Teleclasses are a great way to add new revenue streams to your business, but very few holistic practitioners are actually running them. Certainly it is an uphill battle to make people understand how easy teleclasses are to participate in and run but that little bit of extra effort is well worth the reward.
Even if you just ran one per month with 10 participants paying $50 each – that extra $500 per month equates to an extra $6,000 per annum. Teleclasses could pay for that overseas trip you thought you couldn't afford.
The benefits of teleclasses are many but here are Top Ten I love the best:
1. Amazingly cheap (no room hire or travel costs)
2. Convenience (you don’t need to leave home)
3. 100% efficient use of your time (no need to factor in traffic or public transport)
4. Location friendly (you can do them from home or the office or the beach!)
5. Full interaction of participants
6. Classes are recorded so your participants can listen again until they fully
grasp the concepts
7. You can sell the recordings on your website or create CD’s and create passive revenue streams
8. You only need a landline telephone
9. No fuss - you can do the class in your pyjamas if you like
10. Its fun and easy!
Check out my website to learn what teleclasses I have on offer.
Monday, 16 June 2008
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Barriers to Coaching Business Success
This is an extract from an excellent article by Steve Mitten an ICF Master Certified Coach in this months ICF Victoria Newsletter Coach Connection.
When you read through replace the word "coach" with "natural therapist" or your modalitiy. Steve does a great job of highlighting how important growing your business needs to be in your consiousness and that business building is a science in itself and needs the proper resources and time.
Barriers to Coaching Business Success
Maybe I have seen a few too many clips of Dr. Phil, berating his guests but I agree with one of his mantras, you really can't change things that you don't acknowledge. So, in service of raising awareness, and in hopes of minimising the suffering of those who are called to coach, here is my list of the actions that have the most negative impact your ability to make a decent living as a coach:
• Get no training, or sign up with the cheapest, unaccredited school that will train you in a matter of weeks, via DVD, and promise you a quick path to success.
• Fall in love with the coaching skills, spend all your time and money learning them, and never think about, or budget anything, to learn the basic business and entrepreneurial skills.
• Jump into coaching with an all or nothing approach, without researching, or budgeting for, how long it will take and how much it will cost you. (Longer than you expect and far more than the cost of tuition).
• Wait until you have finished all your training, all everyone else's training, and gone on to get two or three PhDs before you believe you are finally competent enough to begin to coach.
• Never attempt to find an ideal client group (niche) and thus waste a lot of time and effort on ineffective, unrelated, marketing initiatives directed at people who cannot afford you or are too stubborn to get any help with their problems.
• Attempt to sell this new generic service called "coaching" - that very few people really understand or want - as opposed to finding an existing need, which can be better solved through coaching.
• Never do anything to proactively manage your stress, so you will always be at level 1, reacting to the circumstances in your life instead of creating from them.
• Never grow as a human being, or develop a daily reflective practice, so you remain stuck in your habitual reactions, wresting with your shadow or pain body, and never grow in self-awareness.
• Never aspire to master the coaching skills or seek a reputable independent credential that establishes your competence in the marketplace.
• Try to do it all by yourself, instead of connecting to colleagues (free coaching circles, ICF chapters, using this network, hiring your own coach, etc.) for the support, information and shortcuts you will need.
• Try to reinvent the wheel as relates to finding out what works for marketing coaching services so you can fall into the very same potholes that all the coaches ahead of you have, and quit when you get discouraged. (And you will get discouraged dozens of times along the way).
• Price your services on your fears and insecurities, as opposed to actually doing the marketing work to see what other professionals charge, or what your clients actually use the service for and can afford.
• Believe you need to be some kind of business whiz with a Harvard MBA to coach anyone in organisations or small businesses.
• Offer only one solution, 1 to 1 coaching at one price level, so you only have one offering on the shelves of your virtual store.
• Don't keep track of how you spend your time and money each week, and have no idea how long you have to launch your practice before you run out of money.
• Don't have goals for your practice and have no idea how much time you must market each week to achieve the number of new clients you want.
• If you are not getting any clients from your current marketing efforts, keep doing what you have been doing until you run out of money.
• If you are not getting the results you want, believe it is because of your inherent incompetence, or unworthiness, and shrink away from the world as opposed to trusting we have all gone through the same thing, (and we all have our fair serving of incompetence and insecurities), and ask for help.
• Coach just for the money, never treat your clients - your brothers and sisters - as the great gifts and teachers they are, and never be grateful that coaching is giving you an opportunity to be of service to the world, every day.
