Tomorrow's
Life Coach In This Issue:
Tomorrow's Life Coach (TLC) is a monthly online journal from the Institute for Life Coach Training (ILCT) that nourishes the intellect, intuition and inspiration of the personal and business coaching community. Pat's Ponderings The world needs global warming . . . not the environmental kind, but the relational kind!!!! Everyday in the news we see articles about the rapid increase of global warming and its disastrous effects on the environment. What if we begin to see a quickening of global warming in the way people, individuals, families, communities, and countries, relate to one another? What if this movement grew so fast that it surprised everyone? What if the walls that separate us from acting as though we cherish and honor each other came crashing down as the icebergs in Antarctica? What if the temperature of warmth in all relationships began to rise? I have had the good fortune to travel to many countries around the globe in the last 10 years spreading the word about coaching, both for ILCT and for the profession at large. I have noticed that people everywhere respond well to human friendliness despite the politics of the countries. If you act friendly, you are treated with friendliness. If you are courteous, you are treated courteously. If you ask people about themselves with non-judgmental curiosity, they respond with glee and openness. My belief in what the spread of authentic coaching conversations could do for the world is enormous. What would it take to start a coaching conversation movement similar to what the woman in Africa who is planting millions of trees did. Or think about the young teenagers who started “cell phones for soldiers” as a way for the armed service men and women around the globe to communicate affordably with their families. How many other great movements have started with just “a good idea shared with friends?” What would it take to get coaching conversations as a buzzword on UTube, My space, Google, Yahoo, and blogs everywhere? I believe that people really want to feel more connected to others and curiosity about other cultures is better than prejudice that prevents openness to learning. Let me know how we can start Global Warming in People’s hearts and spread this message around the globe. December is a time for celebrating many religious holidays, the winter solstice, and a time of hope and desires for peace and loving expressions. Wouldn’t it be great if that spark kindled a huge expression and outpouring of warmth that would begin to shock the experts and the political leaders? Will you help? Send me your ideas — let’s do something to create an increase in human global warming in all relationships we touch! Margaret Wheatley perhaps said it best: "Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals who can go it alone. I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again. Simple, honest, human conversation. Not mediation, negotiation, problem solving, debate, or public meetings. Simple, truthful conversations where we each have a chance to speak, we each feel heard, and we each listen well." Pat Patrick Williams Ed.D., MCC Monthly FREE Introduction to Coaching Calls: Have you lost the passion you had when you entered the profession of being a therapist? Are you on the fast track to burn-out or are you already there? Do you want to add another income stream to your existing practice? Do you want to set your own fees and get paid what you are worth? Do you want to revitalize your work, reclaim your passion, and find joy in doing what you love? Join us for a free one-hour class that will introduce you to the wonderful career of Life Coaching. We want to share our excitement with you and give you information that you can use to help you decide if Life Coaching is for YOU. Topics to be discussed:
Dates: January 11th: Click
to register or January 25th: Click
to register Pat's Coaching Forum Due to an unavoidable last minute scheduling conflict, Pat's November Coaching Forum had to be rescheduled to December 11th, 2007. If you would like to join Pat for a discussion of the 2007 ICF Coaching Conference, you may register at the link below: Date: Tuesday, December 11th Pat's Coaching Forum will be on hiatus for the December holidays, but will return in January. Pat's guest on January 22, 2008 will be Deb Davis, his coauthor for Therapist as Life Coach: An Introduction for Counselors and Other Helping Professionals, Revised and Expanded Edition. Their discussion will center on what's new and expanded in this 2nd edition:
Date: Tuesday, January 22nd This is a FREE call. Click here to register. Free Coach Referral Service This list is being offered as a free service to assist individuals in identifying and selecting coaches best suited for their particular situation. Click here for more information.
ILCT in the UK - Foundational Course, Part I Foundational Coach Training, Part I consists of 20 hours of classroom instruction with each component of learning anchored in the ICF Core Competencies. Continuing practice in small groups with mentoring will occur following the Course via the telephone. The second twenty-hour course, being planned for later in the year, is the final 20 hours of the regular foundational course taught in the US. FREE Teleclass - Marketing YOUR Coaching Practice! Join ILCT Director of Practice Development Jim Vuocolo for an open discussion about marketing YOUR coaching practice. Jim will address the "7-Layer Cake" of Coaching Business Success and include a Q & A session to address what is working/not working with regard to your marketing efforts. There will also be a brief "commercial" to explain the Practice Made Perfect course that begins on January 9, 2008. We hope you will join Dr. Vuocolo for an great experience! Date: January 3, 2008 Spotlight on: Practice Made Perfect:
All You Need to Make Money as a Coach! This 12-week program is designed to help participants identify, develop, and market a coaching business that is unique and authentic for them. Each teleclass and lab session focuses upon the necessary components of practice development in a way that results in attracting paying clients for your coaching business! The course requires a solid level of commitment to building your business, and includes:
Click
to register. Here's a sample of others have said about the Practice Made Perfect material:
