This thoughtful email from a pilot program participant, with my remarks in bold and italic.
Hi Barbra,
Monday’s class was enlightening and your email afterwards much appreciated. Lots of thinking and too much to write, so have kept it relatively short and can send more if you would like.
Hi Barbra,
Monday’s class was enlightening and your email afterwards much appreciated. Lots of thinking and too much to write, so have kept it relatively short and can send more if you would like.
Speed – could it be unrealistic for those who come on this course to convert networking into free or paid talks so quickly?Yes, I’m beginning to think that’s the case. How important is it to maintain the same time frame for normal participants? What would be the pros and cons of extending the course time frame? It’s certainly possible to extend the time frame. However, then it becomes just another “how to build a coaching business” course, not a “Readymade Coaching Business”. There’s nothing wrong with a longer program, but it’s not what I set out to do and it’s not what I’m interested in offering. I’d rather refer people to some of the good programs that are already out there.
Marketing – we were all going along smoothly, and then the marketing came along. It was reassuring on Monday’s call to know that I am not alone in having difficulty finding even one person to attend a free talk.It would be interesting perhaps to discover how many people will choose your course because of this very offering – marketing to get clients.
I’m going to be blunt here. You say “we were all going along smoothly, and then the marketing came along.” In my view, the reason participants were all going along smoothly was because up to that point I was doing most of the work (getting the website and autoresponder in place).
At the same time, I do believe that each participant was doing the best she could with the resources she had available. More often than not, when people take on a big project it’s the inner work (overcoming fear and developing belief in oneself) that is the biggest challenge, and the biggest progress. That inner progress is not readily visible to the outside world.
Might it be an idea to ask future participants 2 marketing questions :
1. What does marketing mean to you?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being high, how would you rate your enjoyment of networking?
You are a great coach, and your habit change program is an excellent system. Every pilot scheme, in order to really learn has to have ups and downs – just like a real adventure. Question is, how to make the most of this wonderful opportunity?!
One of my biggest learning curves on this course is how few of us have actually spent the ten hours a week you asked us to commit to marketing.
Yes, this has been somewhat surprising to me. Each person who committed to the program said something along the lines of “I’m ready to finally do the work required”, but most haven’t. On the other hand, that’s not unusual. I can think of many examples in my own life where I have signed up for something and then did not do the work that I committed to.
Is this the norm now, to agree, but not to deliver? I shall have to rethink my understanding of commitment when I have clients going through my courses.
Good question. I think it’s human nature. We are enthusiastic at the beginning of a project, and then have difficulty with the follow-through. That’s why people hire coaches! So does that mean that the pilot program coaches need more coaching? More support structures? That seems to bring us back to the idea of a longer program, and as I wrote above, I’m not interested in offering a longer program.
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Those of us who have spent 10 or more hours per week for the past 8 weeks have the same results as those who did not – 0 clients attending free talks. What do you think needs tweaking?
According to the mid-point survey, only one person of seven was doing the 10 hours a week consistently, so it’s hard to draw conclusions. It’s true that she has not yet had any registrants for her free talks. Simply putting up notices may not be enough. Her new strategy of contacting groups and offering to speak will probably yield better results.
I believe the website, autoresponder, free report, blog, posters, business cards and free talks are all marketing tools. Simply putting up posters may not be enough, but then again it could have been.
I thought we were doing marketing all along, building as we went.
You’re right. It’s hard to draw conclusions this early, especially given the diversity of our efforts, our locales, and our time commitments, confidence levels, etc.
The major reason I do not have people attending my free talks is I felt too much time pressure, was getting nervous and decided that giving a talk under those conditions would do my reputation more harm than good. Having the basement flood didn’t help.
With the weekly help of my own coach, I opted to concentrate on networking, asking for referrals, emailing, handing out business cards and improving my poster in order to attract potential clients before Oct. 14.
I could see, or was afraid that, even if I managed to attract clients to a free talk, I probably wouldn’t be able to convert those attendees into paying clients for a 6 week program I was not yet familiar enough with, before the end of October.
Some of this is limiting beliefs. Some of it is expectations.
When I joined the pilot, I was thinking the 10 hours would be on the pilot, not solely on marketing. I’ve spent several hours weekly, listening to the audio, emailing you and others, writing bio & blog, taking and reviewing notes, reading the text, etc. I haven’t yet had the time to go to monthly meetings of Toastmasters, The Chamber of Commerce, etc. I’m still working on a system to follow up on leads that have been generated.
