Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #9

Clue No. 9: Imagine you are writing your epitaph. What things do you want to be remembered for at the end of your life? What things will your life be incomplete without? This exercise is a good way quickly to access the essence of your life and goals. What are the first things that come to your mind – before your other chattering voices (sometimes referred to as the ‘committee’) override your initial impulse? Another way to approach this clue is to imagine you only had six months to live. What would you do differently than you are now? Once you realize what is most important for you, the next question is – what are you waiting for to make those things real for you?

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #8

Clue No. 8: What do you daydream about doing? This is important because your daydreams have their basis in your subconscious mind. This is the largest part of your mind, but not as easily accessed as your conscious mind. Our mind resembles an iceberg: the conscious mind is the ten percent of the iceberg above the water that we can easily see, but the subconscious is the ninety percent that lies submerged below the water. It is in your subconscious mind that your beliefs reside, as well as your deepest desires for success and fulfillment. If there are images or issues about which you repeatedly daydream (or dream of at night), they may be aspects of your life purpose. Their importance cannot be overestimated.

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #7

Clue No. 7: Are there some issues or perceived problems that have occurred over and over again? This clue is related to the previous one, in that out of one of these repeated issues may come your greatest lessons. But some of them are probably still occurring. That is, you have yet to learn how to break the pattern. Do you keep choosing mates that put you down? Or jobs that are beyond your skill level? If there were a theme for your life, how would you describe it?

I believe this lifetime is one of many we will experience in our ongoing process of spiritual growth. Whether or not you agree, these recurring issues or ‘problems,’ as we sometimes call them, often represent the key qualities you are here to develop. The Buddhists call them ‘uncooked seeds,’ or the qualities that aren’t yet fully matured in you.

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #6

Clue No. 6: What are the ten most important lessons you have learned in your life? It is said that we teach that which we most need to learn. What do you feel are the most valuable or important things you have learned through your life experiences so far? (They need not be related to work.) One of these that was on my list included a simple realization in my days as a secretary of the important of approaching challenges at work, such as how to handle an issue for my boss, as though they were my own personal challenges. This gave me a sense of ownership and self-confidence in my own judgment which allowed me to experience increased peace of mind in my work. No doubt you have had experiences that you recall often which were life-changing or pivotal in your life.

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #5

Clue No. 5: Is there a cause about which you feel passionate? Many times, the essence of our life purpose is revealed through a cause which attracts our commitment at a deep level. For example, if you feel strongly about world peace, or the save-the-whales movement because of a love for Mother Earth, or for the whales themselves, or a desire to preserve the animals for future generations? What is it about the cause that attracts you to it?

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #4

Clue No. 4: What are your ten greatest successes to date (in your eyes)? For this clue, put aside what others in your life may view as your successes. What things do you view as your greatest successes? It may be something as simple as a gesture that helped someone in need – or it may be a widely publicized improvement you made in your company’s efficiency. Whatever it is, list your successes, as well as – and this is important – what it was about the accomplishment or event that makes you label it a success. (For example, the person who many an improvement in her company’s efficiency may label it a success because of the benefit to the company, the way it make her feel, the money it saved, the recognition she got, or for other reasons.)

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #3

Clue No. 3: What do you naturally do well? You have some natural abilities. These are the things you just naturally do well. They have always come easily to you. Perhaps you are naturally athletic or can learn foreign languages quickly with little effort. You may be a born organizer or have innate intuitive abilities. The areas in which you naturally excel are indicators of your life purpose – particularly if you also enjoy the things you do well. Your Enjoyment Quotient – the sum total of the things that give you the greatest joy – is the most important guide to your life purpose.

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clue #2

Clue No. 2: What parts of your present job or life activities do you thoroughly enjoy? Even if you feel miserable in your current job or career field, think about this question. If you think back to why you took the job or chose the career area to begin with, there are likely some specific tasks or objectives that are (or were) enjoyable to you. It might be a small thing, as in the case of the receptionist who disliked dealing with all the people in her job but thoroughly enjoyed the few moments each day that she got to type letters and sort the mail. She later learned that she was not a ‘people’ person, but a data person who enjoyed organizing things. That clue led her into her new job as a word processor.

As you go through these clues, forget all about what others may think of your answers. This process is for you, and you need not share it with anyone else. Another pair of homemakers in a northwest state realized that, even though it sounded silly, they loved to clean house. They were perceptive enough to recognize that this was a clue to a business opportunity, and they are now famous as the Clutter Ladies and make their living helping people clean up their messes and stay organized.

