Getting hired is no accident!

Who do you know that might benefit from this upcoming Teleseries
“Career Success Toolkit” starting September 22,
2010 with career expert Marshall Brown?

Maybe it’s you? A friend? An out-of-work colleague?

http://www.mbrownassociates.com/toolkit/sp.html

In this rare jam-packed program, you’ll learn:

· Secrets to creating a powerful resume that gets you
noticed and opens doors
· How to create compelling cover letters and marketing
letters that GRAB attention
· The best job search strategies for you, including how
to assemble your own job search plan
· How to network like a pro, including how to develop
a great 30-second commercial
· How to ace any interview, get the job offer, and
negotiate for perks and more money
· The Top 10 strategies for ongoing career success…how
to make it to the top and stay there

The “Career Success Toolkit” Teleseries
is a rare chance for you to learn insider secrets,
avoid making common mistakes, AND have fun…
all under the attentive eye of top
career professional Marshall Brown who is
dedicated to your mastery.

Getting Hired Is No Accident!

In today’s job market, resumes have become PURE
MARKETING. If your resume is to open doors for
you—within 10 seconds of landing on an employer’s
desk—your resume MUST sell your value, what you
can offer, and what your unique value offer is.

“Marshall has an uncanny ability to guide his clients to
maintain a motivated job search. His networking
coaching is incredible, and he exceptionally accessible.
In today’s competitive marketplace, it is critical that
executive talent have exceptional guidance to secure
your employment goals. I recommend Marshall,
without reservation.”

- Bill Williams

The best achievers have certain things in common – they
do the same things, they think the same way, they avoid
the same traps, and they distinguish themselves as high
achievers, the ones to watch, the ones to promote.

Learn how to be in the Top 1%…and stay there!

He’ll show you how!

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to
invest in your career success!

Space is strictly limited so sign up today to
receive a $50 Ahead-Of-The-Curve discount by midnight
September 15th.

Only $475
($525 after September 16th)

Sign up here! http://www.mbrownassociates.com/toolkit/sp.html

Aloha! Greetings from Maui! I couldn’t resist sharing this with you, because the ladies at Coaches Console are offering a time-sensitive bonus. Sign up by 8/27 and you get locked in to current rates before the increase and get bonuses, too!

Do you want to:
Coach More Clients?
Earn More Money?
Make A Difference?

The Coaches Console is the business success system for coaches that want to grow their practice faster than they ever thought possible, coach more clients in less time and charge what you are worth.

Test drive or see for yourself how Coaches Console can help you:
Win back more hours in the week to coach more clients and earn money…instead of wasting precious time on administrative details
Have peace of mind, knowing you are delivering the BEST value to clients both in and out of the session
Save time and money by being able to manage multiple aspects of your business in one streamlined system

Click here to test drive the system today: http://www.coachesconsole.com/cmd.php?Clk=3654359

Transform your career or business growth! Enroll in Keith Ferrazzi’s Relationship Masters Academy today.

Who you know and what you do with your connections are critical to your success. As the world’s foremost expert in relationship development, Keith Ferrazzi has spent the past decade teaching Fortune 100 executives how to revolutionize their businesses and careers through professional relationships. He is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back and the CEO of the consulting and training firm, Ferrazzi Greenlight. Both Forbes and Inc. have called him one of the world’s most “connected” individuals.

Now, in his new, online Relationship Masters Academy, Ferrazzi shares the exclusive relationship system once only taught to top executives with you. The next class begins on November 1^st, 2010.

About the Course

The Relationship Masters Academy is the ONLY program providing trusted expertise on how to leverage relationships for professional success from the foremost leader in business relationships, Keith Ferrazzi.

This course also applies to the real world and is built around your schedule. This flexible program offers a new type of learning – one that has all the benefits of online courses along with added support through weekly phone instruction and coaching, missions that teach “on the job,” and peer-to-peer forums.