About the Author:
Steve Mitten, B.ApSc, CPCC, MCC, is a highly experienced Master Certified Life and Business Coach and former president of the International Coach Federation. He frequently volunteers his time, ideas, and support to encourage coaches to excel in their work with clients. To learn more about Steve and his work, visit his website and blog at www.acoach4u.com or steve@acoach4u.com
When you read through replace the word "coach" with "natural therapist" or your modalitiy. Steve does a great job of highlighting how important growing your business needs to be in your consiousness and that business building is a science in itself and needs the proper resources and time.
Barriers to Coaching Business Success
Maybe I have seen a few too many clips of Dr. Phil, berating his guests but I agree with one of his mantras, you really can't change things that you don't acknowledge. So, in service of raising awareness, and in hopes of minimising the suffering of those who are called to coach, here is my list of the actions that have the most negative impact your ability to make a decent living as a coach:
• Get no training, or sign up with the cheapest, unaccredited school that will train you in a matter of weeks, via DVD, and promise you a quick path to success.
• Fall in love with the coaching skills, spend all your time and money learning them, and never think about, or budget anything, to learn the basic business and entrepreneurial skills.
• Jump into coaching with an all or nothing approach, without researching, or budgeting for, how long it will take and how much it will cost you. (Longer than you expect and far more than the cost of tuition).
• Wait until you have finished all your training, all everyone else's training, and gone on to get two or three PhDs before you believe you are finally competent enough to begin to coach.
• Never attempt to find an ideal client group (niche) and thus waste a lot of time and effort on ineffective, unrelated, marketing initiatives directed at people who cannot afford you or are too stubborn to get any help with their problems.
• Attempt to sell this new generic service called "coaching" - that very few people really understand or want - as opposed to finding an existing need, which can be better solved through coaching.
• Never do anything to proactively manage your stress, so you will always be at level 1, reacting to the circumstances in your life instead of creating from them.
• Never grow as a human being, or develop a daily reflective practice, so you remain stuck in your habitual reactions, wresting with your shadow or pain body, and never grow in self-awareness.
• Never aspire to master the coaching skills or seek a reputable independent credential that establishes your competence in the marketplace.
• Try to do it all by yourself, instead of connecting to colleagues (free coaching circles, ICF chapters, using this network, hiring your own coach, etc.) for the support, information and shortcuts you will need.
• Try to reinvent the wheel as relates to finding out what works for marketing coaching services so you can fall into the very same potholes that all the coaches ahead of you have, and quit when you get discouraged. (And you will get discouraged dozens of times along the way).
• Price your services on your fears and insecurities, as opposed to actually doing the marketing work to see what other professionals charge, or what your clients actually use the service for and can afford.
• Believe you need to be some kind of business whiz with a Harvard MBA to coach anyone in organisations or small businesses.
• Offer only one solution, 1 to 1 coaching at one price level, so you only have one offering on the shelves of your virtual store.
• Don't keep track of how you spend your time and money each week, and have no idea how long you have to launch your practice before you run out of money.
• Don't have goals for your practice and have no idea how much time you must market each week to achieve the number of new clients you want.
• If you are not getting any clients from your current marketing efforts, keep doing what you have been doing until you run out of money.
• If you are not getting the results you want, believe it is because of your inherent incompetence, or unworthiness, and shrink away from the world as opposed to trusting we have all gone through the same thing, (and we all have our fair serving of incompetence and insecurities), and ask for help.
• Coach just for the money, never treat your clients - your brothers and sisters - as the great gifts and teachers they are, and never be grateful that coaching is giving you an opportunity to be of service to the world, every day.
About the Author:
Steve Mitten, B.ApSc, CPCC, MCC, is a highly experienced Master Certified Life and Business Coach and former president of the International Coach Federation. He frequently volunteers his time, ideas, and support to encourage coaches to excel in their work with clients. To learn more about Steve and his work, visit his website and blog at www.acoach4u.com or steve@acoach4u.com
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Media Opportunities For You All
This week there has been comment in the media on two bits of mainstream science confirming a lot of what we know already.
I noticed a TV news article on Sunday night quoting a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia quoting that “from 2001 to 2003 there was a 40 per cent decrease in the number of Australian women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and a 6.7 per cent reduction in the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer, equivalent to 600 fewer cases”. You can read the article on Medical News Today.
