Better Bolder Braver (Frances Fogel, Cheerleader-in-Chief)

So many people that were looking to pivot their career thanks to Lockdown trained to become a coach.

And sadly, a significant number of them then got caught up with some seriously dubious marketing advice and services.

It is totally unsurprising, therefore, that Chelle Douglas (now safely in the BBB community) was one of them.

Having to think creatively about what to do when her previous line of work became unviable in its current format, Chelle trained with one of the most well-known coaching training providers. But when she qualified, she felt lost and unsure as to what she was supposed to do next to get her business and good name out there. A familiar story.

Along came a seemingly reliable marketing outfit that promised to show her how to get loads of clients pretty quickly and - you guessed it - to "10 x her income".

She followed all their (farcical) advice and... Nothing.

So they tried to get her to pay them even more money (her original investment being no less than £5K... she could have been in the BBB community for more than 8 years for that amount of money!)

But she's not bitter. Thankfully Chelle is a brilliant, intelligent, optimistic and resourceful coach and mother of three children. So she picked herself up, dusted herself off and carried on looking for a way to grow her coaching business.

She's very kindly offered up this candid account of what happened so as to help prevent other, newly qualified coaches from being brainwashed and taken advantage of.

Please do have a listen and kindly share this with fellow coaching students, your coaching training providers, accreditation bodies and anyone else that you think needs to steer clear or could do with feeling that they are not alone.

I am incredibly grateful to Chelle for her generosity here, and so happy she is now safely in the BBB community and working with me on a 121 basis.

This weeks episode is one of our Monday Masterclass Conversations all about the power of Group Coaching and Learning with Ana Paula Nacif

We first heard Ana talking about the power of group work at an Association for Coaching event.

We were taken with how Ana described how impactful group coaching can be - in terms of personal change-making, wellbeing, business mindset and a sense of inclusion.

In building Better Bolder Braver, we join Ana in believing that group work can be a cost-effective and scalable way to create big change for individuals.

In this Monday Masterclass, we talked with Ana about how group work has been successfully delivered in a range of settings and is useful for coaches looking to understand how to use their skills to work with groups and expand their practice. We invited Ana to reflect on how the power of group work can help coaches to develop confidence in putting themselves out there with their marketing.

Ana is an experienced executive and group coach, consultant and facilitator, who works with individuals and organisations interested in improving wellbeing and leadership capabilities. She has over a decade of coaching experience, having worked with a range of clients in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Anna is an EMCC master coach, a coach supervisor and has completed a professional doctorate in coaching and mentoring. She is also a part-time lecturer at the University of East London.

Learn more and join the community BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

We are honoured to have Robbie Swale - a seasoned coach, author, blogger and podcaster - as the first guest on our new "Future of Coaching..." series. There couldn't be a better person to help us kick things off for 2023...  

Robbie is the host of the super popular podcast, 'The Coach's Journey'. His third book – written using his 12-Minute Method – is all about how to create habits, mindsets and relationships that will help you thrive. It is full of lessons that Robbie has learned in his own quest to fulfill his potential and make the contribution he thinks he is capable of.  

"We can’t know for sure what will help us do our best work", Robbie says. And so he is going to help us set the scene for a year of uncertainty - that's right!... Let's celebrate that we can put our best foot forward when we accept that nothing will be perfect, we don't know what will come, we can only control ourselves and that working alongside others with shared hope makes it a lot easier.  

Join us live for this conversation to manifest some great intentions for the year.  

In the lead up, check out Robbie's blog, in which he employs the 12-Minute Method to write for twelve minutes, proof-read once with tiny edits and then post online… Marketing mastery right there!  

https://www.robbieswale.com 

https://www.robbieswale.com/about-the-12-minute-method 

https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-45-doing-the-right-thing-even-when-its-hard-raquel-ark-interviews-robbie

In this episode, we join the sith of our Monday Masterclass sessions dedicated to a chapter in the coaches marketing journey. You can join our LIVE weekly masterclass conversations for free, find out about upcoming events and save your spot with the event link on our website, betterbolderbraver.com

This episode is the creative bit, it’s where we talk about content.

The penultimate stage of the Better Bolder Braver Marketing Journey is all about Finding your Voice & Building Trust.

