Over the past few weeks, I’ve been involved in conversations with friends, family members and even strangers about hiring a life coach. At first, I have to admit, I wasn’t clear on what a life coach was or why anyone would need one. After all, we all set goals, plan initiatives to achieve and meet them, right?! Ha! After typing that I realized very quickly, that I don’t do any such thing (I do some, but not with consistency), but if I had someone poking, prodding and guiding my choices in life, I may not reach the same conclusions I do on a daily basis. So, here’s what I did… I headed to Google to learn more about, as journalism majors know, the 5 Ws and an H about life coaches, and I’m sharing it with you!

What is a life coach? Lifecoaching.com presented the following definition: “The coaching process addresses specific personal projects, business successes, general conditions and transitions in the client’s personal life, relationships or profession by examining what is going on right now, discovering what your obstacles or challenges might be, and choosing a course of action to make your life be what you want it to be.” For me, the words that I bolded are the most important to my current life situations. Here’s why:

• Personal projects - Being a mother of three and wife of a determined man who is rising quickly in his profession and reaching all his goals (personal and professional), I’ve realized the I am not doing enough for myself. The personal projects that could be on my bucket list, aren’t, but they should be. I started my own consulting company over a year ago and wow has this changed my perspectives on life/work balance, building/maintaining relationships, and most of all made me think about my goals for myself, my family and my company.
• Transitions - Whether you are transitioning from college to the “real world,” from a Fortune 500 company to becoming an entrepreneur, from being a stay-at-home-Mom back into the workforce, or even from a career into retirement, you never know what life will bring to you. As each phase of my life transitions (and let me tell you, it does constantly), there are always positives and there are also learning experiences. One could not exist without another and I would not be the person I am today without all these.
• Relationships or Profession - As much as life transitions occur, so do relationships. How you deal with, evaluate and build relationships shows your character. If you are someone who values relationships, you know that each one creates a valuable experience that enhances the ones to come. This is true in your personal and professional lives – be sure you structure relationships on what you want out of life and how you want to be treated. Do not let relationships run you… you are you… so run them the way you want. After all, you are in control of your own destiny, relationships and professional development.

When is the right time to hire a life coach? If you are reading this article, you must be close! I never saw the value of having someone else look at my life, as an outsider, and provide advice to me – at least not in my teens, 20s or 30s, but now that I’ve officially entered the 40s, I appreciate what others provide to me in the form of feedback, guidance, advice and criticism (corrective, of course). So, if you are willing and able to listen intently to how others view you, ready to make some changes and can’t wait until you reinvest in yourself, then the time is now!

Where do I find a life coach and who is the right life coach for me? If you are like me and do not want to be consumed by the plethora of information on the web, then check out these Life Coach Questions to Ask. This is where I have started developing the criteria as to what my ideal coach would look like. (You are correct, I have not chosen one yet, but am currently researching)!

How do I structure the relationship with my life coach? In order to structure the relationship, ask yourself the following questions (again, this will help identify what type of coach you are seeking).

1. Do you prefer intimate or public settings for sessions? (make sure the coach is also comfortable in the setting you choose)
2. Are you more effective in a group or one-on-one session?
3. How does the life coach want to work? What process do they follow to make them most productive?
4. How will a coach help determine and achieve the “right” goals?

As you identify what type of coach you are seeking and what your personal and professional goals are, you will be armed with the right information to start the search for the best coach to meet your needs.

As a marketing consultant, I am constantly advising my clients on how they can market themselves – without breaking the bank or wasting too much time. So, below are four tips to help small business market themselves in 2012. Here are seven more ideas to consider too!

