Final Session to Help 2 Financial Coaches Get Clients. Today: Planning the Launch!

In this 8th and final session, I make sure M&M leave with a sound
plan-of-action they can implement without me; that they have
a strategy for “launch.”

I help to take them from where they are right now—with a com-
pletely designed signature program and solid marketing strategies
–to the day they deliver their program. We create a “count-down”
to the event, and I cover everything from what to say to referral
partners to inspire them to spread the word about the program, to
what to say to get speaking engagements at churches and schools….
to the all-important, and always over-looked, math exercise to
determine how many people they need in their room to break-even,
make a profit, and have a healthy conversion into their next program.

A similar countdown is in chapter 11 of Speak Free and Profit (that
ebook you see on the right-hand side of the page), and it is very
detailed, but I’ll share what I had M&M do so you see how meticu-
lous you need to get. What do they do with all of the Touch Point
1 contacts I had them collect? They need to reach out to them
to see if they’re open to hosting M&M or referring them. I make
M&M write down all of the dates when they will make those calls.
Then they must mail the letter of introduction I wrote for churches
and schools.

Next (and promptly), in order to have something tangible to give
to these contacts, they must take the copy I wrote for them for
their promotional postcard and get it designed by a graphic
designer or Vistaprint, or Overnightprints. I make them put
the date in their calendar when they will send the copy to the
designer and when they’ll have the postcards in their hands.

Then, when will they go networking? They have just 3-4 months
to promote
, and in that time, they need to saturate the market
with their presence and promotional material. And when will they
do their “video promotion” day, when they interview couples on
the street?

Next…how will they secure registrations? They need to add an
autoresponder to their technology, and have a page on their
website just for registrations. Even before that, they need to
secure a hotel, or the venue where they will host their seminar.
Again, I ensure that they write all of this down in their calendar
because I won’t be with them to provide accountability.

Very important, they need to carve out lots of time to practice.
And in order to deliver the “offer-from-stage,” they need to have
fleshed out the details of their next program (the 1-Day). So, when
are they going to sit down and design that program? They also need
to create a hand-out for their offer-from-stage—an order and/or
description form
for the audience to hold while M tells them
about the 1-Day program.

Sound overwhelming? Sound like you don’t want to bother with
so much work? Well, M&M have each other to lighten the load, and
you can certainly hire someone to help you—but even if you work
alone, just taking one step at a time and putting each step into
your calendar
are the keys to a smooth transition. Then, before
you know it, you’re on that stage, sharing the message and the solution
your market so desperately needs—and you look back at the stream
of things you did to get there, the frustration you experienced and
the pitfalls–and they all fade into the background. You are offering
an invaluable service, sharing your heart and your wisdom—helping
transform an audience—while you also make far more money than
you would working one-on-one. It’s well worth every step.

And M&M feel that way as we say good-bye. It’s been a steep incline
for them, doing things they’d never done before—and at warp speed,
no less: eight sessions in just one month. As we wind-down our last call,
the female “M” says to me, after much acknowledgment,  “We need a
break from you, girl!” I laugh. “Those are the sweetest words I’ve ever
heard. It means I did my job.” She responds, “You did your job
exceedingly and in abundance!”

Truly, I couldn’t ask for more.
I hope you enjoyed this 8-day blog series! And if you ever need
me to help you with your signature program, I’m here!

And you know that everything I did with M&M is available for
you in an 8 CD-Set, Getting Clients with an Irresistible
Signature Program that Sells AND Transforms,
right?
I’m very excited to be able to offer that to you. Go see the
videos and grab your copy by clicking here!

#7/8 Session with 2 Financial Coaches Today: Selling from Stage!

In this 7th session, we tear the lid off the definition of consulting!
I give Mike and Mari an all-out script of their signature program.
I tell them exactly what to say to move their couples into the all-
important “ick” (remember the Transformation Arc?) that will
allow their audience to make a shift right in the room. And I give
them exact words to say to teach their “Brand Concept”—the
secret communication cycle.

