How to sell coaching … or not
Today I was browsing through some discussion topics in an online group I belong to, and came across a request for input on a new product that a parent coach was creating for her clients. This coach is working on a home study product designed to help parents feel more confident about their parenting.
My radar always goes off when I see a coach who is trying to sell coaching. What I mean by “selling coaching” is that you’re trying to sell the things we coaches are best able to help our clients achieve, like “balance, happiness, fulfillment,” etc. In the words of my own coach and 
mentor, Rhonda Hess, “Coaching doesn’t sell.” This is very scary news to hear when you’re a life coach who has just spent a ton of money to get yourself certified and is out there looking for some clients to work with. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be successful as a coach. It’s all in how you position what you offer to your target audience.
Below is my response to the parent coach who was asking our group for our ideas and suggestions about her product. Read on to see my coaching to her for how to create a product her clients will want to buy.
—————————————————————————————————————–
So I’m glad you’re doing some “market research” by asking for some feedback here. Often times we create a product or service offering that we think is a good idea, but we don’t check it out with our audience before investing a lot of time, effort and energy into it.
I know that you see a lot of parents out there who are not confident in themselves as parents, and I’m sure that as a parent yourself and a coach, you know the unbelievable value of getting to the other side of that, and know how that confidence makes a huge positive impact on your child.
That said, it’s hard to sell “being more confident.” I’ve been a coach for five years now, and I spent the first two of them trying to sell “life coaching” and all of the things we help our clients achieve like “balance, happiness, fulfillment, etc.” While these are clearly important and valuable, I found it very hard to get people to put a price tag on them and pull out their wallets to pay me for them.
How connected are you with your target audience? Are you engaged with them, talking with them in person and online, coaching them already? What are their top problems and challenges? What are they telling you they need help with? And what are they willing to pay for? I.e. Are they willing to pay in order to be more confident in their lives?
My experience is that although they want this really badly, they can’t justify spending money on it.
Now, that said, you may still have a great product to create. My coaching to you would be to check in with your target audience. Ask them if they “need this” and what they would be willing to pay for it. By having some great conversations with your target audience about their problems, challenges and concerns, you will learn what they are most willing to pay for. As a mom and a coach, you have a wealth of resources you could provide to solve their problems. Make your offerings be solutions to your clients “pains” and they’ll sell.
It’s not a question whether you or your services are valuable–it’s all about how you market what you offer so that your target audience realizes they NEED it.
Let’s help her out: Are you a parent who needs help building your confidence about your parenting? What sort of things would help you with this? And would you be willing to pay for a home study guide to support you? Please leave your feedback below.
Blog Talk Radio Tips for Mompreneurs
I’ve really enjoyed hosting my radio show, The Mom Biz Coach Show, on Blog Talk Radio for the last year or so. I have been approached by many mom entrepreneurs who want me to mentor or coach them on how to start their own shows, so I thought I’d put together a short podcast on one of the hottest topics: how to find and manage guests for your show.
Just click on the link below to hear my advice on the following topics:
How to find guests for your show
How to prep your guests for their appearance on your show
How to engage your guests in conversation during the interview
What to do if you have technical difficulties, or if a guest doesn’t show up
Click below to listen!
Got a Blog Talk Radio Show of your own? Share below your suggestions for newbies or how you handled a particularly challenging interview.
If you are ready to get your show started and would like someone to walk you through it every step of the way, I can help. Just click here to learn about my Podcasting Mentoring Services.
Mompreneurs Need to Own Their Finances to Own Their Lives
This morning I was reading Natalie MacNeil’s fabulous blog, She Takes On The World, and was really struck by this idea of how many outwardly-successful people are privately financially troubled. She is quoting author and financial expert Manisha Thakor.
If the whole world got financially naked – there would be shrieks galore! In our modern, hyper-consumptive society, millions of people present external images to the world that bear limited resemblance to their true, inner financial reality. During my 15 years working in the financial services industry I met countless people earning not only six digit but even SEVEN digit incomes who were living paycheck-to-paycheck. It was this concept – that if we really bared it all financially to each other many things would change – that was the genesis of the book title.