1. Develop a way to market to your existing customers – My favorite example is referral cards. As you know, the cost to print business cards is minimal. So, why don’t you design a business card sized referral card? It can be as simple as: front side – your current business card; back side – text that simply says “Referred by ____________.” Be sure to include your incentive on the card! So, if you are offering current customers 10% off their monthly statement for referring business to you, then make sure it’s on the card – that way all new customers will be enticed to help your business grow.
2. Populate your online space - Complete your Facebook and LinkedIn pages. You’ve planned to do it, but you haven’t, so now is the time. I don’t mean create a plan to populate them twice a week or more, I just want you to take a look at your current social media pages and examine it from your customer’s perspective. Are you saying what you need to say? This should only take one-hour of your time, so, do it now!
3. Network – Pitch your company, yourself and your capabilities to your network! Tell friends, family and your employees that you are seeking to grow! Word of mouth marketing is the best marketing for small businesses. As people enjoy positive experiences, ask them to share your name and company with their network.
4. Step back and evaluate your current marketing initiatives - Whether you are currently advertising, sending direct mailers or telemarketing, your company needs you to stay at a high level. Take a step back from the day-to-day and look at your marketing activities from a 10,000 foot view. Make the evaluation simple by making a list of:
   • “What’s working?”
   • “What’s not?”
   • “What do I think could work?”
   • “What has worked that I thought wouldn’t work or that I never considered?”

Once you’ve gone through these four tips, schedule 2-3 hours on a Friday afternoon to focus on your business – do not let anything interrupt your planning – this is a critical step to ensure your company is positioned to grow into the future. You owe it to yourself, your employees and your company to take time now to plan for 2012.

“Michelle is that missing component I knew I was missing to take my business to the next level.  It’s more than her training,  I know for me it is the way she is wired, it clicks.” ~ Mary Sequin, Mary Makes It Happen, Food Stylist and Trainer

This summer, my daughter started expressing her entrepreneurial spirit. Though she is only 8, she has watched me move from corporate America to running my own business. This transition has been over the past year, so she has been gleaning ideas from me on how to run her business venture (well, she’s had a few).

Her first venture was to open a restaurant with outdoor dining on our patio, called “Dining with Class.” Her enthusiasm quickly became infectious; her creativity amazing; and well, the operations pretty incredible.  She, of course, was the owner / in charge of operations. Her dad was the chef, her brother a server and I (Mom) was tagged with marketing the restaurant, funny isn’t it?

Then her passion moved to opening “Lawn Care with Class.” This was a much easier business; however, she’s decided to add a partner (a 9-year old friend on the street). From running the business perspective, it was just the two partners who would get the jobs and dad who was in charge of doing all the work! Again, great spirit, but reality was a little blurry.

With her mind racing onto her next venture, she wasn’t aware how she was affecting me and my business! She had raised three concepts that really mattered to my business:

1. Instilling a Passion to Succeed - By sharing her excitement with family, friends and neighbors, she soon had them asking us when these companies would be accepting new visitors / customers. Her “sales force” would have spread news about her quickly!
2. Strive to Be the Best – By focusing on securing the most qualified people, learning from them, listening to them and becomiong an employer that no one wants to leave, she was creating a strong team from the start and planning to only add people who will increase the strength of the team.
3. Focus on the Details – Though my daughter has very little business planning experience, I realized that her instinct of focusing on the small things built relationships and trust which cemented customers that will last a lifetime.

Not that we will be opening our family restaurant or a lawn care service anytime soon, but it is amazing to me how the basic principles of business have been re-taught to me by my 8 year old daughter. She’s an amazing person and I cannot wait until the day when she joins my business! BTW, it may be soon, since she’s already taking keyboarding classes in the 3rd grade!

I visited a reputable company today only to find me waiting on the owner who did not realize that we had a meeting.  What’s funny is the reasoning…which we can all relate! He just purchased a new Droid smartphone, not all appointments were perfectly transferred, and well, the past few days have been transitional for him!

I get it! I did the same thing about a year ago. Moved into the BlackBerry world and began living my life by the device attached to my palm (or in my pocket). Mishaps happen and we can all learn from them.

