an agent.

Now my niche is defined not by profession, but by personal depth. I only work with people who know they are on a spiritual journey of embracing responsibility and magic, people who want to become skilled at transforming reality magically and powerfully.

How would you suggest coaches find their niche?

Look to your passions. What do you love? Who do you like to talk to? Who would you most want to support? It might be a particular group, like mothers or prisoners or artists, but I find that niches defined around BEING issues are more powerful than defining it by what one DOES.

Ginger Cockerham on Finding Initial Clients

The following is taken from David’s interview with Ginger Cockerham in 10 Super Coaches.

What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first two years?

Referral Engine – I chose a niche of people who are generous, and let them be my advocates! My clients in the financial services industry are dependent on referrals to grow their own businesses, so they refer naturally, regularly and generously.

Media and Presentations – I love to write so I wrote a monthly column in Today’s Dallas Woman for two years with coaching themes. I presented and coached during those presentations to organizations, financial services companies, study groups for financial reps.

Networking – I became active in the coaching community and volunteered and took leadership roles, I gave back to my clients and community, I shared and received from many, many other coaches, I formed a networking group with other professionals and helped grow their businesses while they helped me grow mine.

Choosing Your Domain Name

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

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.

It’s 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 can’t always do all of the above in one domain name. Don’t let search engine traffic run you. A name you like, which is memorable, is key. And — it’s OK to have two domain names — one which will be attractive to the search engines and one which you really love to tell people.

Mike Turner on Discovering Your Niche

The following is taken from David’s interview with Mike Turner in 10 Super Coaches.

What are your coaching niche(s)? How did you discover this?

My niches are executive coaching and mentoring, transition coaching, and metavising/supervising other coaches. I discovered these by noticing what the work I was actually doing was, what I felt drawn to do and what I enjoyed.

How would you suggest coaches find their niche?

Discover what you are naturally good at and do it. This sounds easy but is often quite difficult since we tend to be blind to what our natural gifts are. So, notice what interests you, what you feel drawn to, and what you enjoy doing. Get feedback from people who know you, about what your natural strengths and talents are.

Then go with the flow of what is already present and seek to expand and enlarge it so that what you do is aligned with what you love and what you are naturally talented at.

Judy Feld on Building a Practice

The following is taken from David’s interview with Judy Feld in 10 Super Coaches.

What was perhaps the biggest mistake you made in practice building?

Not exactly practice building mistakes, but here are some “don’ts” based on experience:

When closing a deal, don’t put yourself in a position of ‘negotiating with yourself’. Don’t do work on speculation. Don’t create long responses to complex RFPs. Don’t spend a lot of time “auditioning”. Coaches are different from consultants, and coaches get paid in advance. For career coaching: Don’t let a client assure that the first “exit package” offer received from their company is the best offer they can expect. You can always do better, and a coach can help you see how.

Posts by David Wood