Each month I publish a short daily action guide called the 1BizStepADay. It's a daily prompt geared to support you in action around your business. With this being the 16th month of publication, I continue to enjoy hearing about how readers are using the prompts. Here's a link to this month's 1BizStep a Day for April 2020.
This month I've opted to continue our focus on remote work. As most of you know, we are living in an unprecedented time of billions of people needing to work remotely. I hope that you, and your colleagues, will find that this provides a little creative spurt in your day.
The Coaching Business Builder, and PlanDoTrack (a workbook planner geared for remote professionals) were originally intended to be an analog workbook and planner. With printer capabilities being impacted by the current health context. I'm pleased to announce that you can now purchase a PDF copy of both workbook planners at the Potentials Realized online store. Print them off at home! You can pick up a copy of PlanDoTrack here.  Pick up a PDF copy of Coaching Business Builder here.

A reminder that I will be continuing to host my regular Monday Community Calls throughout April virtually. We meet on Mondays from 11 - 1130 am ET. The topic for April 6th is In Focus: Strengths - for you, your team, your business. Hope you will join me in my zoom room.

Enjoy your conversations!

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). 
What's possible if you take daily steps on your business for 60 Days? Join our 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator program here!
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]

This time last year I hosted a Q1 reflective stock taking session that became very popular. Given how valuable people found it, I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. Here is a link to that webinar so you can follow along. 
 
Quarterly reviews are an invaluable tool to see how things are going with your business. It’s an opportunity to take stock of:

• Your accomplishments
• Your learning
• Your focus
• Your relationships
• Your goals
• Your projects

​And also your numbers - - what have you been tracking? What do your Monthly Daily Trackers say?

If you are using the Coaching Business Builder there are 4 quarterly planners built into the guide. You will want to make sure that you review the monthly stock taking pages and carry your major learning over so you have a cumulative summary in one place.

Quarterly reviews are also an opportunity to look ahead. What do you notice about:

• Your annual goals and milestones for this quarter?
• The key activities you have earmarked?
• The one-off activities and tasks you have – i.e. renewals etc?
• Relationships which need attention?

The activities you want to do on a consistent basis (Note: One of my favorite quarterly events which got me into the flow of posting on Instagram was a 90-day commitment around daily posts). What are the tasks and activities you want to focus on, on a daily basis this quarter? Have you got your trackers ready? Now’s the time to pull them out.

I hope that you’ll take 10 – 15 minutes today to get yourself organized for the new quarter. Is there anything you want to keep visible -i.e. writing out your goals and commitments in a place that is visible so you can review it. Perhaps you put it on your phone or on a whiteboard or on a list by your computer. Remember the old project management adage: 15 minutes of planning saves up to 60 minutes of unfocused effort.

Enjoy your reflection and planning!
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). 
What's possible if you take daily steps on your business for 60 Days? Join our 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator program here!
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]
​

My hope is that for all of you reading this, that you and your loved ones are remaining healthy. As we step into the end of Q1, I think many of us have been struck that the new decade has been full of surprises and pivots for business.

Over the last few weeks as COVID-19 has impacted North America after sweeping the rest of the world, I've been hosting regular virtual lunchtime calls, bringing together coaches from all backgrounds for some connection, discussion around what it means to go virtual, support for clients as they go virtual, virtual facilitation skills, and also business pivot topics.

If you weren't able to join me for those calls, I hope you will take a look at some of the recordings here at the Virtual Lunchtime Playlist, including Thursday March 26ths  call geared to virtual small business.

It's an unprecedented time, which is encouraging all of us to step up and lead in our own way.

I will continue to take a lead in our work here at Potentials Realized around support for coaches as well as the larger cross section of virtual and remote professionals which continues to focus on support for virtual teams and leaders.  My 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, has been embraced by many organizations who are using it internally to guide their virtual meeting practices, virtual leadership, and also 
As some of you know, over the last year I've been training up a number of professionals who are also able to lead work around PlanDoTrack, which is a workbook and planner geared for virtual and remote professionals. I'll be doing another facilitator training for this whole body of work starting in a few weeks - it's a 24 hour course. Email me if you want to learn more.
Our focus at the Learning Lab and Design Studio in the last couple of months has been on virtual work and designing and leading programming that has the greatest impact. We meet on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month from 8 - 845 am ET or 845 - 930 am ET.
Another area of growth I've seen in recently months with programming has been attendance at the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program, which I call a virtual train-the-trainer. It's geared for those who want hands-on practice and learning about how to lead and design INTERACTIVE, VIRTUAL CONVERSATIONS, based on my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations. Upcoming dates include a five week session starting on Monday March 30th, and one day offerings on Wednesday April 1 and 8, 2020. Click here to learn more and reserve your spot.
Business at the heart of any coaching business. With that in mind, I want to remind you of the regular community calls open to everyone and complimentary which  I will continue to hold on Mondays from 11 - 1130 am ET several times a month. Please drop in and see us. 
Join us tomorrow, Monday March 3oth, from 11-1130 am ET for a hands-on Quarterly Planning Hack, taking stock of where you want to go for Q2 and where you've been in Q1. Join us in my zoom room tomorrow.

