Day 31: First Coaching Session

Today was my first meeting with my marketing coach.  We originally agreed to meet at mosaics, a local community coffee shop.  Given my excitement for this first meeting I arrived early and found that the coffee shop was closed.  Luckily I was able to catch Barbara before she left and we quickly changed our strategy to meet at another coffee shop close by.

I looked at this session from two perspectives: coach and coachee.  I am trying to observe coaching in action.  I noticed right away she did some clearing, apologizing for being a little late and not checking to see that mosaics was open.  She was very organized and presented me with some take aways to build my knowledge.  She challenged me a couple of times and left me with some homework to do in between our sessions.  She also acknowledged who I was becoming and championed some of efforts and willing to fail.

I shared with her what I was currently doing and what had not worked for me.  I talked about my networking with the University of Washington, my blog, my newsletter.  It was easy for me to share my goals and aspirations.  It immediately felt comfortable right out of the gate.

She challenged me to the following actions:

• Research networking groups and select 3-5
• Send Newsletter sample to Barbara
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Review Study guides

It was a packed first session and I am already looking forward to my next session.

Day 30: One Month Down

I have successfully hit the one month mark and my doors are still open.  Although I am very disappointed that I have not converted any leads to sales.  I am still putting my feelers out though.  Today I signed up for a free month of LinkedIn premium.  This gives me additional features like send email to anyone without them being in my network.  Unlimited messages to open link members, and more detail on who has been viewing my profile.

I decided to take full advantage of these new features and have sent out some emails to start building my network.  I asked for a couple of introductions as well as shared with others what I am working on in hopes that they would spread the word.  My good friend Ken spoke to his HR manager last week and is going to follow-up with her this week.  They are looking to promote more from within, which means grooming leaders and ensuring they are ready to take on increasing levels of responsibility.  This is right in my area of speciality.  Another seed planted.

I also sent some get back in touch emails to individuals within my network giving them an update and asking for one in return.  I also told them why I was contacting them and let them know what kind of client I am looking for.

I am going to continue doing this until it yields some fruit, which I am confident that it will.  If nothing else it will continue to strengthen my network and expand it's reach.  My goal is to get 1000 people signed up to receive my newsletter.

The adage, if you build it they will come, certainly was not talking about coaching.  I am finding out that it is much more difficult than I have ever expected to land clients.  I have a strong resolve and will get 15 paying clients by the end of this year.  In this case I need to work harder and smarter!

Day 29: Lessons Learned

I don't know if I should be embarrassed or patting myself on the back to have already made several mistakes along the way to starting up my new business.

My first big mistake was purchasing a list to make cold calls.  When I received the list it was not of high quality in that it had several contacts at the same location.  So basically once I made contact and was routed to HR for inquiries the rest of the contacts at that location became obsolete.  I really wish I would have waited until I figured out that HR managers are probably going to be my entrance into the corporate world and then I could have probably achieved a greater response.

I sent out a marketing message to my newsletter subscribers offering them a free consultative session and no one responded.  I was then told by a marketer that that was a huge mistake to make and I should try and sell them something so blatantly.

I signed up for an appointment management system, which costs $10 a month.  I know not a lot of money but it all adds up for a new business.  I have no appointments and therefore it is pretty much a waste of time.  I plan to remove this from my website and instead encourage people to just contact me directly.  Besides the "face-to-face" contact will result in a much richer experience then signing up with an online service.

I subscribed to a local small business group that publishes a directory and holds networking events.  That has resulted in exactly zero business so far.  I'm thinking that is $299 I could have spent elsewhere on marketing.

I really didn't have a prescription for the problem or pain my clients are feeling.  Instead of putting my phone number on the front screen I had a link to an online appointment system, which contained my pricing.  Perhaps that has scared some people off, not sure.  I have since updated my homepage and I am hopeful that it will result in more leads being generated.

My new approach is to stop and think before I buy.  In fact I am not going to subscribe to anymore services until I start getting some paying clients.

Day 28: Marketing Gems

I recently listed myself on a coach directory service named Noomii.  I bid for a couple of opportunities and quickly learned a couple of things.  First I shouldn't bid such large amounts so that I whittle away my credits early in the month.  I should only bid on those clients that I am really serious about helping.  Second I think I have some work to do on my profile based on the review I had today with one of the founders.  It was very insightful and gave me several things to think about.  Namely,

• On average prospective clients spend about 10 seconds on your page, that is all the time you have to sell them.
• When approaching marketing look at it from the aspirin vs. vitamin perspective.  Aspirin is designed to relieve pain and is something you really need.  Vitamins on the other hand are a supplement and a nice to have.  You want to position the aspirin or pain you are looking to relieve; the vitamin is what they will get out of the coaching experience.
• Utilize tools like UserTesting to validate your website layout, content, and navigation.  This will help you structure it in a way that most appeals to your target audience.
• Create different landing pages that appeal to your target audience.  For example, if you are targeting executives are they the ones actually looking or is it their assistant? Or perhaps a resource in HR.  Some may respond better to a telephone number while others are more inclined to utilize your appointment system.