Marcia Bench is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, which offers career coaching services and trains and certifies individuals who wish to be career coaches. For details, see www.careercoachinstitute.com.

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Discovering Your Life Purpose - Clues To Your Life Purpose

I will present you with ten clues which will help you to discover your life purpose. Here is clue #1.

Clue No. 1: What do you love to do? That is, when you have spare time, how do you like to spend it? Your spare time activities are important because they show what you enjoy doing when no one else is making demands on you. This is truly your time. What do you enjoy doing with it? Even if these activities do not seem related to your career, they may be the seeds of an opportunity you have not yet recognized. Two ladies in a career counseling group a couple of years ago mentioned that what they liked to do in their spare time was watch soap operas. Once they acknowledged that as the thing they most loved to do, they converted that passion into a flourishing career writing syndicated summaries of all the daily soaps! Another way to think about this clue is: what would you do even if you were not paid to do it?

Stay tuned for Clue No. 2 tomorrow!

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Discovering Your Life Purpose

Are you clear about the purpose of your life? And are you fulfilling it? Or are you one of the many people who have spent your entire life (until now) feeling restless, confused, just going through a monotonous routine day after day – and never feeling certain about the purpose of your life? If the issue of life purpose has entered your life at this juncture, it is important to find a process to discover it. Why? Because without it, you will never feel the level of fulfillment that is possible in your work. In my 21 years in the career development field, guiding people through transitions of various types, nothing has been more transformational for my clients than discovering and fulfilling their life purpose.

What do I mean by life purpose? First, in a broad sense, we all have a shared overall purpose, in that we are here to discover as much of our true self as we can and to express our true self through our lives to the greatest possible extent. We do this through all of the experiences we have, the people we relate to, the jobs we choose, and the teachers whose message rings true with us.

Each of us also has a specific purpose. It is a calling, a mission, or an overall theme for your life that transcends your daily activities. It is the quality you have come to earth to develop, the type of service you are here to render, the segment of the planet you have come to enhance or improve. It is much broader than one job or career; it pervades your entire life.

In fact, most of us will have at least five different careers in our lives. Your purpose is not found in a career area or a job description. Rather, you use your career (as well as the other aspects of your life) to accomplish our broadly stated purpose. For example, one man’s life purpose was to promote peace. He did so by working as a mediator and by consciously pursuing peaceful relationships. Another woman discovered her life purpose was to nurture the earth. She learned all she could about conservation, worked for the park bureau, and soon was in demand as a teacher for other nature guides and conservationists.

Perhaps you have had a sense since you were a child that you had a ‘mission.’ Or you may have periodically asked yourself, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’ If neither of these questions has come to you consciously, you may notice that you life has consisted of much drifting from one job to the next, one relationship to another, with no sense of order or meaning – and a resulting feeling of emptiness.

If you have not experienced the level of success that you know you are capable of, or if you have felt as if something is ‘missing’ from your life, take note of this very important principle: You will experience success in your life to the extent that you are clear about your life purpose.


Qualities of Life Purpose

Life purpose is fun, joyful, and playful. When you are carrying out our life purpose, you will find that the time goes by unnoticed. Hours pass in pure bliss. Joseph Campbell and the eastern mystics use the phrase, ‘Follow your bliss.’ The dictionary defines bliss as ‘complete happiness.’ Thus Joseph Campbell is saying to pursue those things that cause you to experience complete happiness. Abraham Maslow called these experiences ‘peak experiences.’ Peak experiences are a regular occurrence when you are following your life purpose. Both of these concepts are closely aligned with discovering and following your life purpose.

Have you ever had the experience of reading a good book, working at a hobby you love, or listening to beautiful music when several hours later it seemed as if only minutes had passed? That is the feeling that is available to you when you have discovered your life purpose – and are living it.

Another characteristic of life purpose is that it is completely unique to you. No one else can fulfill your purpose. Whether it concerns an area that is being explored by many or by only a few, what matters is that no one can approach it as you can.

Stay tuned for "Clues to Your Life Purpose".