When a client is choosing a coach to work with they need to trust that you will deliver. The best way to build this trust is to give them a way to experience what it's like to work with you. When you put yourself out there and share your story, experiences, method and outcomes your ideal clients can get to know, like and trust you.

The beauty of being a coach and a marketer is that the two things go hand in hand. Your marketing content shows your potential clients what it's like to work with you. What you put out there paints a picture of the experience that a client will have when working with you.

In our community, we love providing our members with as many opportunities to have fun and explore the many colourful opportunities that content creation offers. So this is also one of the key self-growth moments in a coach's journey that marketing provides.

Read the full Coaches Marketing Journey: https://betterbolderbraver.com/the-coachs-marketing-journey/

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

We all need accountability to keep going. And today we will be talking to our friend and Better Bolder Braver community member, Craig Roberts about how stuff would not happen were it not for a feeling of safety amongst other, like-minded individuals albeit navigating different time zones, genders, spiritual inclinations, work agendas and sensitivities.

We have just completed the Happy Startup School’s Vision 20/20 accelerator course with Craig, and have enjoyed the pleasure of his company, humour, vision, creativity and support for the past 6 months. We are delighted that he is part of our community too now, and are excited to see how he proceeds in building a thing and then putting it out there to the world.

But is the word, “accountability” useful or triggering? For some, it is the latter - conjuring up images of guilt, shame and punishment. Craig can testify to this, and will describe how important the language around support, inspiration and motivation is. Hopefully we will come up with alternatives.

If you like a nice, emergent and poetic conversation, listening to a man who has certainly seen the world from many angles, then do not miss this.

Does the thought of creating content and fiddling with Canva for hours on end fill you with utter dread?

Want to get ahead and be confident your content is taken care of so you can take a week off without worrying about posting on social media?

Kate Clarke wants to take away the pain, and do the hard work for you.

But how do we know what marketing is important for us to do ourselves? How does retaining control of it makes us feel more in control of our businesses and our lives??

At Better Bolder Braver, we encourage coaches to - on the whole - not “outsource” their marketing. We see marketing as Another Self Growth Opportunity - by thinking about what you want to say to the world, you have an opportunity to hold a mirror up to yourself and Coach Out Loud… show your approach to how you come from a place of Empathy, Authority and with a personal Story that makes you stand out and be qualified to help your ideal client.

AND creating and repurposing content can feel like being on a “hamster wheel” as Kate calls it. Once you have decided what to say, who says asking for some help to get it out there isn’t a very intelligent business decision?

Kate Clarke helps people get their messages onto social media.

Find out more about Kate on her website: https://www.kateclarkemarketing.com  

Follow us on LinkedIn to get notifications about upcoming conversations: https://www.linkedin.com/company/better-bolder-braver

For coaches, the goal of achieving work-life balance is a myth.

This idyllic state of having time to do everything is always just around the corner. Many work a few extra hours now thinking it will get them closer to the work-life balance dream. Then they do the same next week, and the next, and the next.

The problem is that balance is not something you achieve, it’s what you are always doing. When thought of as a fixed goal it represents a state of equilibrium that is simply not possible. So many people use balance as their goal to work towards without fully considering it.

Being pulled between work and life is natural, especially when you run your own business. So rather than looking for ‘balance’, we should be balancing, adjusting how far, and how often, we get pulled between work and life.

We have thought carefully about what kind of community we want to build. We will continuously be mindful of what our members are getting out of it and how it might be improved.

This episode is an outline of our Better Bolder Braver Community Manifesto, which is designed to keep our members feeling energised and motivated.

If you would like to be one of our Founding 50 Members, please do sign up today to hear more and be one of the first through the doors.

betterbolderbraver.com

John Ellison is a social entrepreneur and behaviour designer. He is exploring the intersection of the science of well-being and habit formation at his 'side project', Happy Habits.

Combining research from positive psychology with insights from behavioural science, John has unlocked a fun, engaging and pragmatic approach for helping people increase their subjective well-being—starting with himself.

In Monday's Masterclass John will share his journey and insights about how he discovered the science of wellbeing at an incredibly stressful and dark time during the pandemic. Out of this season emerged a new way of looking at happiness, satisfaction and self-love.

In the process of creating Happy Habits, John has been working with us on how to market his offering as a coach—something he is in the process of becoming though the Tiny Habits certification programme.