In terms of the meat of the book, it boils down to this. If you want to have a healthy, intimate romantic relationship you need to communicate with your mate about money. Alas, that’s not the message society gives us. Money is a subject that in many respects is more taboo than sex. When you meet that someone special, people will ask if you are physically compatible, spiritually compatible, emotionally compatible, or intellectually compatible. But rarely does anyone ask if you and your honey are financially compatible. That’s too bad because study after study shows financial issues are often the ones that make or break a relationship over the long run. So the goal of this book is to give readers both a language and a roadmap to traverse the often rocky path that is getting to know your mate, financially speaking.
Manisha Thakor is on a mission to teach women how to “own your finances and own your life.” Through her books, articles, television and radio appearances, speeches, and blog –this female personal finance expert inspires women to take charge of their money. Her latest book, co-authored with fellow Harvard MBA Sharon Kedar, is Get Financially Naked. Manisha made time in her busy schedule for an interview with She Takes on the World.
shetakesontheworld.net, Interview with Personal Finance Expert, Manisha Thakor | She Takes on the World, Feb 2010
I highly recommend you read the whole article (and browse around Natalie’s blog–this is just one of the gems you’ll find interesting and helpful to read as a mom entrepreneur).
How honest are you and your spouse or partner being with each other about your finances? Are you achieving the financial results you want in your business? Do you know how your income and expenses impact your family’s financial goals?
Many of the mompreneurs I coach struggle with these issues. They’re scared about “coming clean” with their spouse about how little they’re earning or how much they’re spending for their business. This kind of hiding or secrecy combined with the lack of a solid income is one of the biggest eroding factors in a mompreneur business.
Want some support in re-creating your mom entrepreneur business in a way that is powerful, successful and sustainable for the long haul? Check out my new signature program, The Mom Biz Makeover Program, which launches on March 1st. My mission is to help mompreneurs create businesses that truly support them and their families.
Twitter Is My Office
There’s some debate going on about how and whether to use Social Media tools like Twitter for business. My seven-year-old had some insight into how I use it. One day, while peering over my laptop and seeing me posting onto Twitter, he asked: “Mom, is Twitter your office?” My answer? “Well, um, yes it is.”
Twitter is so completely my office: I connect with my friends, colleagues, and general tweeple each time I sign on, much in the same way I used to say hello to my office mates when I arrived at work before I had kids. We exchange pleasantries and catch up on each other’s lives. We create, build and strengthen our relationships through regular contact, just like I used to do in my cubicle office.
When it’s time to get down to real work, twitter is where I go to research, learn, market myself, follow up with prospects, provide accountability for my mompreneur coaching clients who request it, and the main venue for scheduling and confirming appointments with prospects and collaborators.
Twitter is the source and the venue of all my marketing, sales, business operations. My virtual assistants and I communicate through quick tweets back and forth to keep projects moving along. I market my coaching services, programs and products through simple Twitter campaigns, and I’m fortunate enough to have an amazing group of supporters and influencers who follow me and recommend the work I do to other people I have never met. I’ve traded the board room and conference rooms of Corporate America for a virtual meeting room I can attend anytime I like, wearing what’s comfortable for me to wear.
Then, at the end of a long day, I have a glass of wine and browse around the Twitter profiles of my friends and colleagues to see what they’re up to. It’s my virtual water cooler and Happy Hour, all from the comfort of wherever I happen to be.
Wanna hear the crazy twist to all this business productivity on Twitter? I only spend about 15-30 minutes a day in my “Twitter office.” I pop in and pop out multiple times throughout the day, make quick connections, upload a few tweets to be sent in the future, and retweet some of the interesting things my friends, colleagues and clients are tweeting about. Efficiency and focus are the keys to my strategy.
How do you use Twitter for business? I’d love to see your comments below, or tweet me with your thoughts: @mombizcoach.
5 Ways to Improve Your Business on a Micro-budget
Guest post by Mike McClure, Partner, Executive Creative Director & Social Media Director for The Yaffe Group
If you’re an entrepreneur or smaller business looking to get more business on a small to miniscule budget, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that with all the free and low cost tools available in the digital and social media world, you can be quite effective without spending a lot of money. The bad news? To make it work, you do need to invest a lot of time sprinkled with inspiration and innovation. Having a personality helps, too.