We strip away all vestiges of Old Paradigm didactic teaching styles
—like speaking with lots of “periods” instead of mostly question
marks; telling far too much–and dive into ways to fully and
consistently engage the audience and gain their rapt attention in
the “New Paradigm.” For instance, the “ick.” One of the M’s gives
me his plan for disseminating the information about the cycle—
and I tell him, “You’re giving the punch-line away. There will be
no learning if you tell them what the cycle is without their first
experiencing it for themselves. They need to have a breakthrough
before they’re given a solution.”  That is just one of tons of insider
secrets I give them on delivering this new material powerfully.

Then, we delve into their offer-from-stage—how they’re going
to share their next paid program with the audience at the end of
the free seminar. M, who will be presenting, is concerned about
looking “sales-y,” though he knows selling is a necessary part of
the process. I help him to see that, in truth, with no manipulation
or “spin,” they are actually giving their audience a gift. M&M
want to invite them to a 1-day event that will reinforce the new
communication techniques the couples have just learned, but
also get them learning the hard-core tools of repairing their
financial situation.  For this “older and wiser” couple to offer
this at a special “at-seminar” price is a gift for these younger,
direction-less couples.

To help M&M see this, I take them through another psychological
exercise for determining the VALUE of their program—so they see
that whatever price they offer for this 1-day is a steal…because
the seminar is so immensely valuable. Too many people “price” the
wrong way; they start with a price they believe the market can bear,
instead of starting with the value their market will get from their
expertise.  So, we do this together: enumerate all that the young
couples will be saved from by attending this full-day program.
There is a lot of juicy information about selling and pricing in the
last quarter of this session.

And today you can hear it all! Today this 8-CD set goes on sale!
I’m so excited. Be sure to watch Video #2 here now and go get
your copy!

Session #6/8 With Financial Coaches: Copywriting for Their Marketing!

So what’s so important about having a signature program?
There are many advantages for a business, not the least of
which is that it is a sure-fire differentiation strategy.  As a
communications expert, I’m interested also in the fact that
it streamlines what the heck you talk about when describing
your business! When I attend networking meetings (which I
still do occasionally), and certainly in my daily work with
coaches, I consistently notice that they discuss several
things
they’ve got cooking. The brain can’t process all this
information. It wants to know you’re doing one thing. So,
in Session 6, one of the things I tell M&M is that they will
now be speaking only about “Feast or Famine,” their portal
event. On their website, ideally, they would have a squeeze
page, inviting people only to this event—rather than explaining
in detail all the things they offer. This always produces a big
sigh of relief for my clients, who are always aware that typically
their communication isn’t effective because they talk about
too much.

In this session, we also discuss possible copy for their promo-
tional postcard and I emphasize the need for their couples to
“self-identify”—to say, “That’s us!”—and to do it either in
the headline or in the first paragraph, and certainly through-
out the rest of the copy. So, I play around with a few possible
headlines for them that satisfy this requirement, then we pull
the first line of the copy straight out of their heads and gut:
It
(marriage, as referred to in the headline) hasn’t worked out
the way you envisioned it, has it
? So we’ve slammed them
with two “self-identifying” questions in the headline and
first sentence.

Then we list several unwanted things in their lives that
they never envisioned—things directly related to their
financial stress, and we further “call them out” by discussing
their particularly unique situation: that they make a good
income but continually coming up short. This rules out
other couples who don’t have that issue.

Then we slip on M&M’s “older and wiser couple” persona
with the next paragraph that begins, “We know.” And
continues on with the brief story of their financial struggles
twenty years ago and the constant fights they used to have,
inserting some of the accusations they hurled at each other,
which we know their market most certainly does as well. This
is another self-identifying tactic. And we conclude that
paragraph by saying, “we’ve weathered those storms and
are here to show you how to, too.”