In this situation, the owner was a genuine communicator. He told me about his technology transitions, we shared a good laughe about how the “old way” of doing things has gone by the wayside and that we rely on technology to guide us through the day, schedule our lives – personal and professional, and well, even help raise our kids! The reminders regarding my kids activities I could never give up… and if I didn’t have my device, I could not keep up!

Too many times we find ourselves rushed with email, rushing to the next meeting/event/activity/etc. and forgetting to transfer that one important email onto our calendar. So, as a very organized individual, this drives me crazy!

What needs to happen to fix these mishaps? Should we go back to the confirming appointments on Monday morning for the week? Should we actually “call” using the same telephone to confirm our appointments? What do you think? What ways are you managing your communications?

Marketing with Class’s President, Michelle Class, has been named a ‘bad girl.’ A ‘bad girl’ is a female with an inner voice urging her to start something. Typically adverse to authority, she creates energy with her ideas and is a natural born leader. Peers admire her grace and intellect and the community is stronger as a result of her presence.

“Being chosen to participate in Bad Girl Venture’s (BGV) Class #4, is exciting for me. I have been running my own company for less than a year, but the potential growth and opportunities that have been presented to me are amazing! I am ready to take my business to the next level and develop the training program that I’ve dreamed about for many years – based upon re-introducing women who chose to pursue their family as a career and now are ready to re-engage their skills in the workforce,” stated Michelle Class.

To learn more about BGV, click here!

An interesting article hit the eMarketer site on Wednesday, 7/20/11, and I’m still pondering why this is so… Executives Fail to Focus on Social Media Marketing Strategy. Is it the fact that executives are “too busy” to focus on the strategies that are most important in growing their business today? Is it that they think it’s the Marketing Director’s job to do it?

I am never surprised with the lack of planning that happens at the top. When I was in Corporate America, I found it very frustrating that my marketing initiatives did not have focused guidance from the top of the organization. What is a retreat for anyway? Isn’t that where you plan your future strategy, goals and initiatives to be better? Are they just not good at communicating the strategy or do they not want to share it?

In the article above, it mentions that “78% of executives thought a social media strategy was somewhat or very important to the future success of their business,” so why not take 2-3 hours to meet with your Marketing professional and plot out the strategies that will help give direction? Sometimes the wrong message will be conveyed, simply because the direction was inexistent.

Marketers out there, I challenge you to push back a little when it comes to strategy. It is the direction provided by the leaders of an organization that will help foster more opportunities, and after all, that will foster more revenue, right? They are tied together, now it’s time for executives to sit down and discuss what social media marketing is – and isn’t – and help build the tactical steps to become visible to the online community. After all, we are out here, might as well market to us!

Yesterday, I was attending my Hospice of the Bluegrass Advisory Board meeting, when my strategic marketing mind kicked in! The members of the marketing and development teams are swamped ~ aren’t all teams swamped these days? Seems like everyone is trying to pack 12 hours of work into an 8 hour day. Anyway… back to my Aha! moment. (Sidebar: if you’ve never read Oprah’s Aha! Moments on her web site, it’s a must!)

It was clear that another individual on the board has extensive marketing experience. I believe he’s a multi-preneur. By the way he expressed his concerns, he has considerable amounts of advertising, promotion and public relations experience. My strategic marketing mind quickly shifted gears from the conversation to racing to find the next best step to ensure the marketing and development departments are making the biggest impact.

In most non-profits, the largest impact comes from building awareness, donor cultivation and fundraising. So, why are these amazing individuals who run the departments swamped with tasks like volunteer coordination, event planning logistics, and administrative functions? These individuals need interns, they need volunteers to work in the office with them, and well, they need Advisory Board members like myself to step up!

This is exactly what I offered to do. I am planning to meet with the development officer first and discuss her workload. What’s on her plate, what shouldn’t be on her plate, or what are the priorities that will make the most impact with donors, the community and the agency!