I look forward to continuing to serve you.

Best
Jennifer

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

Here at the Coaching Business Builder, during the mid part of 2019 I did a series of marketing posts around the nine promotional vehicles I touch on in Section 3 of Coaching Business Builder. They include: Speaking, Blogging, Podcasting, Networking, Article Writing, Product Development, Lunch and Learns, Associations, Trade Shows and Conferences

Given that marketing is usually an ongoing effort for businesses of all ages (yes, even if you’ve been around for a while, marketing is still important – there’s always a next inflection point), it can be useful to build in time on a regular basis to be putting attention around marketing campaigns.

Just like the tagline of Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum asserts, in marketing it often about the consistency which is important. A one-off email or one-off tweet may not capture the attention of who you want to connect with.

Some of the marketing approaches I’ve been experimenting with this year include my focus on podcasting, as well as my continued focus on Instagram, articles and also blogging.

What are the approaches you are experimenting with at the moment?

What are you noticing you are enjoying?

What’s feeling like it needs a boost?
 
Regardless of marketing vehicle, it can be useful to have a variety of ideas to pull from. Whether you are focusing on Instagram and need a list of post ideas, or you are focusing on podcasting and want to focus in on your exploration.

Enjoy!
​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). 
What's possible if you take daily steps on your business for 60 Days? Join our 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator program here!
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]
​

One of the terms that stands out for me in terms of last year’s focus in the business development world was that of the marketing funnel. The marketing funnel is a term that describes the ways you invite prospective clients and customers into your orbit.
The funnel simply looks like an inverted pyramid or a funnel. The top is wide, scaling down to the bottom. If you have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder you can work through your own funnel on page 8.  I've also included one here to the side bar.
 
We can explore the funnel on two levels –

1. What’s our mix of products and services at each layer of the funnel? 
2. What are we doing at every level to bring people into the different layers of the funnel – building deepening layers of awareness, relationship, purchase and advocacy?

We will look at each level from the perspective of what you are offering in terms of your products or services. Then we’ll look at it in terms of how you are building relationships.

At the top of the funnel we have those items which are free or no fee. This is the widest part of the funnel and it is geared to attract the most amount of people.  It’s also the place where we want to build brand awareness around our different products and services. The focus at this top end of the funnel is to ATTRACT new people and to share with them what you have to offer at a FREE or LOW FEE way. It’s an opportunity to spotlight snippets of what you offer.
​
At this level we might include things like:

• A downloadable checklist or template to support our clients
• Blog posts or Instagram feeds
• A daily challenge (5 days) to support clients in taking action towards their goals
• Facebook Live calls or Community Calls where we discuss some of the more common questions opportunities, challenges and resources for our focus of work
• Delivering a webinar for a larger association or group

The goal here is to start building a connection and conversation with people.

What do you have at the widest part of the funnel - FREE or VERY LOW FEE, focused on ATTRACT?

At the next level of the funnel, you will have low priced offerings. Again, the purpose is to continue the conversation, and strengthen relationships and start generating money. It is often to help people consider your services at a lower price point and start the conversation with you. They will get more than a taster and probably get an experience of what your services can provide for them.

At this second level, which is geared to get people to CONVERT to a higher level or next product, this might include:

• A book
• A short e-book bringing together some of your blog posts in a compendium
• A short video-based course highlighting some of the tips or latest research around the topics you coach around
• A longer challenge (7 days for example)

At this layer you are starting to share more about your business, the philosophies which underpin it and who you are and what you offer.

At the third layer, ENGAGE, we have mid-priced programming. This is perhaps where your live offerings of retreats or group coaching might reside. At this point, people are making an investment into your offerings, and they are likely to become a fan of what you offer. They are the ones who are likely to move to even higher priced items, now or later.

There may be a next layer where people work with you on an ongoing basis on mainstream offerings. For some coaches this is where your regular one-on-one coaching will reside, or retreat day with a team.

Finally, at the top end of the funnel (the smallest part), where it is likely at the highest rate, and most intensive (or highest touch) work – you have the CONNECT phase where these people are likely to become the ADVOCATES of your work. They are the “RAVING fans” or people who will buy everything you have to offer.  This might include a face-to-face piece of Intensive work with you through a Weekend Program OR a VIP Day.