Also this week OpEdNews.com had a significant article about The 2008 Epigenetic Medicine Award Ceremony in LA celebrating the work being done in Epigentics, sometimes called Soul Medicine. According to Soul Medicine Institute (SMI), “Epigenetics is the new science describing influences that alter the expression of genes.” Epi- means above; so epigenetic means control of DNA from above or outside the gene. SMI notes that, “New research shows that consciousness (beliefs, feelings, prayer, energy, thought) may have epigenetic effects.”
The historic, first Epigenetic Medicine Award went to Randy Jirtle, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Epigenetics and Imprinting at Duke University. Dr. Jirtle is a professor of radiation oncology at the school's medical center. His groundbreaking research with agouti mice has revealed that a mother's diet during pregnancy can influence gene expression in her offspring by altering the epigenome. The result of changing the diet of the mother mouse caused two genetically identical mice to be born, one predisposed to cancer and obesity and one “normal” mouse baby. Guess which one had the good diet?
Gee whiz, a lot of this stuff is not exactly rocket science to us and the natural medicine world has “known” this for eons but it is wonderful news for your business.
As science starts to prove the theories of natural medicine, more people will feel comfortable embracing some of the more out there concepts like mice eating well during pregnancy.
This means more clients for your business.
I haven’t even read all the facts on either of these things BUT for you guys it is a grand excuse to have an in depth read and then go into the media and quote this research and hold yourself up as an expert on mice eating well (no seriously) on how diet and natural therapies are changing our world and how your business is the place that can help people live healthier and happier lives.
You can read more here:
http://www.epiaward.com/
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/NEW-EPIGENETIC-SCIENCE-AWA-by-Meryl-Ann-Butler-080530-226.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/109520.php
I noticed a TV news article on Sunday night quoting a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia quoting that “from 2001 to 2003 there was a 40 per cent decrease in the number of Australian women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and a 6.7 per cent reduction in the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer, equivalent to 600 fewer cases”. You can read the article on Medical News Today.
Also this week OpEdNews.com had a significant article about The 2008 Epigenetic Medicine Award Ceremony in LA celebrating the work being done in Epigentics, sometimes called Soul Medicine. According to Soul Medicine Institute (SMI), “Epigenetics is the new science describing influences that alter the expression of genes.” Epi- means above; so epigenetic means control of DNA from above or outside the gene. SMI notes that, “New research shows that consciousness (beliefs, feelings, prayer, energy, thought) may have epigenetic effects.”
The historic, first Epigenetic Medicine Award went to Randy Jirtle, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Epigenetics and Imprinting at Duke University. Dr. Jirtle is a professor of radiation oncology at the school's medical center. His groundbreaking research with agouti mice has revealed that a mother's diet during pregnancy can influence gene expression in her offspring by altering the epigenome. The result of changing the diet of the mother mouse caused two genetically identical mice to be born, one predisposed to cancer and obesity and one “normal” mouse baby. Guess which one had the good diet?
Gee whiz, a lot of this stuff is not exactly rocket science to us and the natural medicine world has “known” this for eons but it is wonderful news for your business.
As science starts to prove the theories of natural medicine, more people will feel comfortable embracing some of the more out there concepts like mice eating well during pregnancy.
This means more clients for your business.
I haven’t even read all the facts on either of these things BUT for you guys it is a grand excuse to have an in depth read and then go into the media and quote this research and hold yourself up as an expert on mice eating well (no seriously) on how diet and natural therapies are changing our world and how your business is the place that can help people live healthier and happier lives.
You can read more here:
http://www.epiaward.com/
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/NEW-EPIGENETIC-SCIENCE-AWA-by-Meryl-Ann-Butler-080530-226.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/109520.php
Monday, 2 June 2008
ABC Radio Interview on Sea Change
Audio of my ABC Radio Interview - Wednesday 19th March 2008
MP3 File
I was recently interviewed on the ABC in Perth Australia.
I had a fun time being interviewed by James Lush and Andrew Wynne about Sea Change on the 720 ABC Morning Program.
The program looks at some aspect of modern life and they spoke with me about my own experience of sea change or in my instance tree change, the things I learned from it and the sort of things that are useful to others undergoing a similar change.
Sea change or tree change is something that has become very popular in the last few years but it has it's challenges. If you can last the first few years it has enormous benefits in terms of lifestyle and ability to feel in control of your life.
They introduce me about 5 minutes into the show and I'm on for about 25 minutes. It was really fun to do and I couldn't believe how quickly the time went by.
If you would like to listen you can just click on the link above and it will start to play for you.
MP3 File
I was recently interviewed on the ABC in Perth Australia.