More good news: many individuals and companies are finding a lot of productive leads and connections through these channels. More bad news: it’s not a quick fix. It’s something you need to commit to and keep at. That doesn’t mean it will take you a year or two to see any results. But, it does mean you can’t just post a brilliant blog or open a Twitter account and expect the new business to start flooding through your doors.
Here’s 5 ways you can start improving your business without seriously hurting your bottom line:
1. Connect, connect, connect.
Use all the social networking tools available to you. Social networking is a great way to connect with people who may need your product or services. Just make sure you don’t start by broadcasting how great you are or trying to sell something. It’s like a cocktail party. Start with small talk; find out where you have common interests and where you can help them with their needs. It’s a good way to get to know someone you’ve never met before. Once they like and know you, they’ll be much more likely to want to do business with you.
I would suggest starting with LinkedIn if you haven’t gotten into any network. It’s the most business oriented site. Here’s a good post on how one business owner used LinkedIn to get a board of directors seat (http://bit.ly/21gfNB). From there, it’s a matter of preference and what type of business you’re in. You may want to start a Facebook fan page or personal page next. Or you may find the immediacy of Twitter is more to your liking. Here’s a good post by Lara Galloway on how she uses Twitter as one of her main new business tools (http://bit.ly/1wTAFo).
2. Answer Questions on LinkedIn
One the best features on LinkedIn is the Q&A section. Why? It gives you a chance to meet people out of your network, help them with a problem they have and display your expertise. Just go to the sections where questions are being asked on subjects that fit your business offerings and your area of expertise.
Here’s just one example of how that’s worked for me. I saw a question from a guy writing a book on social media. He was looking for examples of social media success stories. I told him about a campaign we’d done for one of our clients that had worked well. He liked it, we linked together and over the next 6 months had several conversations through LinkedIn messaging. This fall he was looking for judges for a big Blog Off competition his company was having. I volunteered and became part of an international “Dream Team” panel (http://bit.ly/6xs3XH) Besides the publicity of the contest itself, I will be listed in an upcoming book as one of the world’s top social media people, will be talked about on a Blog Talk Radio show that reaches millions and in video shows by one of Europe’s top providers of online content. Not bad for a small business owner in Detroit.
3. Use Blog Talk Radio
This is a free, easy way to create podcasts for your own enterprise. There are two ways you can use Blog Talk Radio to help your business. One is to sign up at blogtalkradio.com and host your own show. This way you can have your own radio talk show. You can invite guests who will speak on subject matters relevant to your audience or you can invite guests who represent companies you want to do business with. Or you can sometimes just speak on subjects you’re knowledgeable about and make those podcasts available to your potential clients. For an example of doing your own show, you can look at the Mom Biz Coach show. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mombizcoach)
The second, and easier, way to use Blog Talk Radio is to volunteer your expertise to someone who has a show. Our head of Yaffe Direct, Michael Morin, went on the Chuck Talks Business show and had an hour long interview. It went well and, with Chuck’s permission, we downloaded the podcast and posted it on our Yaffe Tidbits site (http://www.yaffetidbits.com/podcasts/radio/morin_marketing.html). We then edited a 2-minute teaser of some of the best parts of the interview. We emailed the two minute version to a list of prospects along with a link to the full podcast. Within a few weeks we got several inquiries from potential clients who we never would have gotten to talk to otherwise.
4. Buy a Flip Camcorder
You can get a really nice Flip Camcorder for around $125; I’d also pop for the small tripod that’s about $20-25. The Flip is an extremely easy way to shoot, edit and post videos to your site, blog, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel or wherever you can add video to your online presence. Video is a way to really put a face on your business. You can simply set it up on the tripod, point it at yourself and record a video blog. You can also record and post client testimonials. (http://bit.ly/8UXVZ8) It’s also small and portable that you can carry it with you when you go to a conference, meeting, seminar, tweetup or wherever. At these events you can ask people’s opinions on whatever issues you’d like to cover for your clients/potential clients. It takes nothing to plug the Flip into your computer and use the included edit system to string together the comments you like and post that video to one of your sites. All this adds to both your content and your credibility.
5. Blog about potential clients
If you have a blog for your business (if you don’t, start one now), you can meet potential clients simply by asking them if you can interview them for an upcoming blog post. It’s a great way to meet and get to know someone in a non-sales environment (important note: don’t try and sell yourself or company during the interview). Who doesn’t like the idea of someone wanting to interview them for their expert opinion? More often than not, you’ll be able to find someone willing to talk about their business for the free publicity for both their company and themselves.