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PREPARING FOR WORK IN “RETIREMENT” #5

5. Make your credentials generic if switching fields. Company names, industry-specific terms and acronyms have no place in a resume that you are using to attract work in a new industry. Instead of “Achieved ABC Bank’s sales quota of $50,000 in XYZ Loan sales and supervised five banking services representatives,” say “Achieved Fortune 500 financial institution’s sales quota of $50,000 in product-specific sales and supervised 5 professionals.” This removes the barrier of “no experience in our industry” when the screener is reviewing your resume.

Marcia Bench is a Master Certified Career CoachTM with 21 years’experience in the career development field. A frequent speaker, Marcia is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, LLC and Retirement Coach Institute, and has authored 18 books including Career Coaching: An Insider’s Guide and Retire Your Way!

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PREPARING FOR WORK IN “RETIREMENT” #4

4. Use results-oriented accomplishment statements, not just a list of responsibilities. One of the most common mistakes people make on their resumes is listing a long list of position titles and responsibilities, but not details what they have done! Remember WIIFM – the screener wants to know “What’s In It For Me?” That is, what have you done that could be valuable to them? So first, go back only 10 years in details on your work history, summarizing prior to that, and second, describe what you’ve done in accomplishment statement format: situation, action taken, and results achieved (sales made, dollars saved, morale improved, etc.).

Marcia Bench is a Master Certified Career CoachTM with 21 years’experience in the career development field. A frequent speaker, Marcia is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, LLC and Retirement Coach Institute, and has authored 18 books including Career Coaching: An Insider’s Guide and Retire Your Way!

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PREPARING FOR WORK IN “RETIREMENT” #3

3. Develop a job search plan. One thing that has changed in job searching is that merely responding to help-wanted ads in the newspaper – or even surfing job boards on the internet and responding to them – is not as likely to get you a job as other strategies. These two tactics are designed to access the “published” job market – but only 15 percent of all jobs are found that way. The rest are within the “unpublished” job market and are accessed through strategic networking, effective mailings to targeted employers, and the like. Your job search plan should include an appropriate mix of published and unpublished strategies, depending on whether you are pursuing a position in an industry you have already worked in or not.

Marcia Bench is a Master Certified Career CoachTM with 21 years’experience in the career development field. A frequent speaker, Marcia is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, LLC and Retirement Coach Institute, and has authored 18 books including Career Coaching: An Insider’s Guide and Retire Your Way!

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PREPARING FOR WORK IN “RETIREMENT” #2

2. Once your goal is clear, test it to be sure it is viable. Are there enough jobs in that industry and position in the geographic area in which you want to work? If not, could you work remotely via computer, internet and phone and achieve your goal?

Marcia Bench is a Master Certified Career CoachTM with 21 years’experience in the career development field. A frequent speaker, Marcia is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, LLC and Retirement Coach Institute, and has authored 18 books including Career Coaching: An Insider’s Guide and Retire Your Way!

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PREPARING FOR WORK IN “RETIREMENT”

The job market has changed radically even in the past 10 years. Online portfolios, blogs, and customized narrative bios are just a few of the tools being used by job seekers today. And using them can show that you are current in the use of technology and help overcome any hint of age bias too! In addition to the suggestions above on getting a professional resume writer (or career coach!) to help you, keep the following in mind when seeking work, whether part-time or full-time, in retirement or late career:

1. Take the time to clarify your career goal. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there!” What would you love to do (even if you’re not sure it will generate enough money)? What would you like to be different in your next job than the past ones? A career coach can help (directory available at www.careercoachinstitute.com)

Stay tuned for #2 tomorrow.

Marcia Bench is a Master Certified Career CoachTM with 21 years’experience in the career development field. A frequent speaker, Marcia is the Founder and Director of Career Coach Institute, LLC and Retirement Coach Institute, and has authored 18 books including Career Coaching: An Insider’s Guide and Retire Your Way!

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Is Coaching Right for You or Your Organization?

Approximately six out of every ten organizations currently offer coaching or other developmental counseling to their managers and executives, according to a survey by Manchester, Inc., a Jacksonville, FL career management consulting firm. Another 20 percent of companies said they play to offer such coaching within the next year.

