There are so many coaches out there, from all walks of life. But if you are picking a coach to work with you, you can’t afford to make the wrong decision and start all over again with someone else. So how do you separate the sales spin from the reality and be confident that the coach you chose is right for you?

First of all, take some time over the choice. If it works, coaching could be one of the best investments you can make – for you personally and for your business. But despite this, people often rush into a decision or jump for the first coach they speak to. So, before you take your pick make sure you find out these things about your coach:

What is their main coaching focus? If you need a business coach, you need a business coach – not a life coach who happens to do some business coaching. Many coaches will offer a range of services, but find out what their real specialism is – or at least the type of coaching they have the most passion for.

What business experience do they have? It is perfectly acceptable to ask a coach about their professional background, including asking for details of what they did or achieved for the companies they worked for. You can be coached by someone who has only operated several layers lower in organizations, but to get real success you need to know they have experience at your level.

Are you comfortable with them on a personal level? Rapport is important here. Coaching will sometimes take you into unfamiliar areas and challenge your comfort zone. You need to make sure you work with someone who you personally feel comfortable with – this is not about expecting to be best friends (which is not what you need), but knowing that you can relax enough in their company.

Have they got experience of your specific skills challenges? If you already know there is one particular skill or competency you want coaching on, such as influencing skills or time management, make sure this is an area the coach has experience of. Similarly if you work in a specific sector and want someone who understands the specific challenges you face, check their background includes this.

How much of their time is spent coaching? Beware of consultants or trainers who say they are coaches but actually spend a very small part of their time coaching people. There is a huge difference between a full-time trainer who occasionally adds coaching onto a specific package and a professional coach!

What management experience have they had? This may sound obvious, but if you manage a large team of people in your business you need someone who can understand the dynamics and challenges that brings. There are many coaches out there who will have managed only a handful of people or none at all.

So, with all this can you be sure that coaching will work? Absolutely not – coaching is a unique relationship and you’ll never know until you give it a try. But, if you ask these questions, your chance of success will be far greater. – and you could well find yourself working with someone who can help you transform your business and life.

Most coaches offer a free introductory session to alleviate the fear of taking the next step and working with them. Take advantage of the offer and seize the opportunity to see if you are ready to be coached to reaching your ultimate goals.

Would you like to learn more about coaching?

To schedule a free coaching call to see if coaching might be the help you need, simply call 760-930-9604. There is no charge. This is a no-pressure, no-obligation opportunity to see if coaching is right for you.

Greg Clowminzer offers advice and personal coaching for CEO’s, small business owners, and professionals who are stressed out and overwhelmed by the challenges of business, relationships and life.

 Business Consulting | Business Coaching | Time Management | Sales Coaching | Management Consulting | Executive Coaching | Life Coaching | Business Leadership | Stress Management | Leadership Coaching | Executive Leadership | Sales Consulting | Conflict Resolution | Success Coaching | Strategic Consulting | Personal Coaching | Management Coaching | Professional Coaching | Executive Consulting & other Consulting Services.

One of the questions I am asked quite a bit is, “Who needs a business or life coach anyway?”. And the answer may surprise you. “NO one  needs a coach”. Blasphemous, right? But it’s the truth! Nobody needs a Coach. Just like nobody needs a personal trainer, or nobody needs a financial advisor.

Hiring someone in a support profession is a CHOICE. It is a choice that you make in service of your very best interests. It’s as though you are saying to yourself, “I am really SERIOUS about what I want to achieve in my life, and I want to give myself every opportunity to follow through and finally DO it”.

For example: It’s one thing to know intellectually that you’re supposed to go to the gym and do a little cardio and do some strength training. And it’s another thing to actually show up for an exercise class. But it’s a whoooole different animal to have a personal trainer waiting for you at an appointed time, who knows you and knows your body, who will push you, challenge you, encourage you and plow through your excuses. Hiring a personal trainer generally suggests that you mean business – and you usually see results much faster.

By the same token, it’s one thing to know that something needs to change in your business or life. It’s another thing to feel as though you’re making a little bit of progress here and there. But it’s a whooooole different animal to have a Coach waiting to talk to you 2-3 times a month, who knows you and knows your goals, who will push you, challenge you, encourage you, and help you question your excuses. Hiring a Coach is a way of saying that you are READY to see and feel some results in your life – and soon.

But do you need a Business Coach? Nope! Hiring a Business Coach has nothing to do with being needy. Having a coach is something that you WANT because you are ready to start achieving more in your business and life – and faster. It’s something that you CHOOSE because, no matter what your goals or circumstances, you are ready for things to shift.

Have any other questions about what Coaching is – and isn’t? Please leave them here.

Interview with Greg Clowminzer

by Tami Magaro

Q. What are the top things entrepreneurs generally struggle with?

Close to 90% of entrepreneurs I talk to self-diagnose themselves as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). They struggle to stay focused, keep clear priorities and follow through. It’s one of the biggest struggles. Entrepreneurs have one great idea after another. They are very creative and resourceful. Unfortunately, without focus these ideas are just a lot of great ideas never manifested. Removing distraction is very important. Entrepreneurs learn through talking so it’s important to provide a really safe place for them to articulate and verbalize their ideas so they can learn to synthesize.