In light of our desire to help people 'learn by doing' and 'build in public', we're going to talk with John about his journey, insights and marketing thesis for Happy Habits and what it means to be a coach in the world of climate change, pandemics and crypto.

We are sure that so much of what John has to say will resonate with our audience of coaches, and that there is much to be learned from him about how we might like to employ some thinking about Happy Habits building in our Marketing Practice.

As a starter for ten, John has drafted these points on which our listeners can ponder:

• Happiness (subjective well-being) is the central human aspiration. All other ambitions serve this ultimate goal.
• What most people believe about happiness is wrong.
• Learning what makes us happy is a huge opportunity for us as individuals, and as coaches.
• If we can unlock the inner growth required to build a firm foundation rooted in subjective-wellbeing in our own lives, then whatever we do to communicate to others will resonate along this baseline.
• By understanding the science of well-being and design of behaviour change, we can unlock personal growth that will enable new forms of marketing that inherently fill us up.
• We can explore a few ways to apply this to the aspiration of 'acquiring more coaching clients', but ultimately this is about an 'effortlessness' that means people are drawn to us inherently and communicating our value is much easier from this place.

... Love it!

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

Coaches often want fast results and turn to marketing to get them. However, for fast results, marketing isn’t the right tool for the job.  There are a lot of people who will argue that it is. And the same people are often happy to take your money to help you get these fast results. The results they’re offering are traffic, clicks or ‘engagement’. But does this really translate to new clients? And if the ‘result’ (fast or otherwise) or your marketing isn’t a new client, is it really a result? 

This episode will show you how to get the results you really want.

On this podcast episode, I dive deeply with a very dear friend of mine and fellow people-helper, Matt Matheson.

Matt is known as The Speaking Coach. He helps people communicate, present and facilitate better. He is a co-creational events and retreat designer and the creator of The Church of Fail - "a cultural totem to instil reflective learning".

We talk about:

• Coaching in the Workplace
• Your Personal Brand
• Harnessing corporate stories to improve culture and sales
• Johann Hari's Nine Causes of Depression
• Summercamp
• Would You Rather
• CBT
• Improv and Comedy

Matt Matheson on Linkedin

Anya Pearse is like the mobile libraries of our childhood. You would look forward to it arriving and be welcomed in with open arms to a cave of wonders filled with exciting and nourishing resources to cosy up with.

She is the first to have a reassuringly apt reference in any conversation - be it a book, an article, a podcast, a poem… she can contextualise our experience in any moment within a wide world of others' experiences, reflections and wisdom - which is hugely comforting, inspiring and humbling. If we “read to know we are not alone”, Anya compassionately shares what she’s discovered to help us feel this directly.

As a child herself she was “baffled, yet intrigued” by the behaviour of those around her, and now combines a researcher’s curiosity, a poet’s turn of phrase, and a comedian’s sense of timing to help those she encounters gain insight and compassion into what they do.

She is no stranger to tricky times, having lived with a disabling chronic illness for 16 years; reimagining it as her spiritual path helps her to bring a particular kind of hard-won grace, wisdom and empathy into her work.

The Head of Positive Psychology at The Museum of Happiness, where she co-facilitates their Certified Happiness Facilitator Training, she is an intuitive adviser, and Fellow of the Positive Psychology Guild. She consolidates her interest in “the science of what makes life worth living” with an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology, focusing on the concept of “self-as-instrument” – how our own qualities of attention, openness and presence impact others and create our first intervention.

Anya invites us to consider patterns, meaning and connection within ourselves and the universe to which we may previously have been blind: “Dots can be connected, allowing patterns to appear. Clarity and new ideas start to flow.”

As a coach, you too are a treasure trove of magic for your clients. And you can show up with it through bringing resources, energy, compassion and inspiration into your marketing as well as into your coaching practice.

We will be talking to Anya about what it is to bring our full selves to our interactions - and interventions - to creative moments between two people.

On the surface, this Marketing Masterclass is about (repurposing) content, resources and showing that you are the best guide for your ideal client.

Underneath, this time with Anya will be a mind-expanding dance with joy, a celebration of the self and about how to take things slowly...

There is nothing more refreshing that not taking yourself too seriously...