If your company is considering offering coaching, consider why you wish to do so. A recent survey revealed the following Top Reasons for Offering Coaching:

• Sharpen the leadership skills of high-potential individuals (86%)
• Correct management behavior problems such as poor communication skills, failure to develop subordinates, or indecisiveness (72%)
• Ensure the success, or decrease the failure rate of newly promoted managers (64%)
• Correct employee relations problems such as poor interpersonal skills, disorganization, demeaning or arrogant behavior (59%)
• Provide the required management and leadership skills to technically oriented employees (58%)

Does it surprise you that correcting behavior problems or doing so-called “performance improvement” is second on the list and not first? The high-performers in many organizations become bored and un-challenged because they outgrow their positions. By providing them with a coach, the company is leveraging the strengths of that employee, to use Marcus Buckingham et al’s term as discussed in Now Discover Your Strengths. That will create far greater results in the long-run than simply trying to remedy weaknesses by focusing coaching on the under-performers in the company.

I am frequently asked by the media, how does one select a coach with whom to work? Here are a few tips:

Tips for Selecting the Right Coach:

• Ask what their experience level is, both with coaching and within your industry
• Get references from other clients with whom they have worked
• Notice whether they ask questions, even in the interview, that expand your thinking
• Ask them what tools, assessments, or coaching models they use – if they can provide specific answers, that is usually a positive, versus a vague, “I ask great questions…” response
• Find out whether they have worked with the level of executives or other staff you seek to have coached
• Determine their credentials: do they have professional training in coaching, whether career, business or executive coaching? Are they certified? What were the criteria for their certification?
• Also clarify whether their services are sufficiently flexible so that they can be provided in person, by phone, or via internet, depending on your company’s needs

We have surveyed dozens of coaches and their clients to find out what traits are most important to a prospective client in choosing a coach. Here are the salient traits clients look for in hiring career coaches:

• Current knowledge regarding industries and the job market
• Can motivate me, provide support and confidence
• Some credential/credibility/certification
• Can customize approach to learning style, age group, etc.; good soft skills
• Able to reduce job search time
• Help client discover their talents and gifts
• Good listener
• Experience in job/life experience
• Open, uses intuition
• Nondirective, facilitative
• Workable job search strategies
• Responsive
• Confident

Finally, how do you know whether your company is ready to successfully introduce coaching to its staff? And what are first steps to do so?

Consider the following questions:

• Are you sufficiently committed to your employees’ growth and development to dedicate both dollars and time to a career development initiative?
• Do you know your staff’s current level of satisfaction and morale?
• How aware are you of any barriers to employee development?
• Have you done a climate survey recently?
• Have you implemented any other successful employee development initiatives? Any unsuccessful ones? What are the ramifications of overcoming those results?
• Is the culture of your organization one more of entitlement or career self-reliance?
• Is your industry experiencing increased competition such that leveraging your human capital is not just a luxury, but a critical issue?
• Is your staff, as a general rule, open to change and committed to growth?

Your answers to these and other similar questions will help you determine if you are truly ready for coaching. Career Coach Institute and its coaches can work with you to both answer these questions and develop a customized approach to implementing career coaching that will be welcomed by your staff. Contact coach@careercoachinstitute.com or call 866-226-2244 for a complimentary consultation.

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Inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr.

Today is Martin Luther King day. Certainly he was – and continues to be – a force for change in the modern era. Perhaps one of his most famous quotes was:

“Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'”
Martin Luther King Jr., Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963

Do you have a dream? How does it show up in what you do every day?

The work I do, training career and retirement coaches and writing, speaking and coaching on finding meaning in work – making your work matter – is designed to help both my students and their clients identify their dream.

If you could do whatever work you wanted to, what would your dream job be?

I am living my dream job. It feels like a perfect fitting glove…and as long as I remember three things: 1) focus on my dream, 2) do the things related to my dream every day, and 3) let other people do the things they love to and pursue their dream with the areas of my business that are not my strengths.

My wish for you today is that you remember your dream and use the inspiration of Martin Luther King to help you go for it.

Marcia

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Top 5 Reasons to Become a Certified Coach - #5

5. Higher Fees: Because of the increased prestige and perceived expertise that comes from being certified, you can actually charge – and get – higher fees for your coaching than a coach who isn’t certified.

The ICF Accredited Core Career Coaching Teleclasses that comprise part of the Associate Certified Career Coach – Teleclass Version (ICF Accredited) or Certified Career Coach programs start soon! Visit:
http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/course-schedule.htm for next start date!

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Top 5 Reasons to Become a Certified Coach - #4

4. Learning Through Doing: Most certifications (including the ones given by Career Coach Institute and the International Coach Federation) require that you practice coaching for a specified number of hours as a condition of certification. Therefore, you perfect your coaching skills as you work with clients and you learn by doing – so your clients that hire you as a certified coach know you have experience doing what they’ll be paying you for!