Even if you don’t get an interview, do research on the company and write a blog post about what they’re doing right as a company. Here’s an example of a post I wrote about Biggby Coffee. (http://bit.ly/6Hferc) After creating it, send the post to them. Even if it doesn’t peak their interest in you, they may link the post to their own site or blog. We still get traffic to our blog from companies that have linked to a post about them from many months ago.
There you have it. Five ideas that should get your business some attention without spending an arm and a leg. I’d say good luck, but it really is just a matter of good hard work.
To learn more about Mike McClure, The Yaffe Group and the great marketing work he does for his clients, visit his site and be sure to follow him on Twitter!
10 Ways Twitter Changed My Business
In celebration of my one year anniversary of using Twitter this month, I took some time to consider the impact this fabulous tool has had on my business.
You can listen to my Audio Blog by clicking here!
How has Twitter changed your approach to your business? Are you using it for some things that I didn’t mention here? I’d love to hear your ideas, so leave a comment below.
The Right Way to Respond to Media Queries
Today I’m sharing with you a guest post from a fellow member of www.savorthesuccess.com. If you’ve been preparing yourself for publicity, you’d be wise to follow Jennifer’s advice about the right way to give a reporter the exact info they need in exactly the format they can use. (And if you’re not already a member of SavorTheSuccess.com, I highly recommend it. One of the best ways to be successful is to surround yourself with people you respect and admire who are doing the same thing you are, but who may be a bit further down the road. You’ll find some incredible high-achievers at Savor who are also down-to-earth enough to talk with you and share their wisdom. Leave a comment, shoot me an email to lara at mombizcoach dot com, or tweet me at @mombizcoach and I’ll give you a referral to join the group!)
Guest post by:
Jennifer Tuma-Young
Inspirista - Founder
Ocean Township, NJ
http://www.inspirista.net/
I wanted to blog about this topic because I think so many of you ladies ARE INCREDIBLE, and deserve to be used as an expert source or have your product/service featured in a magazine. Since I am on both sides of the pitching fence (as a “Source” and as a Radio Host/Writer), I wanted to share some tips on how to get national media exposure based on your response to a query.
Where can you find queries? Here’s my top 3 list:
- Savor the Success (for Premium Members)
- HARO
By answering queries on the above listed and through years of trial and BIG error, I finally figured out ways to respond that have led to things like appearances on nationally syndicated shows, such as Rachael Ray, guest-hosting shows for Dish Network, being quoted as a source for many magazines and blogs, including Woman’s World as one of “America’s Ultimate Experts”. I also have responded for my clients and they have been quoted as a source, or products used, etc. (no- I’m not a publicist just a firm believer that if you’re passionate about what you do, the world needs to know about it, and I believe in every single one of my clients, so I like to help them spread their word, too!!).
And, now, on the other side of the fence, I have posted queries on HARO looking for guests for my Girls Night Out Radio Show, and each time I post I literally get HUNDREDS of responses. My radio inbox is flooded, and to be honest, unfortunately I don’t have the time to thoroughly read through all of these pitches. Imagine a reporter looking for a source for an article- they need a couple of lines, a few tips, and they get hundreds or even thousands of replies? Responses need to be formatted in a receiver-friendly way, or else they end up in the “deleted” bin.
So, the BIG question- how does one respond to a query effectively enough to get chosen? Now, of course, every editor/producer/journalist/writer/etc. has his or her own style, and it’s impossible to know exactly what catches his/her eye in a response, right? But, I think there are a couple of things that can increase your chances of staying in their inbox so you’ll be used as a “Source”.
1. Read the Query and Give Them Exactly What They Want
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve posted a query asking for specific things, and I get an inbox flooded with generic press releases about pitches off-topic. Maybe they’ll start with one unique sentence, and then it goes right into their generic press release. I am telling you, I know press releases can be expensive, and you want to use them, but if a query is asking for something specific, give it to them!! Nine out of ten times, a press release isn’t going to answer a specific question.
For example, sometimes a query says to include specific personal details, like where you are from. They may be trying to get a mix of responses from experts around the country- so, if you forget to include your city, you may be instantly deleted!!
