Stories develop themes. The themes chosen to illustrate the possibility of stories are:

Relationships, Choice, Creativity, Making a Difference, Celebration.

Speakers are ordinarily people, from teachers to grandparents, from mountain climbers to cancer survivors. The platform provides them with a privilege and awesome responsibility to share their stories in a way that helps the audience to “wake up.” Good stories make people say, “Wait a minute. I can think or act differently about everything than I did before.” Stories are everywhere. Speakers learn to retrieve them and retell them to audiences as a way to show their humanness to show they care; to open people to possibility thinking and how making mistakes will lead to the courage to finally help them succeed. Because most of us delineate our thoughts visually, great stories help to enhance and even transform our lives.

Be unique. Think funny thoughts. Live and re-live your story when you are telling a story. Words are critical so be sure to pause when necessary and BE IN THE NOW. Your words need to create an image in the audience’s mind so that they can remember your story. They may be a step away from their own story. This will strengthen the connection between you and them.

It’s a good idea to use props to enhance your humor. Remember most people have an attention span of six to eight minutes.

The Coach asks… what is your story?

Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to grow your coaching business. It’s free, or at most costs very little, yet very few coaches use it to anywhere near it’s potential!

Consider this: if you got just one referral from each one of your clients, over the next 60 days you’d double your client base! What would that mean to your potential income and how many more people would you be helping in supportive and uplifting ways?

So, how do you maximize word of mouth? Read more »

I have learned from several thousand professional speakers “How to Give a Great Speech.” Here are some techniques that I share with my coaching clients who want to become paid professional speakers or business professionals who want to deliver masterful presentations.

1. Speak from the heart.
Believe in what you have to say, or don’t say it. If your passionate about your subject the words will come. Speak about the fundamental beliefs you have about life, the simple truths that you believe in with all your heart.

2. Write down two or three specific objectives you have for this speech.
Ask yourself, ‘What do you want the audience to do as a result of your speech? ‘Think differently? Act differently? Do something differently?

3. Write it out.
When you give a speech be sure that people need to hear what you have to say. Than you need to understand it so well that you could explain it to an eight-year-old You know, if you write it down enough times, than you will become familiar with it. Don’t read your speech if necessary, just read the lead sentences that you write ona three by five card.

4. Be present.
Connect with your audience in the first 60 seconds and than engage them throughout your speech. Once you get the audience rolling, be sure to embellish certain comments that you know are being well-received.

5. Know your audience.
Interview the program chair in advance to know who will be sitting in your audience and what they expect to hear from you. Are they men or women? What is the theme of the meeting or conference? What is their purpose in being there? Because that then becomes your purpose. Be sure to give your audiences not just what they want, but also what they need to hear. Read more »

In recent years there has been a significant rise in the demand for mentors and coaches. The driving forces behind this are: executives, managers and other specialists are increasingly expected to demonstrate that they are undertaking significant professional development; the workplace and business employment environment is becoming even more competitive; the influence of the emerging industrial nations is forcing radical changes in the skill mix required of managers and other professionals in the developed countries; the diversity of personal and professional skills, knowledge, and expertise needed to be successful in today’s global business environment. As this demand has increased, so has the diversity of roles played and the range of services offered. Indeed, there are so many variations and combination’s of mentoring and coaching, that it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between them and almost impossible to categorize the variations available.

Workplace mentoring is, despite appearances, a structured, organized, element of the organization’s training and development activity. It is, however, usually quite separate from organized training activities and from the formal appraisal process carried out by the line-manager. This formal, hierarchical relationship that exists between a person and their line-manager is usually not a suitable vehicle for a mentoring relationship. Mentoring generally takes the form of a confidential, one to one relationship, where a more senior person, at least one position higher than the line-manager of the person being mentored, helps a more junior one to make progress, usually as part of a planned development program, such as management fast-tracking, preparing for a more senior post, or leading a phase of workplace activity, such as a project. The mentor offers guidance and advice, in a supportive and non-threatening manner, but in a format and style which is designed by the organization human resource department and then monitored by that department. The aim is to provide the recipient with support that will enable them to move forward confidently and to achieve their personal workplace objectives and also the objectives set for them by the organization. Read more »

In a previous article we discussed the distinction between an Influencing Paradigm, and a Service Paradigm, to marketing your coaching business. We discussed how marketing your business is both ethically valid and commercially crucial, and how marketing is a critical process in achieving your coaching objective of having a positive impact on the lives of others.

To quickly surmise, we explained that people with an Influencing Paradigm mindset perceive marketing to be ‘leading’ and ‘salesy.’ They come from the paradigm that by marketing you are proactively influencing someone in their decisions. Or specifically that you may make someone do something they would not otherwise do. Read more »