In two to three hours a week for ten weeks, you will learn techniques that will immediately help you get the most from your relationships. Lessons and “missions” will teach you how to:

• Organize, maintain, and grow a customized network of friends, colleagues, customers and mentors that produces a never-ending stream of business opportunities
• Build emotional ties that transcend transactions with prospects and client
• Get the key influencers in your profession motivated to see you succeed
• Build networking activities into your schedule seamlessly and efficiently
• Exponentially increase your overall business/career trajectory

November 2010 Planned RMA Course Features Include:

Course Materials

-       Weekly assignments/Missions

-       Weekly training videos

-       Downloadable articles, pdfs, and quick-look guides

Diagnostic Tools

-       Pre-and-Post RQ (Relationship Management Quotient) assessment

-       Periodic diagnostics (e.g. Network mapping and audit)

Coaching Calls & Webinars

-       Live Q&A group tele-coaching sessions with Keith

-       Bi-Weekly Master Classes featuring renowned experts on presenting skills, social media, communication and interpersonal skills, leadership, and personal impact

-       Weekly live-chat virtual office hours with RMA coaches

-       Periodic group coaching calls

Community Support & Resources

-       5-7 person accountability groups with reporting and group page functionality

-       Weekly Newsletter and exclusive content via the RMA internal blog

-       Personalized profiles, forums, progress tracking functionality, and personalized email (and optional text) reminders

-       RMA Library and swipe file collection: drag and drop networking, outreach and sales materials – checklists, reference guides, phone and email scripts, invites, dinner plans, pinging templates

What People Are Saying about RMA

“I just got a new job on Friday, largely as a result of the networking I’ve done with the help of RMA. After doing research on an employer via LinkedIn and my contacts, I connected with three people at the company. All three turned out to be on the hiring panel. I had the opportunity to express my interest in the position at a professional society meeting because I found out that one of the panelists is a regular attendee. By doing a little extra research, I was able to secure the connections I needed to land the job.”

JF, July 2010, RMA Pilot II Participant

“These 3 weeks, this online course, have had a significant impact on my work, my workflow and my focus. Looking ahead, I’m seeing this project unfold in a way I had no idea could happen – in such a short period of time. I’ve created a spiral notebook that will hold my journey through RMA. I print each lesson, and paste it in to the notebook. Then, I read the documents, and write anything that comes to mind.  I’ve even started finding pictures and quotations from magazines or the web, those get pasted in as well…it’s becoming my “Passport to the future.”  I’m planning to call in for today’s conference call.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.” JW, July 2010, RMA Pilot II Participant

“When I started RMA, I loved my job but my boss just wasn’t in my corner. So for the last mission in Course 1, I invited other senior executives in my company to dinner
and introduced them to my family and community stakeholders. The dinner was spectacular, transforming my relationship with these influential execs at my job, and within
2 weeks, I was given a new boss – one that had been at my dinner and ‘has my back.’” ST, June 2010, RMA Pilot I Participant

Savings for You!

Enrollment in RMA is currently $2,000. Executives have paid as much as $10,000 for the in-person version of this course.  This is a tax-deductible expense (professional training) AND may also be reimbursed by your company.

Achieve greater success with better relationships – enroll in Keith Ferrazzi’s Relationship Masters Academy today!

Bob Burg and John David Mann, authors of The Go-Giver, have created a companion book that I’d go as far as to call the ultimate sales book. Why? Because this book (Go Givers Sell More) undoes all the techniques, gimmicks, and otherwise snarky strategies that have given sales a bad name, and goes to the core of how to think about and BE effective in making a difference for people. This book really does look at the critical mindsets necessary to add value to both your prospective customers and your bottom line simultaneously.

I HIGHLY recommend it…it’s all the best mindsets for adding value and growing your business in an easy, relevant, and timely read! It teaches you how to operationalize the mindsets of being of service and adding value to others. In fact, Go-Givers Sell More is an ideal complement to Seal the Deal, and I can tell you from my own experience having written Seal the Deal and then reading Go-Givers that applying the mindsets of being a go-giver will improve your ability to seal the deal faster, bigger, and better than ever before.