Here at Better Bolder Braver, we are less in the business of telling you what to do or not to do and more in the business of telling you to give yourself a break, about pinches of salt, and to remind you that - as coaches - you have all the right skills not only to do marketing really effectively but also not to worry too much about what you put out there, what people think about you or what the worst case scenario might be.

We get near to daily reminders about the existential power of having fun from our dear friend, Chris Kenworthy - a coach and "reforming grown-up trying to take things less seriously". Chris is a former copywriter and DIY junkie, with special interests in levity, uncertainty, subversion and dark humour. He's also trying to save the planet vicariously through the do-gooders he coaches.

You will love him. Don't miss what may well be a light-hearted Monday Masterclass, but no doubt also a deeply powerful one.

You can find Chris lurking here:

• https://twitter.com/Chris_Kenworthy
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskenworthy/

... and should definitely check out his podcast, 'The pessimist's guide to a hopeful future' while doing the washing up.

• https://anchor.fm/pessimist/

Learn more and join the community at BetterBolderBraver.com

In this honest conversation, Simon and I tell you why Simon is leaving Better Bolder Braver, and what exciting things are up next for them and also for the BBB community, which continues to thrive. I announce three big bits of news for the future of BBB and, together, Simon and I look back on what has been a remarkable and very rewarding journey having built this community together. This is an exciting moment for us both, apart and together!

Many coaches are passionate about their work, but struggle with how to describe what they do. How do you find authentic, creative and engaging ways to talk about yourself and what you offer?

This masterclass will look at how your coaching customers can get to know and trust you from the way you tell your story. That includes things like:

• The way you understand and frame your story for yourself
• The language and style you use to bring it to life
• Bringing in your personality, uniqueness and - potentially - your struggles

Marianne brings together experience from many worlds. That includes her work as a brand consultant: helping brands like Prudential, British Gas and, um, Magnum ice cream develop their identity, story and tone of voice. She draws on her background as a playwright and poet. And she’s a qualified psychotherapist and purpose guide-in-training - interested in how people can discover their soul level purpose.

Marianne’s approach to creativity is as empathetic and human-centred as they come, and we are delighted to be collaborating with her. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to immerse yourself in the power of creativity, words and self-reflection in your marketing practice.

Your story is the greatest asset you can bring to your marketing and your coaching practice. However you choose to tell it, the highs and the lows you’ve experienced along the way are the guideposts that will help know you, trust you and follow you along a similar path.

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

This episode is all about, podcasting. Yep, that’s right it’s a podcast about podcasting. So if like most coaches you want to start a podcast, or you’ve already got one then this episode will really get you thinking.

Today we’re speaking with Rob Lawrence about podcasting for coaches.

We first had the pleasure of speaking with Rob when we were invited to appear on the Association for Coaching podcast in a two-part episode on How to Boost your Coaching Business.

Rob Lawrence is a podcast producer, podcast host and certified life coach who helps high-achieving creative professionals, coaches and leaders of enterprises, large and small, to broadcast their voice and message to create stories and content worth listening to.

Rob’s own podcast, Inspirational Creatives, launched in 2014, has reached over 125,000 downloads globally; sharing stories and strategies about what it means to lead a successful and creative life.

Learn more and join the community BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

Laurence McCahill used to run an agency that helped people to love, design and ship their digital products. Despite its success, he and school friend, co-founder and life-long collaborator, Carlos Saba, shut it down to focus on building The Happy Startup School - a community of business driven hippies doing good, making money and enjoying the ride.

As well as building a community, he has created a transformational programme for people seeking new horizons, an annual Summer festival-like gathering, now in its 7th year, which has been described by The Guardian as “one of the top business events in Europe” and a 7-day retreat for founders, leaders and change-makers.

Laurence - who has 16,000 followers on Medium, has blogged about “Finding True Happiness on the Second Mountain”. He exudes calm, experience, insight and a grounded Joie de vivre.

We started Better Bolder Braver in the spirit of what Laurence captures - the “just put it out there” approach. He encourages those around him - including us - to design and lead with joy… to centre on what is sustainable according to your ‘Zone of Genius” - as he and Carlos refer to it - and what will mean adventure, creativity and happiness.

Those who know us will see clearly why Laurence’s community and approach is so appealing to us and allow for us to explore with confidence and playfulness.

