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Copyright: 2007 Coaching Club

Welcome to IQ, the official CoachIQ Coaching Club member eZine. Each week you receive the latest CoachIQ news, resources, professional development tips and industry information. IQ is your ally in developing your flourishing coaching business.

This edition's highlights

Latest Additions

Forum Debates

At Coaching Club's Forum, you can be personally coached by some of the best marketing minds in the industry. The forum keeps its doors opened to member queries, comments, ideas and opinions.

Via the Forum you can receive personal coaching on any aspect of your business. You simply start a thread on the topic you'd like to discuss and our experienced club team will respond with succinct advice.

Discussions, new threads and comments have already kick-started in the forum. We highly recommend this resource to members. Don’t hesitate to pose your business queries and challenges at the forum; it is a unique opportunity to obtain relevant biz advice from experienced mentors, and the best part, at no additional cost.

Coming Soon

UCBBP Audio Files

Soon you'll be able to listen to UCBBP audios while driving, jogging, doing your weekly shopping, walking the dog, or sitting on your balcony with your feet up. We know that with so much content being published at our industry-leading business building eCourse, it is often hard to find time to follow-up on the weekly lessons.

Mistake 2: Don't Have a Niche

Learn the "10 Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make" and how you can avoid them to create the lifestyle you desire in the 3rd fastest growth industry in the world!

There are numerous coaches in the market earning over $100,000.00 per annum. And yet, there are also coaches struggling to etch out a living. Why is that? That's the purpose of this Special Series. In this edition, we tackle the lack of a niche as one of the crucial mistakes coaches make. 

Note: Part 1 of this series is available in the eZine Archive page.

They try to be everything to everybody. They believe that by offering general coaching services to everybody and anybody that their market will be larger and their potential for making money will be enhanced.

Unfortunately this is simply not true! Think about it for a second. Why do people employ the services of a coach?

To have their problems solved. Whether the problem is work encroaching on family life; business not making enough money; difficulties transitioning into later life; wanting to develop a full relationship with a partner; becoming a better parent or a more effective manager and leader at work; people employ the services of coaches to have their problems solved.

If you have a very specific and personal problem, would you prefer the assistance of a generalist, or a specialist - someone that has specific knowledge, skills and experience in assisting people that have experienced the same problem you have? Of course you want to deal with the specialist.

Coaches need to focus on niche markets. A niche market is a group of people that share a common problem, are willing to invest to have that problem solved, and are already talking to each other about it.

Focusing your business (and brand) on a niche:

• Allows you to construct a powerful, one or two sentence, Unique Selling Proposition (USP) about your business for prospects to clearly identify with.

• Assists you position yourself, your business and brand in the marketplace.

• Allows you to become an Expert that prospects seek out to have their problems solved. You become recognisable in the market, and don't have to ‘chase’ prospects.

• Allows you to target your market much more effectively. Means you can totally dominate a market.

• Means you can develop niche specific marketing processes built around an education-based marketing methodology.

• Allows you to reduce your marketing spend and target your prospects more effectively. Dramatically increases your chance of getting referrals.

• Doesn't necessarily disqualify you from coaching outside your niche or restrict you from having several niches.

Biz Tip: Identify your niche. Build your brand around your niche. Become an Expert! Develop your USP. (Identify your niche by developing Niche Solutions to Niche Problems).

To start with, who you are coaching now? Is there a common link between your clients? (i.e. are some of your clients predominately 'new business owners', 'single female executives', 'entrepreneurial women', amateur sports people?) Use this as a starting point.

More information about business? Subscribe to the UCBBP (Ultimate Coaching Business Program) to receive your weekly dose of business knowledge and strategic know-how.

Give Away Irresistible Free Content for Priceless Publicity

This is step 4 of the IQ series "8 Steps to Generate Prospects". In the previous edition we discussed how to get free traffic from search engines like Google. How can you use your knowledge to get big publicity and exposure? Let's roll to the step #4.

Note: Steps 1-3 of this article are available in the eZine Archive page.