The ICF Accredited Core Career Coaching Teleclasses that comprise part of the Associate Certified Career Coach – Teleclass Version (ICF Accredited) or Certified Career Coach programs start soon! Visit http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/course-schedule.htm for next start date!

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Coaching Predictions for 2007

Are you curious where coaching is going during the coming year? We were too! So Milana Leshinsky gathered 8 of the top experts in coaching – including me! – and we did a 2.5 hour call (!) on January 10 with our top predictions for the year.

To listen to this call, you can do so as my gift here: http://www.2007coachingpredictions.com/recordings.html

Also check out the bonuses the speakers have offered on the page too – including our brand new Coaching Experts Network series http://www.coachingexpertsnetwork.com (next call is this Tuesday Jan. 16 at 2 pm ET, “What is Your Personal Brand?” with William Arruda.

(Ask him YOUR question about branding here: http://www.coachingexpertsnetwork.com/askwilliamarruda/ )

Here is a written summary of my predictions for coaching in 2007:

1. Coaching specialties that help people achieve meaning will be the highest growing specialties. Why?

• Boomer retirement – desire for new career (75% will keep working in “retirement”)
• People feel anonymous the more automated society becomes and need to find meaning
• Dan Pink – A Whole New Mind – as our culture becomes more abundant (one of the 3 trends in the Conceptual Age along with Asia and Automation), even ordinary items (like a toilet brush) are purchased for what they mean, not just what they can do
• Examples of these specialties include career coaching, retirement coaching, and spiritual coaching

2. As more coaches pay attention to the business of coaching – using tools such as the wonderful ones Milana and others have developed – the role of technology (blogs, podcasts, audio, video, mp3, etc.) will increase. After all, consumers are using it more and more! (John Naisbitt, Megatrends, with high tech is corresponding need for high touch.) How you use it will be determined by:

• Your market niche – age, comfort level with technology etc.
• Your vision for your business – hopefully you’re aiming to leverage yourself and develop ways to coach and sell and earn passive income while you sleep. But if you want to stay 1:1 only, you won’t use technology much!
• Your geographic market – some coaches (a minority in my experience) want a local, face to face market only. If you want to broaden our market to include all prospects within your ideal client profile – around the world! – then you will need technology both to communicate and to transmit information back and forth (coaching homework etc.)

3. Training and credentialing will increase in value and credibility-building.

• Effective April 2007, ICF will change its member categories to “credentialed” and “affiliate” members – so you must have completed or be pursuing an ICF credential to be a full member. This has been coming for a year, and I predict it will increase the importance of credentialing (and with that, coach training) going forward!
  This is one of the reasons 2 of our programs (ACCC, CECC) were approved for ICF credit last year, and we expect approval of our retirement coaching program any day now.
  

4. BONUS PREDICTION: Narrowing your niche and clearly communicating it will be the one most important factor to create marketing advantage this year.
a. Continuing the training and credentialing discussion: there are now over 200 coaching schools (several represented on this call!) – and increasingly, niching within coach training is every bit as important as within coaching itself.
b. Put yourself in the minds and heads of your prospective clients and think about what they are looking for – NOT what you want to sell! If you tune into WIIFM, and hone your niche, target market and brand down to one 30-second sound bite that leads people to ask you, “How do you do that?” – you will have more prospects and clients than you know what to do with.

For more insights from coaching leaders, plan to attend the Third Annual Coaching Telesummit January 22-31, 2007 – see full details here: http://tinyurl.com/ykbhym

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Top 5 Reasons to Become a Certified Coach - #3

3. Confidence: Just by attaining your credential as a coach, you will find your confidence building in approaching and working with new clients. It’s an unexpected – but welcome! – benefit, since confidence is the #1 factor that helps you more easily convert prospects to paying clients!

The ICF Accredited Core Career Coaching Teleclasses that comprise part of the Associate Certified Career Coach – Teleclass Version (ICF Accredited) or Certified Career Coach programs start soon! Visit http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/course-schedule.htm for next start date!

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Top 5 Reasons to Become a Certified Coach - #2

2. Demonstrates Commitment: By getting both trained and certified, you show that you are a committed professional dedicated to your craft. People know you didn’t just take a weekend class and decide that qualified you to be a coach – but you went through a rigorous program of study and met the certification requirements in your field.

