5 STRATEGIES TO BUILD YOUR INFLUENCE
Dwight Bain, M.A., is the Executive Director of the International Christian Coaching Association. He is a Nationally Certified Counselor, Certified Life Coach and Certified Family Law Mediator in practice since 1984. He is also a faculty member and presenter at Light University Online. He partners with media, major corporations and non-profit organizations to make a positive difference in our culture. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/dwightbain
5 STRATEGIES TO BUILD YOUR INFLUENCE AS A CHRISTIAN COACH
BY DWIGHT BAIN, M.A.
One of the fastest ways to become established as a professional life coach is through the process of offering community workshops and seminars. I’ve spoken to hundreds of these groups through the years and have made some wonderful friends, as well as experienced some remarkable opportunities by volunteering time to add value to others. Yes, I said volunteer, since you don’t get paid in dollars to give a community speech, but you can be well paid in other ways. How? Through influence, networking, multiple referrals into your business, opportunities to give full-fee presentations to other groups and wider media exposure, especially on the Internet.
Still, there’s another huge benefit to you—free advertising of your coaching services. Consider how much you would be willing to pay in advertising dollars to be featured as an expert in front of a group of key decision makers, successful business people or community leaders? I suspect a lot because of the incredible return on investment of being in front of key people who have the capacity to hire you or refer you to other key people in the community who can. Treat these opportunities like a public audition that features you in front of 15-30 people who can meet you to learn more of your desire to help in your area of expertise. And the best news is, you don’t have to pay to be in front of these community leaders… but you do have to be strategic.
There are opportunities to give community presentations every day in your backyard if you know where to look. These events often take place during a breakfast or lunch time on a weekday all over your town. Consider the following as a sample of the type of groups in your area that need communicators to get your thinking started about targeting the key groups looking for you right now to line up as the speaker at their next event.
• Business groups such as a Chamber of Commerce or Female Executives
• Service or civic clubs like Rotary, Sertoma, Lions, or Kiawanas
• Medical groups like nurses, interns, residents or hospital committees
• Networking groups like BNI, Focus International or Babblebee
• Faith-based groups like churches, ministries or the retreats they sponsor
• Health groups such as the American Heart Association or Red Cross
• Political or Political Action Committees (PACs) focused on issues
• Emergency services like police, fire, EMS groups or safety committees
• Women’s clubs like the Junior League, Curves or MADD
• Athletic groups like master swimmers, soccer clubs or hunting groups
• Education groups like parent/teacher organizations or school volunteers
• Fraternal Orders like the Elks, Eagles, Moose or Fraternal Order of Police
• Senior’s groups usually found at senior or retirement centers
• Youth groups, sponsored by churches like Youth for Christ or Junior Achievement
• Parenting groups, especially young parents such as Mothers of Preschoolers
And one more category, trade associations. Most of these trade associations have a national, state and local chapter pushing the number of professional associations into the multiple thousands in every region of the country! Each level has to have a speaker at every monthly event, plus writers for their monthly newsletters and Web sites.
This creates a huge opportunity for life coaches to make a positive difference. If your background is in education, look for teacher associations. If it’s in real estate, look for realtor or broker associations. If it’s in giving care for the elderly, look for agencies on aging or the professional associations that care for the aged. Your life story as a coach will determine the best group to contact.
You don’t have enough time to speak to every group, but you will have the time of your life if you can get in front of the right trade association and knock their socks off with a great presentation. At the local level, these are always going to be free talks, but if you can “wow” your audience, you can often be suggested to speak at the national trade association’s annual meeting… and they do pay speakers at that level. So it pays to always speak as if you were giving the most important talk of your life. Excellence always comes back to bless you after it blesses your audience.
These groups need your input as a coach… they need your expertise and you need to help. It’s a perfect fit, so begin searching now to find groups where you can make the biggest impact. Once you have identified your key target groups, make some calls to see who’s in charge of scheduling speakers to begin the process. How do you find them? Search out your local newspapers under community events, do Web searches on specific topics, or ask around to see who belongs to community groups that are always looking for effective communicators.