Exercise:
As you consider your business mix for your work, what would you put in each of these layers? Which programs could benefit from some attention and/or need to be developed?

All the best,
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). 
What's possible if you take daily steps on your business for 60 Days? Join our 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator program here!
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]

What’s in your business mix?
​
As coaches we may be offering a variety of different products and services as part of our offerings. Building onto our conversation about business development, a coach may have a variety of things in his or her business mix.
 
Earlier research done by the ICF in 2013 found that at that time 94% of coaches offered one or more other services in addition to coaching. Find out more about that study here.

What are the types of services you are offering?

Consider the following:

• Individual Coaching
• Group Coaching
• Team Coaching
• Consulting
• Assessments
• Counselling
• Workshops
• Retreats
• Webinars
• Contract Training
• Facilitation Services

​There may be a variety of things you offer. What do your clients indicate that they want from you?

Listening to client needs can be a valuable recipe for success. If you are not hearing things directly, try these other approaches:

• Host a focus group (virtual or live) to find out from past clients their perceptions around:
  • Current challenges and opportunities (for people like them/their industry/their role)
  • Trends they are seeing
  • Service needs/requirements
  • Focus areas
• Do a survey
• Ask people to review a white paper you may have written – commenting on not only the content you have provided but also what other topics they would recommend you cover.

As you think about your work this year, what is in your business mix? What else do you want to make sure you continue to offer?

Best wishes,
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). 
What's possible if you take daily steps on your business for 60 Days? Join our 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator program here!
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]

This month, a wave of professionals, teams and organizations are having to move their work into the remote space, quickly! 
Coaching is one of the industries where remote work has been our norm for some time. In fact, as I started my business back in April 2004 I was happy that I could continue to have global impact but not having to travel as I had during my days of working for the United Nations.  Today, flexibility and global scale is what technology has allowed for my business to do. 
With this in mind, this month's 1BizStepADay series get s you thinking about your remote work processes, and systems. Whether you regularly work remote, or not, this month with the coronavirus impact, you may be finding that conversations are moving to the remote space. Be sure to check out the #Teams365 blog posts around remote work over at my main site, Potentials Realized.

Here are this month's prompts to support you into focused action(or prehaps a pause) around your work and business.  10-15 minutes a day is all it takes!

Download the March 2020 1BizStepADay series on Remote Work.

If you are interested in boosting your skills and confidence in leading virtual conversations of all types - virtual retreats, webinars, remote team sessions - consider joining us for the Virtual Facilitation Essentials program - five week session starts Monday March 2nd, and one day offerings are happening on the 1st Wednesday of each month, and added as requested. This program is approved for 8.5 CCEs.

Enjoy your reflections with is month's 1BizStepADay.
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), the one day Virtual Facilitation Essentials program (8.5 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]

Aligned with this month’s theme of collaboration, I wanted to zoom into some practical tips for your next collaboration.

As I mentioned in last week’s post around the different ways we collaborate and partner, it’s likely that collaboration is a central theme for many coaches in their work, whether they are co-designing programs, partnering with their clients or supporting teams in boosting their collaboration.

In fact, collaboration in and of itself may be an earlier step in the process of building more resilient and adaptive organizations. Take a look at this article on the 2016 book – Beyond Teams: Building the Collaborative Organization. 

With many team coaches working with teams in a systems perspective, this is likely an important read.

As we step back to the collaborative relationships we are fostering, what is the intent you want to create? What are you looking to co-create together. As I have written before, many collaborative partnerships don’t just happen. They are planned.

As coaches we are great at using questions to co-create and guide us through the varying stages of relationships. With this in mind, I share several questions to explore at the different stages of a partnership or collaboration including:

Before you begin:

• What’s important about collaborating with this task or project?
• What value-add is there by collaborating?
• What are you bringing to the partnership?
• What are the skills and qualities you are looking for, from a partner?
• What are you hoping to have happen?

As you meet with your partner:

• What ‘s possible for you as you collaborate?
• What do you each bring to the partnership?
• What’s important for the two of you to explore together as you get started?
• What are the goals and roles of this partnership?
• What is your shared vision?
• Practically, and tactically, how will you work together?

As you roll out the work, be sure to build in time together as a checkpoint along the way:

• What’s working? What’s not working?
• What are you creating with each other?
• What do your clients value?
• What’s important to tweak and adjust?
• How is what you are doing, modelling collaboration for them?

These are by no means comprehensive, but will likely get the conversation flowing!
As we go to wrap up the month, what’s important to note about collaboration?

Enjoy!
​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), the one day Virtual Facilitation Essentials program (8.5 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]

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