It's the start of another month which means that it's time for a focus on relationships and collaboration. What are you doing to move your business forward this month? I've just kicked off the next round of the  21 for 21 Virtual Working Sprints. This is a new program for 2021 and anchors in the CBB/PlanDoTrack principles of "Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum". 
We're meeting for 21 minutes of virtual co-working every day for 21 days straight. Bring your projects big and small to tackle! From writing social media content, to clearing paperwork, from writing proposals to editing books, the 21 for 21 WILL move the needle on your productivity. Join us for the sprints only ($21 early bird to February 4th) or get the recordings and daily worksheets ($79 US until February4th, price raises to $199 on the 5th).

Part of the inspiration for the series was in fact the 1BizStepaDay. Happy to share that with you here now for February. You may want to incorporate these with your sprints.

Enjoy your February!

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC, CHRL
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon.

Upcoming programs to support you with your coaching business include:
Coaching Biz Growth Lab - Meets bi-weekly throughout 2021 on Fridays 2nd and 4th week of the month - Fridays 1135 - 1220 pm ET
The Stand Out Virtually 8 Week Incubator - Build your online and virtual business brand
The Amplify Virtually Mastermind - 6 months of mastermind support and individual coaching around your coaching business

Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore what's next for your coaching business, or group and team programming.

This year I’ve been having a lot of fun working with coaches on going a bit deeper into what they know about their clients. For several years, I’ve shared the Sweetspot Exercise of exploring what your strengths are, what your clients want and what you are great at. I first published this back in 2013 in From One to Many (download a copy of that marketing chapter here. (Use code 4411 and access the Marketing Chapter on Coaching Many).

This year I’ve been going deeper than this in the Coaching Biz Growth Lab and Learning Lab and Design Studio. We’ve turned to a number of tools from the Design Thinking Toolbox, including empathy maps, as well as thinking about how focus groups can help to broaden your understanding of what your clients want.

Having led focus groups in most of my roles over the last 3 decades – whether it was with government officials, community groups, leaders, HR teams, or executive committees – there can be a great cross section of generic questions you may want to tap into including questions along the lines of:

1. What’s important for you?
2. As you consider your industry/role/focus, what are the current trends?
3. What are the current opportunities you see in your role/focus/industry?
4. What do you see as some of the challenges in your role/focus/industry?
5. What do you need in order to do your best work (or thrive/excel etc)?
6. What supports are of greatest benefit to you – (explore things like on-demand vs. live, coaching vs learning)
7. How much time do you have to dedicate to learning?
8. What’s the most important goal you have for the next year

What else is important to explore within the time you have?

Enjoy the conversations!
​Jennifer

Collaboration might not necessarily spring to mind when you think of yourself as a coach, however, collaboration is an important way to scale and expand your business. It is one way which can help you expand your reach and also expand your revenue.

What are the different ways we may be collaborating?

Let’s look at five different ways:

#1 Partnering with your clients - Partnership is at the heart of the coaching relationship. As a coach we are there as a thinking partner. We are there to create a thinking and dialogue space. What’s important about the partnership you have with your client? How does that relationship become additive – i.e. the sum is greater than the sum of it’s parts?

#2 Partnering with other coaches - sometimes we may be partnering with other coaches. Whether we have decided to come together for a marketing event such as doing a trade show booth together.

#3 Creating a program or product with another coach - One of my favorite collaborations this year has been with my co-host of the Remote Pathways podcast, Michelle Mullins. When you go to co-create programming be sure to consider your WIIFM – What’s in it for me? And how your skills are complimentary. If you are too similar it might create a gap of skills needed for the project or program.

#4 Co-Facilitation - Co-Facilitation or Co-Coaching is very common when coaches scale their conversations to teams. Having two sets of eyes, two voices and potentially two different types of coaching toolkits, can be invaluable. What are you doing around co-facilitation this year? For more on this topic, be sure to check out the digital chapter I wrote a decade ago which accompanies Effective Group Coaching. You can find a copy here. (use code 4411 when prompted)

#5 Growing your own team – At some stage, coaches may decide to grow bigger than themselves and may bring on sub-contractors or staff. What is important for you to focus on in growing your own team? What roles do you need? How can people support you? What direction do  you need to provide?

Enjoy the conversation and focus,
Jennifer

It's the first day of the month which means that it's time for another new edition of the 1BizStepaDay series. This month we turn our attention to Collaboration and Partnerships.

The 1BizStepADay series is one that I started last year. Each month I publish this 30 day series of daily prompts, inviting you to take focused action on a daily (or regular) basis around your business. It's aligned with the theme of Coaching Business Builder that Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum.

Please take a minute to download this month's 1BizStepaDay here and also let us know WHAT you enjoy about this series. Many of you have been following since the series started in early January 2019.