The ICF Accredited Core Career Coaching Teleclasses that comprise part of the Associate Certified Career Coach – Teleclass Version (ICF Accredited) or Certified Career Coach programs start soon! Visit http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/course-schedule.htm for next start date!

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Top 5 Reasons to Become a Certified Coach

1. Competitive Advantage: Up to 80% of people calling themselves “coaches are not certified…so certification sets you apart as the best professional choice in a competitive marketplace?

The ICF Accredited Core Career Coaching Teleclasses that comprise part of the Associate Certified Career Coach – Teleclass Version (ICF Accredited) or Certified Career Coach programs start soon! Visit http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/course-schedule.htm for next start date!

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HOW TO AVOID THE 5 MOST COMMON MISTAKES NEW AUTHORS MAKE

1. The “best seller syndrome”:

• The trap of not starting because you want to write the great American novel
• Over 200,000 books published each year (see stats here:
  http://snipurl.com/16wzu)
• 78% are self-published; the 5 largest NY publishers represent 45% of all sales
• Consider: What is your goal for writing the book?

2. Thinking a great idea is enough:

• Even if you get past #1, you think just having a great idea is enough
• In fact, major publishers look EQUALLY at writing ability/idea AND how marketable you are

3. Getting stuck in overwhelm:

• Writing a book can seem like a huge project – but it starts with a single word, a single page
• When I wrote my first book, I was working TWO jobs – and I wrote/worked on my first book EVERY DAY. I’ll show you how in this course

4. No source of publishing capital:

• Common misconception is that you need to publish 1000, 2000 or more copies of your book to get started selling it – not true any more!
• We’ll share a technology that allows you to write, publish and get started distributing your own book for less than $100 capital outlay!!
• And if you want to be published by a major publisher, we’ll also give you tips for proposal writing that will get the attention of the agent and publishing house(s) you want

5. “If I write it they will come:”

• After you write the book, you have really just started the process – now you need a plan to sell it!
• Your marketing approach will be dependent on the objectives you want to achieve with your book (increase exposure, spread a message, form basis for a movie, or be a separate profit center) – we’ll give you a marketing template that you can customize to your unique needs and get your book out there!

Curious to learn more? Listen to the information call, “How to Avoid the 5 Biggest Mistakes New Authors Make” here: http://www.iaccweb.org/become-an-author.htm - and NOTE: if you want to be guided through the process of getting YOUR book written and published within 90 days with seasoned writer and publisher Marcia Bench, you MUST register on or before midnight Monday, January 8, 2007 to get in this 12-week class! Register here for just $199 – or join the International Associaton of Career Coaches with your enrollment and get $50 off! http://www.iaccweb.org/become-an-author.htm

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10 Proven Ways To Double Your Income - #10

10. Learn the value of breath and balance. Finally, we must each remember that we are people, organic beings, not machines! Yet too many of us try to run ourselves far beyond when our natural energy ends, burning ourselves out mentally and physically. To continue to be available to our clients, we must honor our own rhythm. Some of us will do best to schedule our difficult computer work and writing in the morning, others will want to tackle those projects late in the evening and stay up past midnight while the creative juices flow!

One of the authors and speakers who has been a mentor to me gives out cards that say simply “Breathe,” as a reminder to stop, in the midst of our busy-ness, and take a couple of deep breaths to re-ground ourselves. When we are experiencing stress, our breathing tends to get more shallow – so there really is less oxygen going to the brain, which can explain those gaps in our thinking that sometimes happen!

I also find it useful to realize that we are created to inhale once for every exhale – we don’t get to skip a few inhales once in a while because we want to give more carbon dioxide to the environment! And similarly, we need to balance work and play, computer work and time with people, family time and personal time, spiritual practices with intellectual exercises, and physical exercise with mental processing. The busier we get, the more demands our clients place upon us, the more we need to meditate, relax, get a massage, or do whatever it is that rejuvenates and recharges us.

Question to Ponder: How can I remind myself to breathe and relax in the midst of my busy day? What are the things I love to do to nurture and rejuvenate myself? (Hint: list them and choose one to focus on each week.)

Here’s wishing you a happy, prosperous, fulfilling, and successful business, now and in the future!