As one of the founding coaches in Keith Ferrazzi’s Relationship Masters Academy, I love it when he posts blog posts that were crowdsourced by the participants of the program!  His latest post is about the Top 11 Networking Tips and I love this list so much I’ve just got to share it with you!

1. The best advice I received recently was on e-mail etiquette. I was coached never to use the word “I” until the third sentence. It sounds harder than you think. After about five revisions I finally nailed it, sent the cold e-mail to the most prominent attorney in the county who I had never met, got the lunch meeting 1st request, and walked out of a 90 minute meeting with a retainer check in hand. That never happened in the short 8 years of my business. So, stay away from “I” ! – Eric Frazer

2. My best networking tip is volunteering yourself to the top. The power of serving a community or faith based organization puts networking connections and relationships on a different level. Although it doesn’t generate any income for me directly, volunteering has given me the opportunity to meet new people, nurture new relationships, and build my referral network.  I’d highly recommend it! – JP Finnell

3. The best networking advice I ever received was from my late mother, who told me that if I wanted to have a good time I would.  She’s right. – Lucy

4. Never take counsel from your fears. Whenever I was called in to see someone, I always made a point to tell myself that it was because I had done something wonderful, so that I would walk into any meeting with a positive attitude. Even if the discussion turned out to be negative, I was so positive that I remained strong and could deal with the situation. – Sam B. Bruce

5. My best networking advice comes from my four-year-old son. START WITH A COMPLIMENT. Whenever he wants me to carry him (or do anything for him) he simply starts with a compliment. “Daddy you are strong, will you carry me up the stairs?” I could have another one of my kids already in my arms with bags of groceries, but I will find a way to carry him since he complimented my abilities. I have practiced this a few times in my professional networks and it has worked with great success. – Luke Thompson

6. If you’re always thinking about ways to grow your relationships, you gotta use the tools that make it easy. Every time I meet someone, I follow-up with a LinkedIn invitation (rather than a note/email). They get to see everything about me and vice versa – including shared connections and other data that can really jump-start your new relationship. – Curt Ewald

7. My best tip came from my uncle, who told me never to be afraid to call anyone. But the 2nd “best” tip was from a former boss… who once said to me, “When things get crazy, it’s time to get annoying!” His thought process was that the more annoying you are, the harder you were trying, the more effective you were going to be making sales.  I do NOT subscribe to this theory.  However, it is a phrase that helped me clarify my own position and philosophy on interpersonal interactions and professional development.  – D. Jackson

8. You are going to laugh but mine is from Bridget Jones’s Diary (I love that movie). In it Bridget was told to introduce people with “thoughtful detail.” So, when I introduce two people I try to make sure that I explain who this person, what they do, and something about them personally that the other person might be interested in. It makes their conversation easier, as I’m breaking the ice. – Greta Zeimetz

9. The distance between levels of success is usually a person, not time, because time is not a teacher. – Steven Gundersen

10. My best networking advice is also good life advice: “Make high integrity commitments, both to yourself and to others — and keep every one of them.” - Matthew Clement

11. To create a deeper relationship with a colleague or associate, get the person away from their desk – the farther you get them, the nicer they’ll be. – Keith Ferrazzi

And of course, I added my own:

12. The secret to all great networking is to be “other-focused”. If you come to any conversation with genuine curiosity and a desire to help the other person, you can then easily be more interested than interesting. Seek to serve, then it’s about them, not about you and how fabulous you are. – Suzi Pomerantz

What are YOUR top networking tips?  Add yours below!

This article originally appeared in the VOICE, the newsletter of the International Association of Coaching (www.certifiedcoach.org), in May 2010, and is reprinted with permission.

Why Aren’t You Marketing Your Business?

As a coach, there are many challenges you face when it comes to building your coaching business: the economy, market saturation and that you were never really taught what to do other than give away a free session.

But none of those is the real reason you aren’t seeing the results you want from your marketing efforts. The real reason is that you have some expectations, fears or assessments that are blocking you from taking the right action. Your mindset needs work.