Below that, in the center, is the title of their program and below
that, centered, is the thesis argument of their “brand
concept”
(Remember that? It’s a teaching point around
which their portal program revolves.) Theirs is that financial
struggle is directly related to a secret communication cycle
they can’t see. Below the thesis, we put the statement, You
must attend this special seminar to break free of that cycle
once and for all.” (That’s what I wrote about yesterday:
activating the compulsory need in humans to know). Then
we describe what they’ll learn in the 90-minute program and
conclude with logistical information such as where, when
and how to register.

Of course, I don’t write this on the fly; I spend time in off-call
hours constructing the final language, but we flesh out the
basics in this session.

I’m happy to provide some key pointers for your promotional
copy! I kept this post purposely vague for copyright purposes,
but there’s enough direction here for you to apply the general
concepts to your own marketing pieces.

TOMORROW IS THE DAY!! You can own this entire 8-session
consultation!
To see the first of two videos introducing the CD,
click here now!

Session #5/8 with 2 Financial Coaches: Marketing Their Seminar!

By the end of the 5th session, M&M no doubt feel a little
like this guy. One of them says to me, “I can hardly wait
for the next session!” with a little more than a touch of
sarcasm. I can be highly creative, but I can also be meti-
culously analytical, and this is the session where that side
of me comes out in spades! I lead them step-by-step through
a detailed discussion of how to market their signature portal
seminar.

They want to penetrate a local, not national, market, so we
explore an entirely local strategy—yet this session will
stimulate your marketing juices, even if you are doing on-
line marketing. So the question we answer in this session
is, “What are all the ways you’re going to reach your
market?”

We list all Touch-Point 1 venues again–churches, Rotary Clubs
and other affinity groups, schools and referral partners, and then
(and this is where it got painstakingly detailed), we moved through
every step in the communication process with each venue.
What does the initial outreach look like for most of them? Usually,
it’s calling to ask what form of contact they prefer: letter, brief face-
to-face appointment, phone call, email? They would do this with
referral partners and the places where they would actually give
their seminar. Then, we look at every communication piece
they will need, from letters of introduction, to a phone script, to
leave-behinds such as fliers or postcards. They’ll need something
for their referral partners (marriage counselors) to hand out to their
clients about the signature program, and they’d need something
to hand churches, schools and affinity groups that would describe
the event
and its benefit to them.

This may all seem common sense, but I tell you, very few people
subject their marketing to such microscopic analysis until it’s
right upon them, and then they become overwhelmed. M&M may
feel blown away with all the initial footwork and planning that’s
entailed in formulating all of the promotional communication,
but it’s better to be overwhelmed with lots of time on your hands
than with very little–which is the case for most.

We also talk about networking options for them, such as NAWBO,
BNI and Meet-Ups, and the communication pieces that are require
for those scenarios. I tell them the secret that helped me stand
out
at networking events: handing out a postcard–not a flier and
not a business card–that described my 2-hour live event and acted
as a “ticket,” elevating its status above typical leave-behinds at
networking events.

And we discuss publicity options such as, of course, the required
press release, but also the idea of M&M, as that “older and wiser”
couple, videotaping themselves interviewing younger couples
on the street, as a way to get some local publicity and also as
a way to move them onto the internet, by putting those videos
on their blog.

Finally, one of the “M”s asks me, “What key phrases tend to get
people to take action; that would have them want to come hear
this?” And I told them one of the Brain-Sticky tricks of marketing
communication: humans hate to not know something; to re-
alize there is information they don’t have. We can’t stand it. That’s
why the 5:00 news trailers always say something like, “What is
the dangerous bug that could be hiding out in YOUR child’s stuffed
animal? Tune in to find out.” Are you going to watch? Heck, yes!
I’ve even DVR’d a local news segment because they “got me” with
one of these. We cannot stand not knowing information—if it is
relevant and important to us
.

So I tell M&M that they want to employ this in their marketing
copy, namely teasing couples with the fact (and it is a fact) that
they are embroiled in a secret cycle that is causing their financial
problems. Because it’s stimulating the brain’s “need to know,” and
it is extremely relevant to their couples, they will want to attend
the seminar just to find out what that secret cycle is.