Believe it or not, a really easy, frequently undervalued strategy for getting traffic is giving away free content to other web sites. Even just two or three well-written articles can generate truckloads of traffic, as long as they don't contain a sales pitch.

You want to include rare, hard-to-get information that will lend your articles automatic value: the kind of information that establishes you as an expert in your field.

Once you've finished, write a short bio paragraph about you and your business and place it at the end of your article along with (and this is the most important part) a link to your site.

E-mail other web site owners in your industry - being sure to choose sites that receive attention and visits from your target market - and invite them to use your article on their web site or in their newsletter at no cost.

Many site owners need fresh content, so they'll be more than happy to post your articles, and it won't be long before those articles start driving traffic back to your web site.

Another option is to give away your articles through free content web sites like:

-         http://ezinearticles.com  

-         www.freesticky.com  

-         www.selfgrowth.com

-         www.ideamarketers.com

-         http://zinos.com  

-         www.goarticles.com

-         www.articlecity.com  

-         www.articlealley.com   

-         www.ezine-dir.com  

Your articles will be made automatically available to thousands of web site owners seeking free, quality content - and all you have to do is submit your articles once.

Don't underestimate the power of giving away free content. And as your articles gain more exposure, don't be surprised if you're contacted by high-profile magazine and portal sites related to your industry looking for free articles to include on their sites as well.  

The One Minute Manager

For more than twenty years, millions of managers in Fortune 500 companies and small businesses nationwide have followed The One Minute Manager's techniques, thus increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity.

These very real results were achieved through learning the management techniques that spell profitability for the organization and its employees.

Title: The One Minute Manager

Author: Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer Johnson

Category: Management

FreeConference.com

FreeConference.com frees you from the hassles and expense of traditional call conferencing with simple, convenient, and reliable service at little or no cost.

For small businesses, large enterprises, individuals, community and non-profit organizations, and anyone who appreciates high quality at low cost, this resource offers a variety of solutions to fit your conferencing needs.

Stopping Negative Thoughts  

Thought stopping is a process of interrupting obsessive thoughts as a means of blocking them from one's consciousness. It works much like when a child puts their hands over their ears and sings loudly to block out what they do not want to hear.

It can also act as a way of deliberately turning negatives cues into positive ones. Below are three thought stopping techniques for you to practice.

• Thought replacement. When an unwanted thought enters, immediately replace the thought with a healthy, rational one.

• Yelling "stop". When the unwanted thought enters, immediately yell "STOP". The yell can either be out loud or in the mind. Continue yelling STOP until the unwanted thought goes away.

• Visual image. If you tend to visualise negative images, replace that image with something positive and healthy. Now let's see if this technique works for you. You no doubt are repeatedly thinking about the affair, your partner's lover, or other details which upset you.

Depending on whether this thought occurs visually or cognitively (thinking only), consciously replace it with an image or thought that automatically brings a smile to your face. For example, if you were to think repeatedly about the other person and their face often comes to mind, learn to automatically replace it with a "snap-shot" of your children at their happiest.

Reminder: Your feedback becomes our teams' development schedule. So please, email your thoughts to info@coachingclub.com.au - let's build our collective CoachIQ together!

Be Found With Find A Coach

Marketing is the thorn in the side of most coaches. Particularly coaches just starting off. Getting clients is a skill in its own right. It's time consuming, difficult, and expensive! But does it have to be? Not with Find A Coach - the leading search engine specifically for life coaches.

Find A Coach offers a range of tools for coaches wanting to market their services, or simply who would like to see more return for their marketing investment. If you haven't checked it out yet, don't miss the opportunity to be a step ahead of the rest of the pack.

Your clients are searching for you right now. Make it easy for them to find you.

URL: www.findacoach.net.au

Broadcast Your Brand to the World

Coach Radio is an online broadcaster of Life Coaching specific content. Delivered online via the Coach Radio website (www.coachradio.com.au) and Podcast, Coach Radio content is extremely convenient.

Coach Radio is currently accepting applications from CoachIQ members who would like to become broadcasters of this growing community. If you are interested in finding out more information, email info@coachradio.com.au to request a Coach Radio Prospectus.