Tip: Copy and paste the query into your email response. This way, as you are writing your response, you can answer with exactly what the person is asking for. Make sure to proof-read and delete the pasted query before responding!
2. Tips Help a Ton
When the query includes the storyline or topic, if you respond with fantastic tips on the subject, you are putting yourself way ahead of the rest!! Articles usually are short, and while pitching should involve using your personal story, a journalist really just wants to include your tips, and one-line bio that connects you to their audience. If you send them a full length novel to read about who you are before getting into what you have to offer the reader/audience, they may never get to it! I used to make this mistake all of the time, and then I learned: send them tips to help them give great “take-away” to reach/relate to their audience.
Tip: Give them your tips! I usually include 3 solid, unique “tips” with every response. They should stand out as “tips” and be specific to the query you are responding to. So, in other words, don’t hide your tip into a paragraph or a lot of verbiage.
3. Do Your Research- Google is a Girl’s Best Friend
Know who you’re pitching, and let them know you know your stuff! It’s kind of like a job interview. Remember, this is not about flattery- it’s about “fit”. So, if you’re responding to a national media outlet, you can save the buttering up. I’m sure those guys are inundated with “I love the show” type of lead-ins!
Make your lead-in count, so if you’re not sure of the media outlet you are responding to, take a minute to research it!! I’ve made this mistake in the past, and I’ve learned if you know the media outlet or specific writer’s style, you will be so much more effective when responding!
Tip: Add a statistic and research information to your response. For example, if a writer is looking for information on self-esteem, adding a quick one-liner like “According to a recent study conducted by Unilever, 4 out of 5 women are unhappy with their appearance. Here are 3 tips…” You will surely show them that you are a reliable source who knows her stuff!
4. Compelling Details Need to Be In the Body of the E-mail
Don’t send attachments or links if you think that’s what’s compelling about your response. I can’t tell you how many responses I get that say, “I’d be a perfect fit for your show. Check out my website.” Or “I’ve attached my full bio and press kit.” While I love looking at websites, and I’m sure there’s great information in press kits, that’s another step that adds time. Remember, there are hundreds/thousands of responses, so instead, put compelling details directly into the body of the email. Some of these guys are reading your responses on a blackberry, so get them at “hello”!!
Tip: Make sure you have a one or two-line bio statement that really says who you are. Make it more than “author of” or “creator of”. Include a personal detail and change it up depending on what you are responding to.
5. Rethink the Link
Choose your links wisely! Often we use a link that goes to directly to our homepage, but if the homepage of our site doesn’t resonate with the specific query, what value does the link add? I find that if I use a link in the body of the email, I choose one that works specifically with the query. For example, I may link directly to my online press kit (after I’ve given a quick bio and tips), or I may link to a specific video, a specific piece of press, a specific service, a specific appearance, etc. The easier you make it, the better!
Tip: Have a standard email signature. If you are going to reference a web link in the body of the e-mail, make sure it adds specific value, and it’s different than the one that’s in your signature.
I hope these tips help and you have learned from some of my mistakes, but most importantly, I want you to KNOW YOUR WORTH!! You and your authentic self are so valuable to any editor/producer/journalist/writer/host/etc. Without you, there would be no articles, segments, or stories that resonate with real women. When you’re pitching, realize the value that you add, the knowledge and passion that you bring to whatever media you are going for, and don’t ever get discouraged! Keep believing in what you have to offer the world, and I am certain you will get your message out there!
How to Reach Your Target Market
If you’re like many of the work-at-home-moms and mompreneurs I know and coach, you probably got into business for yourself despite your lack of an MBA in marketing. So figuring out how to get people to buy what you sell can be a bit like explaining what galaxies are and where they exist in time and space to an inquisitive seven-year-old.
I don’t have an MBA, either, but I’ve learned a lot from the school of “learning by doing.” Here is the methodology I teach my mom entrepreneurs to use to get more clients and make more money, without spending much of their money or time.
Make Sure Your Niche Is Narrow Enough
Most of the mom entrepreneurs who hire me as their coach are extremely resistant to choosing a narrow niche market. They want to market themselves to “moms” or to “parents” or to “middle-aged women” or “empty-nesters.” It’s always better to be the big fish in a smaller pond (“I coach mompreneurs who have been in business less than five years and are raising small children”) than a tiny fish in a big pond (“I’m a business coach for entrepreneurs.”). Simply put, you can make a much bigger splash in a little pond and get visibility you would be hard-pressed to earn in the big pond.
