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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:

Highlights in this edition include a new UCBBP module; how to create a powerful concept; viral marketing strategies; tips to sleep well; this week's book selection; and industry resources and opportunities.

We welcome IQ readers to forward this publication to friends, colleagues, family and anyone you think will benefit from the eZine's content. Make YOUR community part of OUR community.

Not Yet A Member? Don't fall behind.

Take at a look at some of the resources hundreds

of your peers already have access to...

• The industry leading 104-week eCourse (UCBBP) that steps you in detail through every process required to build a flourishing coaching business.
• Dozens of 'fill-in-your-business-name' marketing and operational templates.
• Audios and Podcasts by some of Australia's leading Business Leaders and Master Coaches, discussing their most intimate business and coaching secrets.
• Access to the country's most exclusive coaching networks, previously only open to the coaching elite.
• A Bookclub with over 75 world-renowned publications.
• Videos, life tips and strategies, interviews, plus much more.

CoachIQ Coaching Club is a resource rich community for practising and aspiring coaches. It contains ALL the necessary information, resources, templates, networks and intellectual property you need to avoid costly pitfalls and implement powerfully effective strategies to build a flourishing coaching business.

Don't miss out! Take advantage of our 30-day free offer to IQ readers! Visit www.coachingclub.com.au today and become a member.

Latest Additions

New UCBBP Lesson

If you are a UCBBP subscriber, make sure you click on the banner (or link) to access the latest module available to you. Also, take advantage of the links, articles, audios and sheets available to expand the lesson's educational content.

UCBBP is your guide to developing a flourishing coaching business. If you are looking for inspiration, facing a dilemma or have a problem with your current business, you're more than welcome to email our team to ubccp@coachingclub.com.au and pose your question.

If your problem has not yet been tackled in one of the published modules, we will consider adding it to our development schedule. You can also utilise the Forum to pose any business-related queries and suggestions.

To find out more about Coaching Club's UCBBP and join many thousands of your peers - start your 30-day free trial today at www.coachingclub.com.au.

Coming Soon

IQMobile

With the arrival of the iPhone and the increasing popularity of web-enabled mobile phones, such as Blackberries and other popular models, we've added the design of a mobile version of Coaching Club to our development schedule.

This simplified version of IQ will be ideal for accessing PodCasts, Audios, Articles and other resources "on-the-run". It will also be ideal for members who travel frequently and find it hard to follow-up on the Club's developments.

Creating a Powerful Concept

People buy things for emotional reasons and then seek to back up their emotional decision with logical reason.

Thus, entrepreneurs and marketing professionals can appreciate the importance of formulating a powerful concept based on their market and create a quality product according to that concept.

So let's talk about how to put it into action in your business. There are four critical elements to creating a powerful concept (C.C.U.S.).

Customer Requirements: The concept must RESONATE with the intended audience. Note: this is not what you think they should have or need, but what they want deep down on an emotional level. You can only achieve this by knowing your customer profile intimately.

Credibility: It must be credible. People want to believe your concept if it suits them. They want to believe you have a solution for their problems. As marketing wizard Jay Abraham observed: "If you can describe someone's problem better than they can, they'll automatically credit you with the solution".

Uniqueness: This is the key; the real trick. Essentially, the question is: what's so special about YOUR product/service? Why does Starbucks sell more coffee than a mom and pop café when essentially the product is the same: a cup of coffee (By the way, a cup of coffee is hardly an original product if you find yourself obsessing about having to be original).

Starbucks don't sell coffee as much as an experience. This is found by tapping into the deep recesses of your market's psyche and requires a great deal of thought.

Story: People like a story, or at least the seeds of one their imagination can pick up on, perhaps by implication. The story will also add credibility to your concept.

So they're the ingredients of a good concept. The main things people wrestle with are the clear distinction between product and concept and how to come up with a good concept once they make this distinction.

This is the true art of an astute business person. That the battle is won or lost before a single word of copy is written and even before the product is created, by the development of a powerful concept. Now consider these questions:

• What are the deepest subconscious desires, wants and needs of your niche?
• Does your service/product meet these?
• How do you articulate to your niche that your service meets their needs?
• How does your service meet the 4 criteria for a powerful concept?
• Does your business meet the 3 requirements for sales success:

1.    Do you have a starving market?

2.    Do you have a compelling, well articulated, concept?

3.    Does your service/product fulfill the needs of your starving market?

Simple Viral Strategies

Simply defined, viral marketing enables you to spread your marketing message like a virus. You encourage people to pass on information about your website to one-another and use that word-of-mouth publicity to advertise your business.

Once you start the "virus", it spreads without you lifting a finger. Hotmail.com, the free web-based e-mail service provider, is a classic example of viral marketing. At the bottom of every single Hotmail email sent by Hotmail members, there is a simple one line message:

"Get your free, private email from MSN at www.hotmail.com".