KNOW YOUR CLIENT’S LTV Sarah (not her real name) is a professional in another state who first retained my coaching services some 10 years ago. We initially worked together for 18 months, after which she decided it was time to retain a local coach whom she had met at a networking meeting. I was fine with her decision at the time, and we parted as friends. She had been a joy to work with! Several years later, Sarah e-mailed to ask if I was taking on any new clients. If so, she wanted to speak with me about working with her once again. In the course of our subsequent conversation, she asked if I was curious about what had happened while working with her other coach, and why she now wished to retain my services again. I said I would be happy to listen to anything she might want to share in this regard. "Well," she said, "I worked with the other coach for about six months before I started to feel as if I was being taken for granted. He often called my office to reschedule our coaching sessions, and sometimes failed to follow through with a resource or article he said he would send. Once we stopped working together, I never heard from him again. Then it dawned on me that I was still receiving your newsletter, articles, and other resources, on a regular basis even though we were no longer working together. In fact, you even called one year to leave a Christmas greeting with my answering service. Once I stopped paying my other coach a monthly retainer, I’ve never heard from him again!" Sarah and I worked together for another two years before taking a break. I’m happy to say that she returned, yet again, for a third round of coaching some sixteen months ago, and counting! In addition, she has served as a reference, provided testimonials, and referred other prospective clients to me over the years. In short, she is the kind of "diamond" I would like to clone in order to fill my practice! One of the most important marketing concepts to understand and appreciate is the LTV, or Lifetime Value, of your client. The LTV is based upon the revenue a potential client will generate over an entire lifetime of the coaching relationship. Think about the time, money and energy it takes you to acquire a new client. If I limited my thinking with regard to Sarah for the initial 18 months we worked together, I would come up with one set of numbers. However, when I take into account the entire number of months we have worked together on three separate occasions over the past decade, the numbers change dramatically! Add to this the value of Sarah’s testimonials, referrals, and potential joint venture projects, and the overall LTV grows exponentially! Think of it this way . . . if Sarah had paid me $300.00 per month for the initial time of 18 months we worked together I would have earned a total of $5,400.00. However, because we have worked an additional 25 months since that time (for a total of 58 months), her LTV to date is more like $17,400.00 – and that’s before we factor in referrals and an increase in coaching fees over the years (for the record, I don’t raise client fees unless we are not working together for 6 months or more). As I said, Sarah is a "diamond" of a client who’s an absolute joy to work with! But suppose you find a "diamond in the rough" by which I mean a potentially terrific client who cannot pay your regular coaching fee . . . what to do? A former colleague once said, "If you polish a diamond in the rough you end up with gem of great beauty and value. If you polish a brick, you simply end up with brick dust!" It’s still good advice to follow! Once you find a potential client who’s a "diamond in the rough" because they are really motivated to work with you and are the type of client you truly desire, make sure your fee is a detail, and not an issue, for them. Consider offering them a "scholarship" for the first couple of months, until they can afford your full fee. Consider the case of John (not his true name). John is an ideal client type who came highly motivated, yet unable to pay a full coaching fee of $400.00. The coach offered to gift him a $300.00 discount for one month, so his initial fee would be $100.00. His investment the second month would be $175.00, and go to $225.00 in month three. By month four, he would be paying the full $400.00 fee. Why do this? Simple – the coach knew most clients will stay for at least 12 months or more. At $400.00 per month, John’s LTV would be $4,800.00 the first year – but this was a non-starter for John’s wallet. The opening scholarship totaling $700.00 over the first 3 months, lowered his LTV over the next 12 months to $4,100.00 (or $341.66 per month) – which represents a 12% discount, and enabled the coaching to take place. It represented a WIN/WIN situation! Now consider the fact that John gives the coach 2 referrals totaling $4,800.00 each over the same 12 month period – and his LTV just went from $4,100.00 to $13,700.00 the first year – more than offsetting the initial scholarship discount of 12%! If you could generate these percentages on Wall Street you would be considered a bona fide genius! And, once you have the right kind of "diamond" clients in place, their referrals will help to feed your practice for life! It’s never a good idea to make this a common business practice – so offer it sparingly. Otherwise, the very factors that make it so special no longer apply, and it can diminish your own coaching value. But the next time you come across a diamond in the rough – go ahead and find a way to polish it! Be committed to making the relationship work. But remember, a brick in the rough can never be polished. It turns to dust in the attempt, and will potentially have the same result on your coaching business! Only you can know the genuine LTV of your clients. Happy marketing! ILCT Staff in the News - Christopher McCluskey, PCC Christian Coaching Gaining in Popularity, Reported by: Carlos Correa at OzarksFirst.com Many people from all over the country and with different denominations are getting help building a stronger relationship with God. Christian coaching is a field that has a growing interest among many people in the faith community. The interest in Christian coaching is increasing because it's all done online and over the phone. So the convenience for clients is they never have to worry about getting a babysitter or even spend money on gas since they don't meet a coach face to face. From his country home in Edgar Springs, Missouri, Christian coach Christopher McCluskey is able to balance his family life with his career. "Life coaching is a relatively new field. It's been around maybe 15 or so years. You go back much further in the literature and you won't find much written about on it." says McCluskey. Read the full story or watch the video on KOLR/KSFX TV). The next Foundational Coach Training for Christian Counselors course begins April 7, 2008. Expand Your Business! Deepen
Your Coaching Skills!
Coaching Applications & Specialties
Additional classes, details and online registration at our course section. Some schedules may change; check listing or contact Edwina Adams, Administration/Registration, at edwina@lifecoachtraining.com. Where In The World Is Pat Williams? December 17-18, 2007 February 22-23, 2008 What Pat Recommends / New Books
Tomorrow's Life Coach™ Patrick Williams, Ed.D., Publisher If you wish to use any of our content in a newsletter, magazine or other media (whether public or internal), please request permission.
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