I had a fun time being interviewed by James Lush and Andrew Wynne about Sea Change on the 720 ABC Morning Program.
The program looks at some aspect of modern life and they spoke with me about my own experience of sea change or in my instance tree change, the things I learned from it and the sort of things that are useful to others undergoing a similar change.
Sea change or tree change is something that has become very popular in the last few years but it has it's challenges. If you can last the first few years it has enormous benefits in terms of lifestyle and ability to feel in control of your life.
They introduce me about 5 minutes into the show and I'm on for about 25 minutes. It was really fun to do and I couldn't believe how quickly the time went by.
If you would like to listen you can just click on the link above and it will start to play for you.
Monday, 26 May 2008
Health and Wellness — A Smart Investment
I was interested to read an article on the Ladies Who Launch blog recently that stated people in the USA are sometimes investing as much as $100,000 (yes that’s right ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars) on their health and wellbeing over time.
At first I was a bit “whoa, that’s a lot” but then as the writer Beth Tansey Peller, a health writer and wellness coach rightly states, these people may be taking a “pay now or pay later” approach.
What can you do as therapists to promote this “pay now or pay later” concept in your marketing. I always hear how hard it is out there to get people coming regularly for natural therapy treatments. Why not introduce a conversation about how much NOT coming is going to cost in the long run.
A colleague I worked with in my corporate days once shared that she had conservatively calculated the cost of her breast cancer recovery at $13,000 ON TOP of the hospital bills & treatments her health fund paid. When you look at these types of numbers, it makes a lot of sense to take the action up front because the emotional cost of being “unwell” adds an even greater cost.
Click here to read the full article
At first I was a bit “whoa, that’s a lot” but then as the writer Beth Tansey Peller, a health writer and wellness coach rightly states, these people may be taking a “pay now or pay later” approach.
What can you do as therapists to promote this “pay now or pay later” concept in your marketing. I always hear how hard it is out there to get people coming regularly for natural therapy treatments. Why not introduce a conversation about how much NOT coming is going to cost in the long run.
A colleague I worked with in my corporate days once shared that she had conservatively calculated the cost of her breast cancer recovery at $13,000 ON TOP of the hospital bills & treatments her health fund paid. When you look at these types of numbers, it makes a lot of sense to take the action up front because the emotional cost of being “unwell” adds an even greater cost.
Click here to read the full article
Sunday, 25 May 2008
The Defiant Decision
I’m going to share a BIG dark secret with you. Please don’t tell any of those wafty positive souls who never let any dark thoughts or words pass through their being.
We have a lot of fear to bust and challenges to overcome when setting up a small practice, often working from home with little knowledge of what it takes to run a small business.
I love my positive statements but to be totally frank and honest the thing that makes me do the really hard stuff in my small business (like pick up the phone when I really don’t want to) is my Defiant Decision.
Do you remember the wonderful little cartoon of the defiant mouse that did the rounds a few years back? There was a cute little mouse standing on a barren cliff face with no where to go. Flying towards him was an enormous eagle with a massive wingspan and talons & beak ready to swoop in and rip him apart. The little mouse was standing there knowing he was seconds away from being eaten but he was defiantly giving the eagle the finger. The caption was “the last act of great defiance”. This is a funny but memorable message that has been etched into my brain as I defied the odds and got my practice happening.
My defiant decision statement is the thing I’ll do ANYTHING to avoid and it is:
“If you DON'T do this, you have to go back to corporate”
There it is my ultimate driving force. When everything else fails and I’m faced with doing something I really don’t want to do and all the positive affirmations aren’t working I simply say “well Margaret if you don’t do this and make a bit of money you’ll have to go back to corporate to pay the bills”.
You would be amazed how defiant I can become to that statement and how quickly I go into action when faced with the thought of going back to corporate.
The reason is that as humans we relate better to pain than pleasure (as weird as that sounds). So when I weigh up the pro’s and con’s of what it means to not be working for a boss again and not working on soul destroying projects with people who have sold their souls to the machine against the freedom of my own business, then it becomes an easy option. The reason is because I know what working for the machine feels like is because I can evoke that feeling in every cell.
My ultimate positive driver is to bring peace to the planet via helping natural therapists see more people. It’s a wonderful thought but as yet I haven’t fully experienced it so I can’t always use it fully to motivate myself.
So what is your defiant decision??
We have a lot of fear to bust and challenges to overcome when setting up a small practice, often working from home with little knowledge of what it takes to run a small business.