Identify Your Ideal Client
Once you have a narrow niche, you can focus on the individuals in it. Think of your ideal clients. How old are they? Where do they live? What do they read? What do they spend money on? Where do they shop? Do they buy for themselves or for family members? Do they hold the purse strings? Do they make enough money to afford your product/services? Are they the type people who already value what you have to offer?
Identify Their Top Challenges and Needs
Now, with as specific a person in mind as you can muster, think about their life. What’s good about it? What’s not? What do they keep tolerating? What drives them nuts? What would make their life better, easier, more fun? If you can identify their biggest problems, then you can tailor your products and services to solve them. People want to feel better, be happier, live longer, be healthier, etc. What can you and your business do to help them with this?
Create Products and Services That Solve Their Problems
Knowing this, you’ll be on your way to creating valuable content in the form of products and services your clients will willingly pay for. You’ve tailored your business solutions to meet their top needs and challenges. This isn’t just marketing—you’re listening to your market, doing market research within your specific niche, and you’re creating solutions to their problems. Your clients will pay for people and things that make their problems go away. With this understanding of your client’s needs, you’re well on the path to creating a great marketing funnel.
Go Where They Are and Share Your Powerful Message
You may be wondering why the title of this post is “How to Reach Your Target Market” when I haven’t talked at all about traditional methods and venues for finding clients. That’s not an oversight; I promise. Now that you’ve customized your offerings and made them solutions to your ideal customer’s problems, you’re ready to reach out and start attracting them to you. I’ve said many times before, “I’d rather attract my clients to me than have to go hunting for them.” Show up/present yourself, your business and your marketing message to them where they are (in the print publications they read, in the blogs to which they subscribe, in the organizations to which they belong). Do so in a way that shows you know who they are, what they need, and that you understand them. Saying: “I help families and children who struggle with chronic problems like headaches, ear infections and dizziness” is much more powerful than “I’m a chiropractor.”
Learning how to reach your target market isn’t rocket science, but there is definitely a strategy involved. Entrepreneurs who truly understand their ideal clients and who learn how to create solutions to their customers’ needs will have little trouble growing their businesses!
Want to get some more suggestions about how to reach your target market? My business coach and mentor, Rhonda Hess, has agreed to join me for a 75-minute teleseminar to share with you some of the same proven strategies she shared with me to rapidly grow my coaching business. If you are an entrepreneur in a services business, this is the information you’ve been looking for to understand how to finally get your clients to come to you! Please join us tomorrow night!
Here are the details:
Title: “When a Niche Is Not Enough–Three Steps to Become Essential to Your Target Market (and Win Raving Fans for Life!
Date: Thursday, October 1
Time: 8pm-9:15pm ET
Where: On your phone and computer (bridgeline details and PowerPoint presentation will be sent to you when you register)
Register: Click here!
Ten Ways to Come Up With New Ideas
You know, there are times when my brain is simply too tired or overwhelmed to produce many (if any) new ideas. There is many a day when 4pm rolls around and I realize I haven’t thought of what to make for dinner for my family of five. I open the fridge and freezer and stand there, staring, literally hoping for something to jump out at me so I don’t have to think up what to cook. My brain is so tired I can’t even remember the standard meals I cook, much less come up with anything creative, new and exciting to try.
And then there are times, like now, that my brain is about to explode due to all the creativity coming out of it. I used to scratch down an idea on a piece of paper when it hit me. Then I started keeping them in my business notebook as they came to me more frequently. Now I’m creating whole spreadsheets of ideas to keep track of them, and they just keep coming.
Are you looking for something to write about for your blog, your newsletter, for an article, for a marketing piece, or for a special report, e-book or book?
Could you use some help brainstorming ideas for a new product, program or service you could offer?
Need a strategy for generating engaging topics for your podcasts, teleseminars, or workshops?
I’m happy to share with you a few methods I use for kicking my imagination and creativity into high gear. Hopefully you can find a few that will work for you, and you’ll be well on your way to developing some fresh content for your business this Fall.