What's the focus you want to put around relationships and collaboration this month? Perhaps you want to:

• Co-design a new program
• Build relationships with people in a new geographical or industry area
• Reach out to clients who are alumni of your group coaching work
  

Coaching is a high touch profession. Relationships are key to success. What is important about focusing on relationships and collaboration this month? I hope that you will take some time to think about your key relationships and what could use further attention.

Download this month's 1 BizStepaDay on relationships here.

For more on partnering and collaboration, including several questions you will ant to consider exploring, check out chapter 11 in From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) or chapter 12 of Effective Virtual Conversations. You'll find both books over at Amazon. Enjoy this month's resource!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - GroupCoachingEssentials | Potentials Realized 
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder
Join us for an upcoming ICF-CCE approved program including Group Coaching Essentials (8.75 CCEs), Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs), or the PlanDoTrack Facilitator Training (24 CCEs). 
Author of Effective Group Coaching (2010), Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Check out my author page on Amazon for all publications.
Email: [email protected]

It’s almost the end of 2019 and an opportunity to reach out to your clients to say thank you. Solid relationships are at the heart of a solid coaching business. Whether your clients come back for more support OR refer you on, maintaining solid relationships with clients is key.

Given that we are moving towards year end, have you considered some of these outreach opportunities?

• Sending a holiday or new year card
• Hosting a call (planning, visioning) for your network
• Letting them know about upcoming 2020 programming
• Providing a gift card towards services (yours or others) for the new year

As you consider what you want to do, ask yourself the following:

• What will people find meaningful?
• What would your clients value?
• What is the message you would like to share? What is important to communicate at this time of year?

For more on this topic check out this Forbes article from YEC: 14 Ways Business Owners Can Make Outreach More Personable.

Enjoy your conversations,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Coaching Business Builder | Group Coaching Essentials
Supporting coaches to grow their business and skills in the areas of group coaching
Recipient of the Prism Award for Excellence in Coaching (2016), and i4pL Award of Excellence - Curriculum Design (2017)
Contact Jennifer to set up a call to see how her 1-1 coaching or group coaching support can help you move towards your Q 4 and 2020 goals.
Phone: (416)996-8326

This week’s Solopreneur myth explores the notion of “I need to do it all alone”. While you may be choosing to run a solopreneur company, it may not mean that you have to do everything alone. Whether you are building a team of part-time or full time workers or are looking to bring different people onboard as sub-contractors for specific projects, being able to build your team is critical.

The September 2019 Coaching Business Builder call focused on building your own team. It explored what it means to grow your team as a solopreneur. You can check out that call here. Be sure to grab a pen and take some notes as you go!

As you grow your team, key themes to explore include:

• Delegation – what do you want to delegate? Who can you delegate to? Check out posts on the Teams365 on delegation for additional inspiration and information on this topic.
• What does grow your team mean? Is it a full time, part time or sub-contractor role?
• What type of support do you need?

​Questions to consider:
1. What does the team need to excel in the year ahead?
2. What will help the team be at their best?
3. What is going to be the major challenge for the year ahead? The major opportunity?
4. What development opportunities do we want to build in (retreats, team coaching, mentoring etc.?)
5. What requests do I need to make of the team right now?
6. How will we measure our success?
And as a bonus…
What will help to expedite or magnify what's working?

Enjoy your focus!
Jennifer

In this month’s Group Coaching Essentials newsletter I focused on Keeping the Conversation Going with clients as you are running a group or team coaching conversation. You can read the October 2019 Group and Team Coaching Ins and Outs newsletter here.

Coaching is a process of change. Changes take time and involve a series of ups and downs. Likewise, people are probably having lots of insights and AHAs in between our conversational touch points. What can we do to harness this? Community building for your groups. 

Earlier this year I focused on starting to launch the Conversation Sparker Zone on Mighty Networks. It’s a venue where coaches can come together to focus on and discuss what’s important to them around group coaching, team coaching, virtual conversations and business development. I hope you’ll join us! Be sure to check it out here.

In keeping the conversation going it can involve some pre-planning on your part. Consider some of these different strategies:

1. Hosting a Mighty Network feed
2. Putting out a poll to different people
3. Peer Coaching Rounds
4. Hosting a Facebook Live call
5. Creating an Instagram Series around your topic

What are the things you want to do to keep the focus alive for the people you are working with?

Best,
​Jennifer

The landscape of business and communication has changed so significantly in the last ten to fifteen years, due to the change in our technology, devices and also communication channels. Think about your work and what is possible now that you couldn't do a decade ago.
​
One of the areas that I continue to see many solopreneurs and business professionals struggle with is the amount of time and focus on social media. Consider your time spent in the last week or two. How much time was dedicated to social media? What did you do? Did you surf? Have connections? Follow a trail that maybe took you into a rabbit's hole?