If you have questions about career coaching, visit my web site, http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/

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10 Proven Ways To Double Your Income - #9

9. Keep your pulse on the trends in your clients’ industries, and cultivate contacts of influence. One of the most precious commodities today is not money or prestige or fame – but information. “He (or she) who has the most information wins” in many business interactions. Did you know that the amount of information in the world is doubling every 18 months or less, and 75% of what we will need to know in 8 years doesn’t even exist yet? So how can we provide valuable service to our clients? By becoming the purveyor of information they need to know. If your clients are expected to keep up on the developments in 6 different journals, develop a subscription-based digest service that condenses the latest developments for them. If a new law is being enacted or hiring is rising in that industry, be the first to inform your clients and help them be ahead of the curve in leveraging that trend!

None of us can be all things to all people, and even staying informed in one industry is no small task today! So cultivate a network of contacts that are in positions of influence in the industry (such as trade association presidents) and/or are colleagues who can keep you abreast of specific information, and you them, so that you can help your clients keep the competitive edge.

Questions to Ponder: What publications and/or web sites do my clients rely on to stay current in their field? How could I help them in that endeavor? What contacts could I cultivate this year that would put me in more of a position of expertise in my field?

If you have questions about career coaching, visit my web site, http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/

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10 Proven Ways To Double Your Income - #8

8. Be sure you are serving at least 3 target markets – with different economic cycles. While many professionals starting their practice zero in on just one group of clients – or try to take on everyone who approaches them! – the smart approach is to gradually develop three target markets. The visual image here is the juggler at the circus – he begins with one plate, then adds another, and finally a third (or sometimes more). Why is this a key to success? There are two primary reasons. First, it’s much harder to build word-of-mouth referrals and recognition of your expertise in the world at large than it is among a finite group such as one industry and/or one geographic area. And second, with three different target markets you are minimizing the possibility that your cash flow will be significantly affected in a negative way – because it is usually quite unlikely that all three of your target industry groups would be in a “down” cycle at the same time!

Question to Ponder: What other group(s) of clients could I target this year that would complement my existing target markets and level out my cash flow?

If you have questions about career coaching, visit my web site, http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/

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10 Proven Ways To Double Your Income - #7

7. Offer existing services to a new market. Thinking in terms of leveraging ourselves, both regarding time and expertise, another way to expand is to target a new market of clients with your existing services. Collaboration with other professionals, including weekly or biweekly Master Mind meetings to brainstorm possibilities, support each other in challenges, and celebrate victories, can also help you broaden your reach.

Questions to Ponder: What other industries could benefit from what you offer? Could you expand into small to medium-sized businesses to supplement your work with individual clients, or vice versa? How could you partner or create strategic alliances with other professionals in your area (geographically or expertise) that have different market focuses?

If you have questions about career coaching, visit my web site, http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/

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10 Proven Ways To Double Your Income - #6

6. Find ways to automate. Each of us has some aspects of our work that are repetitive, tedious, and ripe for automation. Perhaps you have a template or form for some functions in your business – e.g., coaching intake form, resume information form, chronological resume, new client agreement. But what other “burr in the saddle” is gnawing at you to be automated too? Billing or client management system? Consider Client Compass software (www.clientcompass.com). Forms for letters you commonly prepare? Use Microsoft templates – or customize your own! Business plans? Use interactive web-based or software designed for this purpose. Newsletter? Consider using a service that prepares content and customizes the newsletter for you (like www.customizednewsletters.com), an article bank with hundreds of articles you are free to use upon request (like www.ideamarketers.com) and/or a service with smart autoresponders that will ensure your newsletters go out, in sequence, to every new customer who joins your list, without you having to manually manage it (like www.1shoppingcart.com).

Question to Ponder: What do I do repeatedly that I could automate to save time?

If you have questions about career coaching, visit my web site, http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/

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10 Proven Ways To Double Your Income - #5

5. Offer a new service. Now that you’ve learned that new skill, why not begin getting immediate, tangible value from it by offering it to your clients? For resume writers that either resent giving away advice to clients on their career direction, or would like to begin working even more directly with clients to help them meet their changing needs, career coaching can be an attractive addition. Obtaining coach-specific training is highly recommended, and certification is also advisable. But coaching isn’t for everyone! If you prefer computer-based activities, how about adding web site design or preparation of business plans for entrepreneurial clients to your resume-writing practice?

Question to Ponder: What additional service(s) would provide added value to my clients while at the same time increasing my enjoyment of my work? (Hint: If you don’t know what other services your clients might want, do a web-based or email survey and ask them!)

If you have questions about career coaching, visit my web site, http://www.careercoachinstitute.com/

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