So, detailed, methodical and not exactly sexy, but the topic of
this session was, as M&M both concluded, the “kick in the pants
they needed to get all of this started.” Maybe it is for you, too?
Here’s an action-item for you
: write down all of your Touch-
Point 1 venues (where you’ll reach your market). Then next to each,
determine the first point of communication—what is it? And what
communication piece will it require? Then, what other communi-
cation pieces will you need as you deepen your relationship with
each venue?

TOMORROW you can see the first promotional video about
the 8 CD-Set, which will be available on Wednesday! Come back
here to find out where to go, or get on my list (above) to get
the information sent to your email. Session #5 is tomorrow, so
stay tuned for what I do next with M&M!

Session 4 of 8 with 2 Financial Coaches: The Signature Program!

In the last session of this 8-session consultation where I
help two financial coaches Get Clients With a Signature
Program that Sells AND Transforms
, I saw what M&M’s
“brand concept”
could be—a teaching point that would
differentiate them from every other financial coach (and
everyone period, actually). It was a 3-phase ineffective
communication cycle that was the root cause of financial
trouble
for couples who’d been married over eight years.

In this 4th session, we dive very deeply into their signature
seminar event. In fact, I create, point-by-point, M&M’s entire
90-minute portal seminar, using the “Transformation Arc,”
where the couples experience the “ick” they’ve been wading
through for years—an essential part of transformation. We
entitle the program, Feast or Famine: Breaking a Couple’s
Secret Cycle of Financial Breakdown.

In this session, I teach M&M the transformational coaching
tool
I used to use with my clients when I was a personal
growth coach to shift them immediately from one fixed way
of thinking to a completely new, empowered one. This, of
course, is necessary for couples who have been cycling
through these 3 phases of ineffective communication: they
have been rooted in one way of thinking—for instance, the
thought that my spouse will kill me if tell him I just spent
$900 on the kids’ clothes—and must move into another one
that is just as true, but far healthier for the family and their
financial future.

So, in this transformational seminar, not only do M&M teach
the couples what the 3-phase communication cycle is–
creating an awareness they will never be able to forget– but
also how to get out of it, by using this coaching tool to instantly
“boot” them into new beliefs about communicating with
their spouse.

Once the couple moves through this transformation tool,
they can never go back to the Feast or Famine Communi-
cation Cycle. They’ve been changed forever. Armed
now with tools for changing how they communicate, their
couples are ready to look at the next cause of their financial
struggles: budgeting and reducing debt.

Believe it or not, we accomplish the design of their program
quite quickly in this session (I’ve had tons of experience!)
and move on to some very practical issues, namely how to
repurpose” the teaching concept in this portal
program
. “This teaching should be in everything you do,”
I tell M&M. Breaking the Secret Cycle of Financial Breakdown
should be the topic of their opt-in report, what their YouTube
videos, ebook, articles, blog posts—all of their marketing and
promotional material—should focus on. This is why I call it a
“brand concept.” And we spend some time detailing what those
items will be.

So what about you? Do you have a single, powerful
teaching concept
that could become your brand? Have you
given thought to your signature program—and what the root
cause of your market’s main problem is?

Remember, next Tuesday, October 19th, you can
eavesdrop-in on all of these sessions when I release
the 8-Session CD set. Hear every juicy detail!

Session 3 of 8 With 2 Financial Coaches Who Want More Clients

In my third session with M&M, we delve very specifically
into the topic for their “portal,” signature program. In order
for this seminar to be Brain-Sticky, it must solve their market’s
biggest problem—based on our work on their “Trigger Event.”
The couples M&M serve, and want to serve more, bring in a
decent income; income is not their problem. Their problem is
that despite good income, they keep coming up short every
month. They have nothing to show for the hard work and
respectable salary. And from the Trigger Event exercise, we
realize that the husband most commonly blames the wife
for spending too much each month. He’s said it before, but
is never heard. The wife believes wholeheartedly that what
she purchases is necessary. Then, we uncovered that perhaps
the husband is making purchases that aren’t showing up on
the credit card—secret purchases.