Does this sound like you?

“I talk about coaching to everyone I know, but they just don’t seem to get it.”

“I’ll be ready to market my business when I finish my website.”

“I’ll be ready to market my business when I’m clearer about my message.”

“I don’t know who my niche target market will be yet, so I can’t start now.”

“I’ve been to so many networking breakfasts and I haven’t gotten any clients! Networking doesn’t work! “

“I’m on all the social media sites but I’m not making any money online.”

These are common concerns I hear when speaking to coaches all over the world about their business development challenges. Do you see the common theme in these statements? These are all coach-focused (I talk, my website, my message, my niche, I’ve been, I’m on, etc.). See the pattern?

Mindset shift required

It’s time to be other-focused. You can’t sell coaching if you’re focused on yourself as the coach, and you can’t sell coaching if you’re focused on coaching as the solution.

You must focus on…[read the rest here!]

Guest post By Janet Switzer

A decade ago, the term “coach” was reserved for sports, and coaching was something that happened on the ball field.  Today, coaching, telecoaching, coaching programs and coaches training has become a multi-million dollar industry.

How does coaching differ from the rest of the “training” industry?

Coaches motivate people to action.  They help them prioritize their projects and goals.  They help them plan their work and work their plan — but they don’t necessarily give them the actual strategies to execute, steps to take, business or marketing plans to follow, nor do they give them financial or legal advice.

In fact, it may surprise you to know that many coaches have no industry expertise whatsoever in the field in which their clients conduct business.  Sometimes coaches are personal coaches, helping individuals determine and take action on what would make them most happy in their life.

How to Benefit By Offering Coaching

Not only can you add coaching — either one-on-one or in groups — to your consulting work or to any information product you publish, you can also develop an entire product where coaching is the primary feature.

If you sell a home-study course, you can sell coaching as way to help your buyers and clients learn from the product, determine their own goals and move through their obstacles and roadblocks to take action.

What’s Typically Included in a Coaching Program?

Coaching “programs” are easier to sell and typically generate more revenue than coaching on an hourly basis. During individual coaching hours, you must always convince the client to buy the next hour and the next.  Coaching programs, on the other hand, eliminate the continual question in the client’s mind about whether they’ve received value or not.

A coaching program typically consists of:
•    A fixed number of coaching sessions or a fixed number of months of unlimited coaching services — conducted either privately or in group format and usually held weekly, twice a month, or when specifically requested by the client.
•    Written material provided either at the beginning of the program or in weekly emails.
•    Preparatory materials (in the form of exercises downloaded via the Internet, audio CDs, a questionnaire, survey or personal audit, a review of the client’s materials and so on).
A coaching program may also include a live training weekend or retreat, but this would be more appropriate to other kinds of programs.

Pricing Your Coaching Program

Pricing a personal-development coaching program can be as simple as bundling four coaching sessions with an audio program for $395.  A business coaching program, on the other hand, should be priced at what the prospect is willing to pay to solve their pain or reach a specific goal.  Typically, business coaching and “how to make money” coaching is priced much higher than personal coaching — occasionally in the thousands of dollars, depending on the price participants paid for your program prior to being sold the coaching program.  Other factors that impact price include: how much access participants will get, how well you can describe the value of the coaching program, and more.  Most business coaching programs are priced between $3,500 and $8,000.

How to Deliver a Coaching Program

Conduct all coaching sessions by telephone.  Record them and send an MP3 file of the recording to the participant as an added value.  During each session, use your motivational skills and any industry knowledge you have to get the client to commit to taking action by the time of your next call.