While these concepts may seem elementary to a seasoned marketer, for me as a small business owner they are novel and new.  I have to find a better way to get more subscribers to my newsletter and convert them into paying clients.  Little by little the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.  I will get this thing down soon and I can only imagine that working with my coach will help cement these ideas into concrete actions that will result in new business.

Each day is a new adventure and full of learning for me.

Day 27: Power of Action

I spent the afternoon doing a search to find volunteer opportunities to mentor emerging leaders.  I stumbled across some contacts from a local university.  I placed a call and made a connection.  I placed another call and made another connection and a possible speaking opportunity.  I see the benefit of placing calls to plant seeds.  Not every call will result in a lead, nonetheless it is a contact that has broadened awareness of my business.

The two opportunities I am chasing are to mentor 5 graduate students for 6 months.  I know I am not making any money on this endeavor but it does accomplish two things.  First it gives me an opportunity to coach and do what I love to do.  Second, I am exposing potential leaders to my company and what I am capable of.  They will leave the university and go out into the workplace and that could potentially open many more doors for me.

These little wins inspire me to keep going and provide validation that there is a need for what I am doing. In signing up 5 students I will gain confidence and broaden my approach, I will gain more testimonials, and it will inevitably lead me to my ultimate goal of paying clients.

I created a marketing brochure that highlights the leadership coaching program I am implementing.  I have included a link to the document below.  I was pretty proud of what I was able to create, it looks very professional and speaks to my audience.

Marketing Brochure

I also had an interesting conversation over the weekend with a graphic design friend.  We spoke about marketing and he provided some excellent insight, all of which I intend to act upon.  He suggested the need to create a dialogue.  I realize that I know very little about the individuals that are subscribing to my newsletter.  I don't know their roles/titles, what they are struggling with, what information would be pertinent to their situation.  I need to create a dialogue to get these questions answered.

I have tried to accomplish this through twitter and my blog but these two groups are disconnected.  The individuals that read my newsletter do not subscribe to my blog or podcasts.  The other idea that came to mind during that discussion was to start posting this information my LinkedIn page.  I have a much better chance of initiating a dialogue there and lead them to the other sources.

I know it shouldn't be so difficult, this marketing stuff, but it does not come naturally to me.

Day 26: HandsOn Leadership

I attended a leadership seminar tonight with Seattle Works called HandsOn Leadership.  My intent was to see how it was put together and look for opportunities where I could participate and get my name out there.  The conference was from 6-9 PM and it really was quite good.  They had a local consulting firm teach a section on project management and then the coordinator taught a section on conflict resolution.  It was fun and I had the opportunity to participate with a team.

The participants are really sharp and were very engaged in the seminar.  I am always listening for tidbits of information and good stories.  One particular individual told a story about leadership from his army days.  They classified leaders into different categories based on their style.  One particular style, the Outlook Leader, was not as effective as the others.  The Outlook Leader is one that manages all communication via email and never gets up to interact with their team.  Face time is kept to a minimum.  The insight from this style is that there really lacked a team cohesion and connection with the leader.

My thoughts in leaving the seminar is that a section on communication, team dynamics, or building productive teams would be ideal.  I also think that my project management experience would lend nicely to being a mentor for the teams as they undertake their initiative.  I am hopeful to be included in the program and instruct future seminars.  

I can definitely see how just putting myself out there is going to be the key to building connections within the community and getting my name out there.  I am spending an immense amount of energy just not sure if I am spending it smartly.

Day 25: Falling Behind

Oops I have fallen behind on my blog for this week.  I have been so busy finalizing my podcast that I didn't have time to do my writing.  I have learned quite a bit about podcasting, sound editing, and general creative work.  I am thoroughly enjoying the creative process!

I can already see how the podcast will change over time.  Even from the first and second episodes I made some minor tweaks.  I can certainly say that the second one took much less time to produce.  I decided to host them on my website as well as in iTunes to get some publicity.  I learned quite a bit about production on the first one and some of the tools available to me in the sound editing software.  I have a ways to go to get some polish on the podcasts but I am headed in the right direction.

As part of the polishing I decided that I needed a new logo for the two podcasts I am thinking of doing.  So I called up my designer friend and we are going to meet on Sunday morning to discuss it.  I want to keep the cost low so we will have to be creative.  Thankfully I don't need all the variations he created for the previous company logo.

I am investing a lot of time in building my knowledge and experience which will be critical to my success.  I am looking forward to landing 3 clients by June.