Now, back to the meeting for just a moment. The individual who spoke up, with the extensive marketing experience, are you wondering about him? Well, I think that I can engage his “free” help to assist with evaluation of what the organization should be focused on too! He has a brilliant mind, and great ideas, let’s not squelch it!

We’ve discussed two phases of marketing plans to date: Sunbathing and Taking a Dip. Now it is time to discuss marketing plans that actually work – the phase I refer to as “Diving In!” Diving in is having a formalized process, with thorough guildelines, monitored routinely to ensure you are getting results – and measuring them to communicate to everyone involved in the company.

Some skeptics believe that if you have a mission and follow it, adjusting for assumptions and scenario planning along the way that you will be successful. In one manner, I agree, but in another, I think every company needs some written plan of action when it comes to marketing activities.

In order to create a “Diving In” plan, I’d suggest focusing on three primary areas:

1. Pre-Planning / Re-Planning your Current Plan: Before you write a plan, consider the following questions / suggestions for brainstorming:
   • What do you want to accomplish? What is your BHAG - Big Harry Audacious Goal?
   • Who is the primary target audience? (perform a SWOT analysis, research the competition, education yourself on how they buy)
   • Isolate what makes you different / unique to your competition
   • Define your value proposition
2. Essential Elements of a Plan: Simply put, this is your strategies, objectives, goals, action items and measurements
3. Innovative Ideas to Invigorate
   • What out of the box ideas can help you foster success?
   • Are you allowing your employees to think creatively and implement based on passion?
   • Are you keeping up with Google and Facebook?

Once these areas of the planning process have been discussed, be sure you do three things:

1. Set attainable goals
2. Review the goals, at least monthly, to see any spikes / dips
3. Adjust accordingly to continuously improve

If you follow my advice and pre-plan, focus on the essential elements and foster innovation, then your company will be successful in its marketing and business development efforts! And, if you need help along the way – or just don’t have the time right now, contact me and we’ll meet to discuss your needs to see if my capabilities would fit your needs!

Essential Elements of a Plan

• Strategy – Overall strategy to be accomplished
• Objectives – Individualized “what”
• Goals – Individualized and measurable
• Action Items – Task items, assigned to individuals and with timelines

Samples of Marketing Plan Items

SAMPLE 1: Using financial data to express the impact

STRATEGY: To become the #1 kitchen and basement remodeler in Northern Kentucky
OBJECTIVE: Maintain and expand current client relationships and consider ways to develop new
GOAL: Increase projects for current clients and obtain new projects by 10% in 2011
Action Item: Compile revenue data from past three years and project goals (very strong to visualize in a chart, too)

Net Revenue: 2008 / $990,000 – 8% increase to 2009/$972,000 – 3% increase to 2010/$1,001,160….GOAL: 10% increase projected for 2011/$1,101,276
Gross Revenue: 2008/$1,250,000 – 11% increase to 2009/$1,387,500 – 5% increase to 2010/$1,456,875… GOAL: 10% increase projected for 2011/$1,602,563

Sample 2: Using action items, in depth, to showcase how the goal will be accomplished

STRATEGY: (same) To become the #1 kitchen and basement remodeler in Northern Kentucky
OBJECTIVE: Build upon existing brand awareness
GOAL: Enhance presence on social media outlets to foster better SEO results
Action Item: Create and implement social media plan

• Post to Facebook and Twitter 3x / week (brainstorm subjects and build content database)
• Upload before / after pictures of each remodeling job
• Share client stories and testimonials
• Measure monthly

Sample 3: Using graphs/charts to emphasize market penetration

 STRATEGY: (same) To become the #1 kitchen and basement remodeler in Northern Kentucky
OBJECTIVE: Focus business on the most profitable areas / jobs
GOAL: Increase basement and kitchen remodeling projects to be 85% of overall company revenue
Action Item:

• Bid on projects primarily for kitchen and basement
• Re-evaluate whether outdoor spaces is for us
• Discuss company strategy when asked to bid on “other” projects
  

  Visualizing marketing plan goals