How to Market Your Coaching Program

The key to successfully marketing coaching programs is to deliver the message that your program will change the prospect’s life, give them a new career, jump-start their business, or in some other way give them highly valuable information they can use.  There are dozens of strategies for launching and marketing a successful program.  For instance:

•    Create a powerful written announcement or compelling marketing copy you can distribute everywhere — in your ezine, at your website, in other people’s newsletters, as a flyer at your speaking engagements, in your subscription audio program, through dedicated mailings to your current customers, in press articles, everywhere.
•    Speak at industry-specific events where the audience would be perfect prospects for coaching services and sell it as a package of sessions or one-on-one access over a specific time period.
•    Offer your coaching package through your affiliate program.
•    Do joint ventures with other people who have lists of customers and who can endorse your coaching service.
•    Seek out endorsements and testimonials and media mentions from people — celebrities, past clients and customers, newspapers and magazines — that will appeal to specific segments of your market.  Then approach these endorsers about selling your program to their customers.
•    Position yourself as the leading expert for creating massive results in your area of expertise.  Once you position yourself as this expert, you can not only conduct training programs and produce other information products, you can also generate press coverage and other media activity around your message.
•    Call companies who distribute learning tools and especially audio programs, to see if they will give you a distribution contract for your home-study course or a product that causes a need for coaching.  Include a special offer inside the home-study course that allows people to call for a free evaluation to decide if coaching is right for them.
•    Do a “nationwide search” for individuals who would be interested in being test cases to work with you to achieve a specific result.  Accept only three beta test students, and offer them the program for free.  Then, when the final coaching program is launched (after beta testing), sell the program to the hundreds or thousands of prospects generated by the original “search.”

___________________________

Janet Switzer is the marketing strategist behind some of the best known celebrity authors in the world: Jack Canfield of The Secret and Chicken Soup for the Soul, One Minute Millionaire author Mark Victor Hansen, personal finance guru David Bach, motivational speaker Les Brown and others. Subscribe to her FREE series of info-marketing special reports at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3654994.

This is new! I just spoke with my publisher (HRD Press) and they said they’ve listed my book, Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business, as an E-book available on eBooks.com! Check it out! (Click image below…)

I had the honor of being interviewed recently by Stacey Chadwell for tce.com (which is The Coach Exchange) on BlogTalkRadio.We talked about passion, Seal the Deal, the Three G’s of Sales Success, my favorite coaching question, the intersection of Leadership and Business Development, a bit about social media, and why you should never give away free coaching sessions as a marketing ploy.  Check it out!

The show will air on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 8 pm EST/5pm PST.

After that time, you can listen to it on the widget below, and you can also find it on the home page at www.thecoachexchange.com

The following response is excerpted from a longer interview.  I was asked by HRD Press the following question:

What is the biggest priority shift that people should make, in order to become better at closing deals and completing projects?

As discussed in Seal the Deal, it’s really all about numbers.  The biggest shift to make, particularly while we are on the road to economic recovery, is a return to basics.  Focus on your core business, your core competencies, the best use of your expertise and skillset and team, and increase your outreach significantly.  I can’t stress enough that it’s a numbers game.  Not just for creating opportunities and keeping your pipeline filled, but for protecting yourself emotionally as well.  If you are pursuing 3 great leads, you have time to worry, fret, second-guess, and self-doubt.  If you are pursuing 150 leads, you only have time to focus on where you are in the process with each one and how to advance the ball to the next stage of the game. With 3 leads, when you lose one it hurts.  With 150 leads, when you lose one it’s no big deal, you’re already onto the next ones.

Another major priority shift to make is around fear and risk.  In challenging times, fear becomes enormous compared to normal levels, and it’s contagious.  We hear messages of fear from colleagues, family members, the media, and others, and it has its impact.  It gets under your skin in a way that positive psychology isn’t sufficient to eradicate. The places where we place our attention and focus are the things that expand.  If we focus on fear and doubt, we will find evidence to support that that is true and real.  This thinking is detrimental to your ability to seal the deal. Even if you spend time resisting fear, you are still focusing on it, and that which we resist persists.  Stop.  Take a moment each day to focus on what you are grateful for and what makes you feel resilient. Spend time each day breathing and smiling and cultivating a feeling of gratitude and joy – even if only for a few moments each day.  This will go a long way to shifting the prevalence and control of fear that’s limiting your success.