I ask M&M, what is the bottleneck problem? If it were removed,
everything else would flow? We bandy about some ideas, but
then recognize that the essential issue, the one that must be
removed before the subject of budgeting or debt reduction
can be addressed, is ineffective communication between
the spouses. If that were cleared up, their money struggles
would disappear because they could actually work on them
together, instead of from opposite sides of the ring.

Well, “communication” needs to be defined and pulled apart.
We spend a good portion of this session determining what
kind of communication is going on, no matter how ineffective.
And with some hair-splitting analytical questions from me,
I begin to help them form what will become the cornerstone
of their teaching concept. We determine that there is a
“cycle” that couples go through in communicating (which
includes not communicating) about money in particular.
It is a 3-phase cycle that is predictable and very common. I
said to them during this session, “If you put a name to this
cycle, you could brand it.” What I would later say is that
“Your entire business can be branded from this ‘teaching
concept.’ I call that a brand concept”—a unique, differenti-
ating teaching idea you can be known for. (see earlier post.)

Once we had this 3-phase ineffective communication
cycle
, we looked at the “objective” for their portal seminar
and decided it was, “to give couples the tools to alter this
cycle forever, so that they can begin a life of financial ease.”

It follows, naturally, that the free portal seminar would
provide those tools. So, next we needed to determine what
the tools are that would break this cycle, and how would
we move the audience through them to a powerful shift?

This would be, as you can see, a transformational seminar.
Not merely an informational one. And this is the secret, I
believe, to the “new age” upon us: to create transformation
in any audience, on any topic, even one as—at first blush—
boring as finances.

Come back tomorrow because session 4 is the most GOLDEN
session of all 8! We plan their 90-minute transformational
portal seminar. See you then!

And remember…Tuesday is the release of the 8 CD set of
these 8 sessions with M&M!

Session 2 of 8 With Two Financial Coaches Who Want Clients

In the first session, M&M and I looked quite deeply at their
target market. What would be the natural next question?
How do you reach them? I call these your Touch Point 1
venues
. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to convince M&M that
speaking is hands-down the best way to connect with a
market; they had already done some speaking.

So in this session, we delve deeply
into this subject, again gathering
data and building upon it. Where
have they spoken before? Where
could they speak that they’d never
thought of, and which are the three
most effective venues? We decide
that to attract couples, they would
reach out to churches, libraries,
Barnes & Noble
(they could ostensibly
speak on Dave Ramsey’s book), and
local boards of education to see if they
promote workshops for parents.

From there, we begin to touch on content. What have they
spoken about in the past? Well, their previous topics have
been rather dry, focused on how to budget and reduce debt,
so I draw us into thinking about what would be most Brain-
Sticky
. To determine that, we must know who would be in
the audience (target market), and what would get them there.
So we need to understand the Trigger Event (see yesterday’s
post) and their market’s most acute pain, and of course
M&M’s special solution.

I advised them that this time, they need to give more than
just an information-based seminar. In this day and age,
I told them, you want your audiences to be transformed
in some way, right away. And you do that by taking them
through what I call the “Transformation Arc”: this is a certain
trajectory that guarantees a powerful shift in thinking and
very often a shift in behavior.  This “arc” begins by getting
their market immediately into the ugly emotion they deal
with (even unconsciously) every day. I call it “getting
them into the  ick.”

The male “M” of M&M, who has done all the presenting in
the past, is unsure of this direction. He has always worked
with audiences in what I call the “Old Paradigm,” where
he hauls out a Power Point (aaaaggghh!) and didactically
transfers knowledge, without much engagement with those
in the room. I point out to him that in order for his audience
to be moved enough in this  free “portal” talk to then buy
a service package with M&M, they must FEEL—and you can-
not tell someone to feel; you must set the stage for them to
experience emotion themselves. This, and only this, creates
transformation in them, and a far stronger interest in
buying.

