Finding A Mentor or Coach
In Tuesday’s edition of BrandingYOU! I made the case that everyone can benefit from having a coach or mentor – regardless of his or her level of expertise. Why reinvent the wheel when there are people out there who have successfully accomplished what you want to accomplish. So how do you identify the best one for you? Choosing a coach or mentor could be one of the most significant steps you take along your career path. The right choice promises fewer bumps along the road. The wrong choice could leave you lost. Enough clichéd metaphors; suffice to say that it is a big decision.
First, exercise scrutiny. More than 40,000 people here in the U.S. identify themselves as coaches and as in any profession there are great ones and there are charlatans. Seek referrals from friends or colleagues that have had success with a particular coaching professional. While all coaching relationships should be confidential, it is appropriate to ask a prospective coach for references.
Here’s my best advice on this subject: aim for the top. If you’re committed to being masterful at something learn from the masters. Who in your profession do you admire, aspire to emulate and perhaps exceed in their success? If you’re a home improvement expert and aspire to be the next Ty Pennington, commit to connecting with him. Now, of course, super celebrities are not readily available or even interested in taking you on. But their success stories are well documented. Follow a winner. Read everything you can find on how they did it. Who has advised them along the way? Who is their agent, publicist, attorney and accountant? No one succeeds alone. Find a coach, consultant or career manager to be your committed partner in designing and implementing a game plan for your success.
Proactive Web Strategies
So you’ve got a decent website. Great. But your business still isn’t growing at the rate that you desire. Why? Because everyone has a decent website (or thinks that they do). As great as your website might be, it won’t generate business unless people are finding it.
The “old school” way of marketing places an overemphasis on positioning yourself to be found. People spend thousands of dollars on advertising, search engine optimization, and search terms – hoping that consumers will sift through the clutter of competitive messages to find and do business with them.
While those strategies can still be useful, they are not your most effective or economical choices. Remember, all businesses are built on relationships, so anything you do to strengthen a sense of connection with clients and prospects will always provide you with a bigger pay off.
Smarter marketers take a more proactive approach. They don’t wait or hope to be found. They also don’t spam or send unsolicited mail. Instead, they cultivate their base. Meaning, they nurture the relationships they have with their existing clients in such a way that the natural result is more referrals and new business.
Regular emails, in the form of newsletters and tips, are an essential way to stay ‘top of mind’. Adding professional video to your online messages has even more impact and there are dozens of ways to implement it.
Our company has developed a highly effective tool we call the eVideo Postcard. It’s a targeted email that links to a customized video message. When it is finished playing, it redirects to wherever you’d like; your home page or a purchase page. Plus, the entire campaign provides real-time tracking.
Give some serious consideration to the ways in which you’re being proactive with your online marketing strategies. Expand your support team to include consultants that will support you in building your brand.
Even Coaches Need A Coach
I’m of the strong opinion that anyone can benefit from having a coach, regardless of your level of expertise. Call it the human condition, but we all have blind spots, in terms of our effectiveness, that can only be detected by an objective observer. That’s why the world’s greatest and highest paid athletes, like Tiger Woods or Andrew Agassi, have coaches throughout their entire careers.
Somewhere in the American tradition we developed a mentality that it is somehow more noble to “go it alone,” figure it out for oneself and trudge ahead and find one’s own way. Noble or not, continuing to operate in life that way often leads to a lot of suffering.
No matter your area of interest, there are others who have been there before and accomplished what you’re out to accomplish. They are also likely to know others in their peer group who may assist you.
Personally, I’ve benefited from having coaches and mentors throughout my career. I can’t imagine that I would have experienced the level of professional success I’ve enjoyed were it not for those invaluable relationships.
So how do you find a mentor or coach that is best for you? That’s the topic of Thursday’s BrandingYOU!
Enhancing Your Brand
Personal branding isn’t about stroking your ego. It’s about owning the belief that you have something significant to contribute, much like an exceptional product. And like anything of value, the better you package and market it the more people get to experience its benefits. If you’re a “best kept secret,” you cheat others and yourself.
Therefore, I challenge you to commit to upgrading your personal brand this year, starting today. Is your website first class? Do your collateral materials set you apart? Do you have DVDs, CDs and other merchandise that are distinctive? Is your support team exceptional? Do a serious assessment of your strengths and weaknesses and vow that you will, as Emeril Lagasse says, “kick it up a notch!”
When economic times appear tough many business owners mistakenly cut their marketing budgets. And yet it’s the time when they may most need to make their case to the public to garner new business.
The best strategy is to earmark a percentage of your revenue towards building your brand. Like it or not, your prospects will often make a decision about your worthiness without ever meeting you. They size up your website, your graphic presentation, and your product offerings – or lack thereof.
Having products, much like being published, says that you’re established. It implies that you’re in demand and that people from outside of your local sphere are paying for your expertise. The more products you have the more you increase your public stature.
In addition to enhancing your image, having products provides you a secondary source of income. It enables you to leverage your public appearances and your website in ways you can’t possibly predict. Work only with experts that truly get “the big picture” impact of personal branding. Choose a company like ours that you can count on to be your trusted partner every step of the way. The spring season represents fresh starts and new growth. Make this your winning season.