Ten Ways to Come Up With New Content:
- Focus on the part of your business you love. Just think about the parts that make you happiest. If you love talking, is there a new venue/forum that you haven’t tried yet? How could you teach others something about this thing you love?
- Pick a partner and do some collaborating. You’re good at what you do; now go find somebody who complements your strengths and can help you develop your offerings in ways you couldn’t come up with on your own.
- Check out your email inbox. Do you notice any frequently asked questions in there? Create a special report, an e-book, or a podcast that answers those questions and make it available to your customers and prospects. They’ll be grateful you did, and it won’t take you much creativity at all to answer these questions.
- Create an add-on to something you already provide. Is your e-book/book selling well? Fantastic! Now create a workbook or study book that goes along with it so people can create their own path from the insights/lessons your book taught them. Doing teleseminars? Why not package your audio files with a questionnaire or worksheet and sell that as an information product?
- How’s your existing product funnel? Take a good look at it and decide if/where there are any gaps. Do you offer products/services for free, low, medium and high-priced? Does one offering logically lead to the next, higher-priced one? Create items that fill in these gaps.
- Have someone interview you (live or just recorded), asking you who your target market is and what their top challenges are. Answer these questions, and let the creative juices flow. Often times being asked questions and having to answer them in real time helps your brain think in ways that sitting at your desk all by yourself just doesn’t.
- Ask your coach, mentor, board of advisors, supporters to review your website and all of your offerings. What would they like to see? Ask them to tell you what’s missing.
- Keep a notebook handy. As ideas come to you, write them down. You will not remember them later. If you can’t get to your notebook, consider using the voice memo feature on your cellphone/smartphone, or even call your own answering machine and leave yourself a message with your bright idea. Do it IMMEDIATELY before you lose it! Great ideas seldom re-visit tired mompreneur brains.
- Spend some time exploring–surf the web, search on keywords that are relevant to you and your business, and see what your competitors or colleauges are doing. Can you emulate something you see? Is there a way you can make it your own, with your personality, brand and flavor?
- Get out of your office. Go for a walk, a hike, a bikeride, anything outdoors and in Nature. If you’ve been stuck for a while without new ideas, a change of pace and setting might be just what you need. Spend time with friends and family and turn off the “business brain” for a while. A little R&R goes a long way towards giving your mind the flexibility to generate new, different, exciting things that will benefit you, your business, and your clients.
Twitter is My Office
There’s some debate going on about how and whether to use Social Media tools like Twitter and Facebook for business. My seven-year-old had some insight into how I use it. One day, while peering over my laptop and seeing me posting onto Twitter, he asked: “Mom, is Twitter your office?” My answer? “Well, um, yes it is.”
Twitter is so completely my office: I connect with my friends, colleagues, and general tweeple each time I sign on, much in the same way I used to say hello to my office mates when I arrived at work before I had kids. We exchange pleasantries and catch up on each other’s lives. We create, build and strengthen our relationships through regular contact, just like I used to do in my cubicle office.
When it’s time to get down to real work, twitter is where I go to research, learn, market myself, follow up with prospects, provide accountability for my mompreneur coaching clients who request it, and the main venue for scheduling and confirming appointments with prospects and collaborators.
Twitter is the source and the venue of all my marketing, sales, business operations. My virtual assistants and I communicate through quick tweets back and forth to keep projects moving along. I market my coaching services, programs and products through simple Twitter campaigns, and I’m fortunate enough to have an amazing group of supporters and influencers who follow me and recommend the work I do to other people I have never met. I’ve traded the board room and conference rooms of Corporate America for a virtual meeting room I can attend anytime I like, wearing what’s comfortable for me to wear.
Then, at the end of a long day, I have a glass of wine and browse around the Twitter profiles of my friends and colleagues to see what they’re up to. It’s my virtual water cooler and Happy Hour, all from the comfort of wherever I happen to be.
Wanna hear the crazy twist to all this business productivity on Twitter? I only spend about 15-30 minutes a day in my “Twitter office.”
How do you use Twitter for business? I’d love to see your comments below. And if you’d like some ideas about new, fun, effective ways to use Twitter and Facebook for business, tun into my free teleseminar tomorrow with Christine Gallagher of CommunicateValue.com on my BlogTalkRadio Show. Click here for call-in (as well as podcast) information.
Connect With Me!