I think you’re wise to go at your own pace Edna. And you’re quite right – the 10 hours a week are for the whole program (not just the direct marketing).
The more I think about it, the more I realize that a successful outcome is dependent on each participant going at their own pace, using their own strengths. My original contention that a certain formula will work is probably flawed. Matti Grey made this point in a comment on a previous post:
Thanks for all your thoughtful comments, Edna. I’m learning just as much as the program participants – which is exactly what a pilot program is intended to do! I really appreciate each of the pilot program participants and their willingness to do this experiment with me.
Reading your comments explains why I have misunderstood the meaning of readymade coaching business.
I am excellent at following instructions and succeeding, so thought that doing all the tasks you asked us to do would result in readymade clients.
As a world record holder and on another occasion becoming a national champion, I know about hard work, dedication, planning, training, action, tweaking and positivity. The difference between sport and marketing is that in sport I practise, improve and am successful, whereas in marketing, it would appear, in my case, the more I practise the more I fail.
The answer, as ever, is to think differently – I shall succeed, however, it may take longer than the pilot and the lesson learned is to use an approach to marketing for introverts which is enjoyable and produces readymade clients.
As I understand it, introverted methods can take longer to produce success than extraverted activities. Perhaps future participants could be given a choice of marketing activities right at the start of the course so that there is more time to succeed within the time limit.
Yes, I love Matti’s wisdom.
I am a firm believer in the idea that we can definitely learn the most from what doesn’t work the first time. I’m not going to call it a mistake or a failure. It’s a learning opportunity.
To ‘think differently’, as Jacqui puts it, means to examine our assumptions. We all must make and operate on many assumptions simply to function in the world. That’s what our unconscious does for us. It stores the assumptions. It’s when something doesn’t work the way we expected it to that we realize we had an assumptions about it, and then can examine what it was and if it’s applicable.
I really liked what you said in one of the most recent calls: “as coaches we are learning the habit of marketing continuously”. Something about that idea took the pressure off me.
Marketing doesn’t end Oct. 31, 2010. Nor does learning.
The only thing ending is?
The pilot.
Love your bluntness Barbra! Yes, absolutely right, you were doing all the hard work. We just had to spend our ten hours doing little tasks such as ordering business cards, joining a chamber of commerce, writing a bio and then reading and learning about habit change and great fun it was too.
When the marketing arrived, the timing aspect changed. I had understood that we were to spend ten hours a week on the course. After marketing arrived, my understanding changed and now it was to be ten hours on marketing and never mind all the other hours to do what is required to keep up with the course.
I now understand why it is so exhausting because the course is actually a full time job all on its own just to keep going. No wonder my lovely pilot chums are struggling. I am too. It is only my determination to succeed that keeps me going and neglects everything else other than the essentials of looking after elderly relatives who live in different counties, and the odd crisis during the course, two floods, a burst boiler and then just leaking water.
Life is full of opportunities and I have discovered just how much I am able to do every day. Keeping optimistic through the frustration certainly helps. Knowing I shall succeed is also key . . . . just wish it would hurry up!!
I think this has been a good learning experience on both ends. I feel like I definitely could do more work on my marketing, but I am also not 100% lking the idea of putting the cart before the horse. I have a lot to learn before I become a really good coach. That is why I am also enrolled in one of Dave Buck’s courses at Coachivlle learning another coaching method along with the wellness coaching method I learned and will continue to take more courses to feel more confident. I am also looking forward to implementing the habit change curriculum with my first group. The number one thing that has been of most benefit to me with this course is getting my website up. That in and of itself was worth the cost of the program. Barbra’s VA doing the programming and getting the site up was exactly what I needed. I have spent many hours on my website and am pleased with it. It is not a Mercedes like my massage therapy website http://www.solfultouch.com, but I like the simplicity of it and that I can get in and make the changes myself. I look forward to going over the curriculum and getting some more coaching skills. I think we know what we need to do for marketing. We just have to be more diligent and not get discouraged. We are just starting after all, and it takes time to build a business.
Kelly, you make a very important point when you say:
Watch for an upcoming post where I discuss exactly this.
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