I love my positive statements but to be totally frank and honest the thing that makes me do the really hard stuff in my small business (like pick up the phone when I really don’t want to) is my Defiant Decision.
Do you remember the wonderful little cartoon of the defiant mouse that did the rounds a few years back? There was a cute little mouse standing on a barren cliff face with no where to go. Flying towards him was an enormous eagle with a massive wingspan and talons & beak ready to swoop in and rip him apart. The little mouse was standing there knowing he was seconds away from being eaten but he was defiantly giving the eagle the finger. The caption was “the last act of great defiance”. This is a funny but memorable message that has been etched into my brain as I defied the odds and got my practice happening.
My defiant decision statement is the thing I’ll do ANYTHING to avoid and it is:
“If you DON'T do this, you have to go back to corporate”
There it is my ultimate driving force. When everything else fails and I’m faced with doing something I really don’t want to do and all the positive affirmations aren’t working I simply say “well Margaret if you don’t do this and make a bit of money you’ll have to go back to corporate to pay the bills”.
You would be amazed how defiant I can become to that statement and how quickly I go into action when faced with the thought of going back to corporate.
The reason is that as humans we relate better to pain than pleasure (as weird as that sounds). So when I weigh up the pro’s and con’s of what it means to not be working for a boss again and not working on soul destroying projects with people who have sold their souls to the machine against the freedom of my own business, then it becomes an easy option. The reason is because I know what working for the machine feels like is because I can evoke that feeling in every cell.
My ultimate positive driver is to bring peace to the planet via helping natural therapists see more people. It’s a wonderful thought but as yet I haven’t fully experienced it so I can’t always use it fully to motivate myself.
So what is your defiant decision??
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Wellness Becomes Mainstream
For some time now I’ve been banging on to therapists about how natural therapies are going to become more and more mainstream as time goes on.
Once upon a time natural therapies were for hippies in white flowing dresses or wildly esoteric people who “grew their own” and were considered quite mad by the mainstream.
Now the mainstream are beginning to understand that natural therapies can not only “fix” whatever is wrong with them, natural therapies can in fact stop them getting sick in the first place if they eat well and have treatments that reduce stress and promote wellness. Gosh – we’ve known this for such a long time. We are early adopters but the mainstream is slow to catch on. Look at how long it took for the mainstream to believe the world wasn’t flat when Christopher Columbus first started touting his “weird” theories.
I read an article today about one-stop shopping for wellness in South Africa. They have set up a wonderful environment where you can buy your groceries, visit the natural medicine dispensary and pharmacy; and have a spa treatment & purchase eco friendly health and fitness products all in the same warehouse type structure. There is already a shop in Richmond Melbourne that has a few of these aspects all under one roof but on a smaller scale.
If natural therapists don’t start embracing these big money themes we will end up with the same fate as the local corner store with big one stop shops knocking out the little guy.
Now it is time for natural therapists to stop thinking like “flat earthers” and stop marketing their businesses like they have done in the past. The hippies loved all the angels, butterflies and stars we so love to put on our marketing but these images & mindsets will alienate the mainstream because they are used to being influenced by more contemporary marketing.
Now is the time to start thinking how you can best market your business to the mainstream.
You can read the article here
Once upon a time natural therapies were for hippies in white flowing dresses or wildly esoteric people who “grew their own” and were considered quite mad by the mainstream.
Now the mainstream are beginning to understand that natural therapies can not only “fix” whatever is wrong with them, natural therapies can in fact stop them getting sick in the first place if they eat well and have treatments that reduce stress and promote wellness. Gosh – we’ve known this for such a long time. We are early adopters but the mainstream is slow to catch on. Look at how long it took for the mainstream to believe the world wasn’t flat when Christopher Columbus first started touting his “weird” theories.
I read an article today about one-stop shopping for wellness in South Africa. They have set up a wonderful environment where you can buy your groceries, visit the natural medicine dispensary and pharmacy; and have a spa treatment & purchase eco friendly health and fitness products all in the same warehouse type structure. There is already a shop in Richmond Melbourne that has a few of these aspects all under one roof but on a smaller scale.
If natural therapists don’t start embracing these big money themes we will end up with the same fate as the local corner store with big one stop shops knocking out the little guy.
Now it is time for natural therapists to stop thinking like “flat earthers” and stop marketing their businesses like they have done in the past. The hippies loved all the angels, butterflies and stars we so love to put on our marketing but these images & mindsets will alienate the mainstream because they are used to being influenced by more contemporary marketing.
Now is the time to start thinking how you can best market your business to the mainstream.
You can read the article here
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