Q. Do you use social media to market yourself?

Social media is relatively new. I’ve been using social media more in the last 6 months and will continue to make it apart of my marketing strategy. I started with YouTube a few years ago. The first videos were created to explain my work in meditation retreats; to explain what the retreats were and the benefit someone might get from participating. I share coaching information and more recently, share tricks and tactics on social media e.g. Google ranking. I love creating ‘how to’ videos. I find them to be really valuable. I have a Fan page on Facebook. I’m on LinkedIn and Twitter. I have a fairly large following. What is interesting about Twitter once you’ve amassed a large following, what I would call ‘social influence’ you can bring more attention to your efforts e.g. video, blogs and guide people to what I’m up to. I converted my website onto WordPress which I highly recommend. It provides real value as I’m able to track it.

Q. What are daily/weekly exercises for entrepreneurs?

I ask all my clients to complete a ‘coaching call prep form’ before we speak each week. The prep form is a list, reporting on what you’ve accomplished since we last spoke. So there’s a record of what is actually getting done. I also ask what they intended to do but didn’t get done. There’s built in accountability. What are the challenges and problems they are currently facing? What opportunities are currently showing? We generally tease out an assignment based on our conversation. A really great weekly exercise for entrepreneurs is just planning their week in advance. Asking yourself, what are three to five things I want to get accomplished next week that would really forward my business?

Q. What type of workshops do you provide?

I offer a monthly ‘communicating and relating’ dyad workshop. It’s a practice where people are taught how to fully self-reflect, go within and share whatever comes up. So for example, if you and I were sitting down across from one another, I might ask you a question to build a relationship between us. I might say, “Tell me something you’d like to tell me.” You may think, what do I want to tell Greg? Maybe you want to share how much you really appreciate this interview today. I say, “Thank you.” Then, you give me the same question back. I might share with you that I’m noticing I’m getting an appetite and am thinking about what I want to have for lunch today. As simple as it sounds, there is something that happens over this self-reflection and self-disclosure, people actually improve their ability to communicate and relate to one another. People learn to self-reflect and communicate what arises. It’s a really powerful practice. People fall in love with themselves, because they have a deeper understanding of who they are and who other people are. The world becomes a better place. I offer an intense three-day version of this workshop twice a year. This is a residential retreat. It’s a formal setting like a Zen retreat. We get up early and practice dyad communication practice over and over and over again throughout the three days. We practice walking and sitting meditation and…good food! It’s like learning yoga or martial arts, every time you practice you self-correct and improve your technique. It’s a simple technique that gets refined over time with practice. I teach people how to refine the practice. It’s a life changing process.

Greg Clowminzer is both a successful entrepreneur and life coach. He is a passionate truth-seeker, known as the “Zen Coach” he brings self-realization and spiritual teaching to a successful business and life coaching practice. An avid writer, you can find online coaching tips published on “Daily Wisdom.” To subscribe to Daily Wisdom, send a blank email to: DailyWisdom-on@letters.webvalence.com.

9-Steps To Creating An Extraordinary Life & Business

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Small business advertising and marketing tips to help get you ranked high in local search engines shared by business and life coach Greg Clowminzer.

Click here to view the the profile that made me over $15k

While most online marketing gurus are touting the use of social media such as Twitter, FaceBook, and YouTube to launch the sales of your products and services I have been using a secret weapon virtually no one knows about. It’s called Merchant Circle.

You see in March of 2008 my wife and I became associates in a MLM company which I prefer to call it network marketing company just because I think it sounds better. We fell in love with the company and the product and saw a real opportunity to help people improve their overall health and wellness.

For the last 16 years my primary income has come from providing a service to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses while making sure their life was in balance and that they were living their life on purpose based on their true values and their definition of success.

Over the years, as you can imagine everyone and their brother has tried pitching me on one type of business opportunity or another. In which case I have always politely declined. I was always told that I would be great at network marketing but I just couldn’t see myself bugging my family and friends and try selling them something.

As a business coach I was also concerned about building a sustainable business one that had staying power beyond a warm list of friend and acquaintances. I knew from personal experience that the life of any business boils down to the ability to consistently generate leads and to do it without spending a bunch of money.

If you want to know how I generated tons of free leads that have made thousands of dollars then keep on reading.

I had no idea what I was doing when I started all of this and am completely blown away from what I have been able to do with Merchant Circle and I feel almost obligated to share it with struggling entrepreneurs and small business owners.

So what is Merchant Circle?

Merchant Circle is like a MySpace for business owners plus a lot more.

Basically it is an opportunity to establish a web presence with other business owners and it allows you some really powerful tools like blogging which helps get you ranked high in Goolgle searches for free.

Again, I wasn’t clear of the power of Merchant Circle until I started playing around with it. I created a profile for my MLM business, started connecting with other merchants and posted a couple of blogs.

And guess what happened next?

I started to show up on the first page of Google for specific keywords about my business and yes all for free.

What happened next?

You guessed it.

My phone started ringing.

Yes, people started calling me to find out more information about my product.

It gets better.

People started calling me and wanting to purchase my product.

OK, there is something really important you need to know about my product.

It sells for just over $2000. That’s right $2000.

People were calling me to buy a $2000 product.

I got so excited I immediately upgraded my Merchant Circle account to one of their paid packages.

Again, I hear people talking about all kinds of other strategies for building your business but no one, I mean no one is talking about Merchant Circle.

It is the best kept secret in your online marketing tool box.

Join Merchant Circle Today – It’s fast, free and easy!

Also, I started teaching my entire down-line these marketing trick and guess what, you got it, their phones are ring too.

Click here to view the the profile that made me over $15k

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