Next, we need to solidly determine what the “ick” is for their
particular market. What is the emotional sludge these
couples are wading through, as it pertains to their financial
struggle? Well, in the next session, three, we hit pay dirt!
Together we figure this out and with that knowledge, we begin
to sketch out the Brain-Sticky concept of their portal,
signature program
…that could become the differentiation
for their entire business! Be sure to come back tomorrow to
see what it is!

As for you: is speaking on your list for strategies to get
more clients and build your list? What Touch Point 1 venues
will best reach your market? And what about the “ick” your
market stews in day in and day out—how can you have them
experience or come face to face with that “ick” in a talk you
give? Would love to hear your thoughts below! And feel free
to share this post so others can get eavesdrop, too!

8 Sessions with 2 Financial Coaches Who Want Clients

I had an 8-session consultation with two financial coaches
who wanted more clients to walk in the door. There was one
thing they were clear on: once they had clients, these two
coaches would do amazing work with them. The trick was
getting them in the door! Sound familiar?

Over the next 8 days, you’re going to get the chance to
“eavesdrop” in on my sessions with “M&M” and get some
ideas for your own business. This is just a sampling of
the work I do and I decided to make it public—not just
in these blog posts, but in a CD product I’m launching
next week
! You’ll be able to get the actual sessions,
plus 2 great bonuses, starting next Tuesday.

So Session 1 with M&M. Of course, I need to get the lay of
the land: how long have they been coaching, who have
they been coaching, etc. They tell me they were trained
through Dave Ramsey and have been coaching couples
on and off for ten years, mostly giving their coaching
away. Now, they’re ready to make money! I am pleased
to see that they have a somewhat Brain-Sticky differentia-
tion already, promoting themselves as, to paraphrase,
the “seasoned couple working with younger couples.”
This is, of course, very appealing, as what younger couple
wouldn’t want to be guided by an “older and wiser” couple,
who had weathered financial storms in marriage?

I am also pleased to see that they have a target market!
I can’t tell you how many service entrepreneurs don’t.
“Couples” is still too broad, but we can begin to focus this
down by looking at the age of their market’s children. Do
M&M work with very new couples, who have newborns?
Or those who have preschoolers? Or are they in high school,
facing the issue of college? Each “era” has its own difficulties
and it is critical to know which difficulty they want to
address as coaches. They tell me that most of their clients
have children in elementary-school, indicating that (generally),
the parents have been married at least seven years, and up
to 14 years.  These are often pressure-cooker times, when
the honeymoon is over, financial issues are no longer
ignorable and volcanic eruptions occur.

I begin to take M&M through a process I call the “Trigger
Event.”
The fact is, humans walk around thinking they can
handle most of their issues by themselves, or at least with
the help of friends and family. But something happens, one
day—in fact, one moment—that triggers their dawning reali-
zation that they need help. This is a tough exercise for most
people, and M&M and I move right in like “Google Earth” on
their couples, looking in on a typical scene when such an
awakening might occur. They decide the couple is reviewing
a new credit card statement and we move through the entire
scene: what the conversation is like, what eruption occurs,
and what finally “pops the cork;” has one or both of them
blurting out, “We can’t do this alone!”

Why is this important to know? For starters, it is critical
to understand that you won’t make money if your market
isn’t hungry—and they aren’t always hungry. I always tell
my clients and students that your greatest competition is
not someone else, but rather the idea, “I can do this myself.”
But there will be a tipping point when they are in such pain
or frustration they are finally ready to spend money. And
you want to know what that pain is—on a very specific level
—so you can refer to it in marketing copy, creating intimacy
with your market as they “self-identify,” saying, “That’s me!”
—and so you can potentially influence that trigger event in
those who haven’t had it yet. The trials and tribulations are
there in the background, like a humming furnace, but they
haven’t realized they need help yet. You can help them
realize it, by talking about those moments, only if you know
what they are.

So, what is a moment that would wake up your market
from enduring and tolerating whatever is not working for
them? Would love to hear your ideas below! And be sure
to come back tomorrow, when M&M decide on the strategy
they’re going to use to get more clients!

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