Sometimes Ya Gotta Do the Challenging Stuff…
Today was work on cleaning up my course membership code day here at Development Builder. I still have a very long way to go, but progress was made.
I use Divi from Elegant Themes and design it using Learnpress. Unfortunately, the code has a few small issues. And since the beginning of the website I’ve done a lot of changing, cutting and pasting.
The home page is refurbished. I am trying to validate it with W3C validator. I still have quite a few errors to correct. But we’re getting there.
It’s been my priority up to now to just create as much content as possible for the membership site and worry about cleaning it up later. Well later has arrived.
I think it is important to validate the code. I think it will become important down the road, if not already, for Search Engines.
Validating and cleaning the code up already helps by getting rid of a lot of bloated code (code you don’t need) so the page is easier to spider.
I certainly could see websites getting a boost in the future for having perfect, validated code.
It’s a sign of a webmaster that cares:)
Gimmicks,Tricks And Writing For The Click.mp3
The Power of Homework Assignments
Think back to a time when you really meant to commit to something but it just didn’t happen. You jumped in with both feet. You were sure that this was the time when things were going to change for you.
Maybe it was a time when you bought a new product or course you were sure was going to transform your business. Maybe it was even a time when you invested in hiring a coach to help take you the next level in your business.
When you hire a coach, you reasoned, it’s next to impossible to fail. After all, they’re working directly with you, you’re paying a lot of money, they know what they’re talking about, and you’re really, really committed.
Only… maybe you dropped out of the coaching anyway or didn’t follow through on what the coach said. Assuming you had a good coach who held up his or her end of the bargain, that means the lack of follow through was on… you.
That’s a tough pill to swallow.
Okay, so now think of a time when you entered into something, like coaching, with both feet. You were sure that you were in a better place and that this time things were going to be different. And they were! You and your coach got along great, you followed through, and your business was transformed. You did reach the next level in your business and that coaching experience was absolutely a fantastic investment for you.
If that’s an experience you’ve had, I want you to think about what the difference was between the “failed” experience and the successful experience. It normally boils down to things like mindset and where you are in your life and business at that point in time. But it also boils down to something else… were you given the tools you needed from the coach to truly succeed?
When you’re given the tools, then you as the student or client have a greater chance of being in the right mindset and following through.
If you’ve never been in a coaching situation before, just imagine what I’m talking about. Surely you’ve known someone with both an unsuccessful and a successful coaching experience.
Now things are turned around. Suddenly, you’re the one who is offering coaching. You’re doing so with a bit of nervousness—not because you’re not sure you’re qualified. You know you’re highly qualified and you’re ready to change people’s lives.
You’re nervous because you’ve heard, or maybe even experienced, that an incredible number of people who hire coaches never follow through. They hand over hundreds or thousands of dollars and waste their time and the coach’s time.
You’re interested in making money, sure. But a big part of why you’re going into coaching in the first place is to change people’s lives. You’re at a place in your business where you just know that this is what you want to be doing.
Only, you want to be as effective as possible.
You know that some coaches have a higher success rate than others. You want to be one of those coaches that has a really high success rate.
I believe it’s very possible for you to make that happen. It’s all in how you approach your coaching and how you guide your clients along the way.
First of all, it’s important to make sure that you only take on coaching clients who are fully dedicated to their coaching. You don’t want to pick up tire kickers who will only waste your time and their time. You want to get clients who are at a point where their only option is to change…. Their only option is follow through and you know you’re a perfect match as a coach for them.
If you have a great coaching client who is primed and ready to change for the better, forever, then that’s a great start. That’s why I believe it’s important to have people “apply” to join your coaching program before they actually join it. Now, this might be different if you’re offering group coaching or a coaching membership or something like that. In that case you might take anyone who signs up.
But if you’re taking a one-on-one client especially, one who is paying you quite a bit of money, then it’s well worth it to make sure they are ready for this level of coaching and that you are going to be compatible.
With that said, this next part applies no matter whether you’re offering group coaching or one on one coaching. There’s a great way you can dramatically increase the participation rate of your clients and customers—give them homework assignments!
Seriously… when you create assignments and checkpoints along the way, it keeps people active and engaged.
It gives the coaching structure. Instead of having a freeform, unending, wobbly lack-of-structure, having checkpoints, check-ins, and homework assignments gives people a sense of something to hold onto and climb. They know they’re going somewhere in their coaching and YOU know they’re going somewhere in their coaching.
You know what they’re struggling with and doing well with. You know whether they’re distracted and if their head is in the right place. And they know that you’re going to hold them accountable as their coach.
These homework assignments can be something you create once and give to every coaching client.
Or, they can be created on the fly to give to individual coaching clients.
It will depend on how you’re setting up your program, what people are paying, and what people need at the time.
You can have people fill out journal logs, detail what they’ve done, ask and answer reflective questions, answer mindset questions, etc. These “homework assignments” can be whatever you need or want them to be, really.
So now that you’ve decided to get started offering coaching services, think about ways you can create homework assignments to keep people going and to help them achieve more.
Think about the homework assignments you’ve been given if you’ve been a coaching client—maybe it was a quick one-sentence check-in or maybe it was a detailed worksheet you were required to fill out.
This can be whatever you want it to be and whatever the client needs it to be. Once you implement this, I think you’ll see that it will dramatically improve your coaching program.