Here are a few important principles to keep in mind as you begin to reach out to make a positive difference using the strategy of community seminars that serve others, while positioning yourself as an expert.
1. It’s not about marketing – it’s about the message
The goal isn’t to market yourself, your book or your services—it’s about the message to help answer people’s questions, solve their problems and basically give information to help make their day or week go a little better. You want to give as much user-friendly content away in your presentation as possible. If it “smells” like selling… it won’t work. You have to really care about your audience and help make their lives work better.
2. Build on your communication strengths
If you are passionate about a particular subject as a coach, then this is your place to shine. However, if you aren’t really strong on a given topic, stay away from it. Talk about how to solve problems in the areas where you can make the greatest difference. Usually this will come out of your life story or a subject that you really enjoy discussing. If you are building from your strengths the speaking will come easy, and your sincerity will come through to show your audience that you are an expert they can trust to add value to their lives. If you love to tell stories, build on that strength; if your style is more instructional, create an interactive handout to make it a training time of greater learning.
3. Focus on creative topics to catch your audience
Avoid Financial Ruin
Get Out of a Bad Relationship
Secrets of Living to be 100
Fast Ways to Regain Health and Wellness
How to Stay Out of Therapy
When to Kick your Kids Out for Good
How Speed Reading Creates Lasting Wealth
Recession-proofing your Business
How to Gain a #1 Ranking on Google
Use a great title to excite your audience so they know it’s going to be a fun time of learning. Remember, you can often give the exact same speech since you will be going from club to club and group to group, so you can strengthen your message every time you give it.
4. Be professional and prepared
Arrive early and know that frequently you may not get the full time you were allotted due to other business the club may be taking care of… so learn to be flexible. The more prepared you are ahead of time, the easier you can “edit” on the fly to end on time (which is important since people on a tight schedule will actually get up and leave in order to stay on their schedules). You must finish on time, no matter when you get started.
Handouts are a great way to reinforce your message and disseminate your contact information. If you have professional marketing material at a back table, that’s great; but in this communication setting the main strategy is to deliver an amazing talk first, and then market your product. Dress one level above your audience and be as polished as you can for maximum impact since you really don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
5. Give a great talk and get a lot of great PR
Once you are comfortable with the process and are giving great presentations on a regular basis, you can leverage your talks in several ways that bring in new opportunities by taking your message to new audiences. Get quoted by the media
(especially if you send out press releases ahead of time, which can be done with online services that offer free press releases)
since your local newspapers and television stations have to fill news time. A clever topic given in a public seminar can often lead to media quotes that are quite valuable in establishing you as a regional expert. And don’t forget to ask that someone takes your picture with a digital camera while you are talking so you have some “action shots” of recent presentations to use on your Web site or with your blog.
The more you think ahead on how to leverage your community talk into a great community event, the more likely you will receive positive public relations and ongoing referrals into your coaching business. Community workshops add value to everyone involved—to you, your audience and those who will meet you in the future. Your ability to care about people now will pay dividends to those who later hear about your services. Practice these things long enough and you’ll be the busiest professional life coach in your region. And it all started with a free speech.
I dare you to be the one who adds the greatest value in your region by sharing the message entrusted to you with the most people possible. And then I look forward to hearing the success stories of how free speeches turned into fee for services because you cared enough to share your story to some people looking for answers. Get to it!
Dwight Bain, M.A., is the Executive Director of the International Christian Coaching Association. He is a Nationally Certified Counselor, Certified Life Coach and Certified Family Law Mediator in practice since 1984. He is also a faculty member and presenter at Light University Online. He partners with media, major corporations and non-profit organizations to make a positive difference in our culture. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/dwightbain.
Contact Light University Online: P.O. Box 739, Forest, VA 24551 / 877.506.LU4U / www.lightuniversity.com