How much time do you think it took Hotmail to include that signature line as part of their email service? Not much at all, yet look at the impact this simple strategy had on the growth of their business.

To draw a parallel, think about the impact on McDonald's sales when they simply introduced the phrase "would you like fries with that?" American TV host Jay Leno joked once: "I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, "I'd like some fries." The girl at the counter said, "Would you like some fries with that?"" It's all about call to action.

And you can easily duplicate this strategy by doing something as simple as including a "pass it on link" at the end of your email signature and/or free newsletter.

Something as simple as...

"If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!"

By simply asking readers to take action and forward your newsletter, you'll prompt free "word of mouth" exposure for your business without any extra cost or hassle. So how do you put viral marketing to work for you? Here are a few simple ideas:

• Give away free articles with a "pass it on" link.
• Publish articles in the public domain with your links on them, such as Ezinearticles.com.
• Give away free demos of your product.
• Offer a free trial of your service with a "share this great resource" button on the page.
• Hold a contest on your web site and give participants an extra entry for every friend they refer.
• Start an affiliate program.
• Start a Blog and include bookmarking tools such as AddThis.

There are many other options you can research and apply to your context. Once your business has been accepted by a community, it is likely to attract increasing exposure. Furthermore, social proof will help turn more prospects into clients and create referral opportunities for your business.

Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle

"To have more we must first become more" is the very essence of the philosophy of personal development, success and happiness addressed by Jim Rohn in The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle.

It is our personal philosophy that establishes our individual attitude. It is our attitude that determines both the quantity and the quality of our level of activity. That activity produces a final and proportionate result, and the result provides the lifestyle that we live.

The results and the lifestyle are the effects -- the conditions we inherit -- but it our personal philosophy, attitude and activity which are the ultimate cause of the effect.

To change the effect, we must alter the cause, and yet most people curse the effect but continue to nourish the cause.

Title: Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle

Author: E. James Rohn

eHow

What would you like to do? Tie a tie? Kiss on a date? Lose weight? Negotiate a raise? Win Every Time in Monopoly? The eHow database of over 250,000 articles can help you. It's the world's most popular place to find clear instructions on how to do just about everything.

Every month, over 17 million people visit the site. This website has over 180,000 articles professionally written, with clear and concise directions on how to do things. They also have a rapidly growing library of articles created by eHow's members.

eHow's community is changing the way people share and learn information.

URL: www.ehow.com

Tips for Sleeping Well

People who are stressed and overloaded usually need more sleep; it is ironic, however, that their sleep is affected because they are stressed and overloaded. Below are a number of factors which can be investigated to help improve sleep (Holford, 2005; Mattlin, 1979):

• Keep to a regular schedule of going to bed.

• Exercise regularly; Keep caffeine levels low. If hungry, eat a light and easily digested meal. Cereal or toast is recommended.

• Have a definite cut off point for the working day, and allow some time before going to bed to wind down. Stretching, yoga, reading, meditating or sex are recommended activities in this time period. Television and the internet are not recommended.

• Keep a journal and write down the events of the day. This is a way of getting the day out of one's head.

• Don't get into a routine of using sleeping pills or alcohol.

• Have a comfortable bed. Many people overlook this, as they become accustomed to what they are sleeping on and they don't realise there is anything wrong.

• Cool bedrooms are associated with successful sleep. Overheating tends to lead to people waking up. Keep noise and light to a minimum.

• If you can't sleep, get out of bed and do something simple. Part of the theory behind this is that lying awake in bed is 'conditioning' someone to associate their bed with being awake.

• Warm milk before bed. Studies demonstrate that the tryptophan in the milk acts as a natural tranquilliser when heated. Tryptophan is also found in eggs, chicken, nuts and seeds. Tryptophan is also sold as a supplement but may only be possible from a doctor.

• Natural remedies. Natural therapists can be asked for assistance with other natural remedies such as herbal remedies and teas.

Upgrade Your Coaching Skills

Finding high quality professional development programs is challenging. There are rarely programs of interest offered in your proximity. Even if there is, they are usually cost prohibitive. And not to mention the imposition of sacrificing a day or evening.

Well, you now have an alternative. An alternative that over 3,000 industry-members are ALREADY taking advantage of. Counselling Academy is the largest professional development educator in mental health in the country. Counselling Academy has over 50 courses, 560 hours of training, and over 3,000 registered learners.

Here's why Counselling Academy is the latest revolution sweeping through mental health professional development...

• You can access Counselling Academy courses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• All courses are delivered and assessed online for your convenient access.
• All courses are developed to the highest industry standards, ensuring you get consistent, predictable, high quality training.
• Courses are delivered utilising the latest technologies. Many courses blend video and textual content to enhance your experience.
• CA delivers, on average, over 25 new courses each year.
• Plus much more!

To learn more about how you can boost your professional development, and save thousands a year, visit www.counsellingacademy.com.au.

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.