While social media can be a great ecosystem to spend time in and has leveled the playing field for many of us that are "one person businesses" it does not always mean that social media may be your most important channel.

Relationships are important to cultivate in all their varieties. While social media may be a great connector, it may not be the best place to have detailed conversations or make deeper connections.

I love social media as an enhancement to face-to-face events — people who I have met at conferences, or when I have been speaking.
 
As much as my own business is virtual, after all these years I've found that the face-to-face connection still yields an important return I can't find in the social media space.
 
Questions to consider as you think about this myth for yourself:

• How does your time spent on social media translate to business results?
• What is important for you as a business?
• What connections are you looking to cultivate?
• What blend do you want to have with social media and other channels?
• What is the role of social media in your work — marketing, programming, programming support etc.?
• Are there certain social media channels you want to invest your time in? If so, how much time? Which ones?
• Where are your folk/community?
• What's important to note for yourself going forward?

Enjoy your exploration,
Jennifer

​As we continue in our journey around marketing, another vehicle to consider is that of networking. Building relationships is an important part of our work as service providers, particularly as coaches. I often say that coaching is a much deeper conversation than usual. In coaching, we are asking for people to be vulnerable, and to go into the exciting, and sometimes scary, areas of dreams and fears. As such, strong relationships, trust and connection are critical.
​
Networking can be an important activity to undertaken regularly, as long as there is a focus and it doesn’t become all consuming.

Questions to help with focused networking are:

• Who do you want to connect with? Is it other business owners or a certain niche group?
• What’s the purpose of attending an event? Take a few minutes before attending an event to consider what you want to get out of the experience. Is it to find a resource, learn something or….?
• What do you want to contribute? Networking is about establishing and building a conversation. Conversations take two people. What is it that you want to contribute to the conversation of the group you are connecting in with?
• What do you want to get out of the conversation? To the dual nature of conversation, what are you hoping to walk away from the conversation with?
• What do you want to leave people with? Is it a business card, a brochure, a post card or other? Moo.com and Vistaprint.com both offer some creative marketing materials.

​Enjoy the conversations!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author multiple books including the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized
Phone: 416-996-8326
Check out the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series of daily prompts for your work and business over on  Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder.

Speaking is a great way to get known, build your network, and show your work in action.
As someone who speaks to groups and organizations more than 50 times a year (mostly virtually), here are five things to consider in creating a WOW presentation:

1. Understand your audience: What is important for them about the topic you are speaking on? Consider the topic from their frame of reference. What are the key takeaways or exploration points they are going to find valuable? In any speaking topic there may be a range of angles/points of view you can approach the presentation from. What’s important for the audience you are speaking with?
2. Connect your audience quickly: We often talk about the WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Whether we are a leader or a presenter, connecting people to WHY something is important and relevant to their world is foundational for engagement. We usually have a very small window to get people’s attention and keep it. What’s going to make this a valuable use of their time?
3. Open – Body – Close. The structure of your presentation is critical and forms the pathway of moving people through the conversation. In speaking we often say there are three components - the open, the body and the close. If’s often referred to as “Tell me what you are going to tell me” (the open), “Tell me” (the body), and “tell me what you told me” (the close). What are the soundbytes you want to include in the open and close? Are there 2 - 3 main points you want to make sure you reinforce throughout?
4. What’s your call to action? An often-overlooked part of presentation is the call to action. What do you want people to do next? Are you asking them to create an action plan? Do you want them to check out a resource or program you offer? Do you want them to join you at your newsletter or Facebook page? What’s the call to action?
5. How do you want to make people feel? In speaking we often say that people remember how they feel but not what you said. What’s the feeling you want people to leave your representation with:

• Inspiration?
• Motivation to try things out?
• Confidence?
• Clarity?
• Connection?

​Speaking can be a great way to start the conversation with your clients. It can be as interactive and dialogue based, or one-way as you would like. Regardless of whether it’s in person or virtual, I hope that today’s post gets you thinking about some of the practicalities and considerations when speaking.
​
There’s more for you to consider around the marketing strategy of speaking in Section 3 of the Coaching Business Builder. If you have a copy of the book, be sure to read through and work through the exercises on pages 77 and 78 of the Coaching Business Builder.

Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author multiple books including the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized
Phone: 416-996-8326
Check out the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series of daily prompts for your work and business over on  Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder.
A quick reminder that the Coaching Business Builder/PlanDoTrack Facilitator training begins on July 9th. This 18hour virtual train-the-trainer program will equip you to deliver your own training with clients. Grab a last minute spot!