We welcome Laurence onto the Marketing Masterclass just at a time when many of our members are exploring what coaching products they want to build, price and sell. We invite them to spend time in the company of his energy, confidence and creativity - and to take from Laurence a sense of permission to start from a place of - and to remember - excitement, not necessarily to follow the trodden path, and to find what is magical and what works for you.

Join us for future conversations on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

“Many marketing, sales and business development strategies just feel gross! Whether it’s hype, manipulation, or just plain overwhelm, the heart either hurts trying to get it done, or just plain refuses to carry forward. Plus, many business development programs would have you max out your credit cards or dip into your retirement just to try to “shoot the moon.” Don’t do it! There really is a way to affordably develop your business with integrity and heart.”

Mark Silver is the founder of Heart of Business, Inc. Since 2001, he’s been a pioneer in integrating spirituality and business, in a way that is effective and nourishing. He’s helped thousands of spiritually-oriented, heart-centred entrepreneurs feel really good while finding plenty of their best clients and making more money and he strongly believes that you really can have both: every act of business can be an act of love, and still be effective.

We love this approach to business at Better Bolder Braver. For us, even pricing your product is a path to being compelled to get out there and do your thing - to be able to help (more) people and keep your business thriving and sustainable so that you can create even more gifting moments of generosity and change in the world.

We will mainly be focussing in with Mark on being more effective with sales conversations, with integrity and with heart but we may also end up discussing another point of great interest to Mark - how to spot scammers and avoid spending way too much on business coaching... In mind of our approach to Ethical Marketing, the latter speaks to coaches in relation to continued professional development ourselves and also in how we might avoid toxic sales tactics when offering our own services.

We love Mark’s approach to helping businesses in the following categories:

• You’re just starting out. You have a real passion for what you do, but you’re overwhelmed, or just uncertain, about how to get your business going. And the amount of money you need to bring in may seem far off or unreachable.
• You’ve been in business awhile, but it’s not easy. Despite having months, or years, (decades?) under your belt, it’s not gotten that much easier, and there still isn’t a predictable flow to how it all works.
• You’ve actually achieved some success, but it’s not sustainable. You feel like you’ve hit a limit in terms of energy and/or an income ceiling. Longed-for stability or ease seems just… out… of… reach.
• Your heart is not happy with what you think you need to do.

… and we very much hope you will join us to explore them. There’ll be something for every one of you.

As the UK’s lockdown begins to ease, you have a great opportunity to build a better coaching business.

Why? Because the world is different and whatever business you’re in, customer behaviour and expectations have shifted. As a coach you’ll know that the widespread switch to remote and home working means that people are looking for different services and different ways to access them.

The world has changed. The question is, are you changing with it?

Learn more and join the community at: betterbolderbraver.com

Melanie is a business coach and the co-founder of Joypreneurs, a community for women in innovation who want to build something of their own, with ease and joy.

Melanie has been on a journey herself, finding that joy is her motivator. Being part of the Better Bolder Braver community, the THNK School of Creative Leadership and also The Happy Startup School communities have helped her with this, as she has enjoyed creating for creating’s sake, learning a lot about herself along the way. She sees entrepreneurialism as another self-growth tool, and is keen to support other women on a similar path to find joy too.

Melanie is an example of a coach who has chosen to find, guide and inspire people with similar experiences to her. This is not an appropriate niching path for all coaches, for whom working with people just like them may be triggering. But for Melanie - who is hugely inspired by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey - it is important for her to “return to her tribe”, tell her story, help people explore and play. And, as a result, find joy and clarity on their next (work) steps.

With Better Bolder Braver behind her, Melanie is continuing to find joy, stay curious, find her people and also be open - to collaborative models and to what she builds next.

So much of this conversation will no doubt resonate with many coaches.

You can join the next conversation live on our Corwdcast channel: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

When you read about marketing your coaching business, it’s easy to feel bad for not doing enough. But instead of making you feel bad (not how we do things here!) I’d rather talk about marketing in a way that will excite and inspire you.

When you read marketing blogs and videos, it’s easy to get the impression you’re not doing enough, you’re not keeping up, and unless you’re relentlessly posting on social media you’re just not good enough.

Frankly, most of what I read is just hype. So many blogs and videos paint an unrealistic picture of what coaches NEED to be doing in order to get their marketing working. Hundreds of posts, seemingly continuous Stories, Reels and TikTok dances. It’s all bullshit. You don’t need to be doing it.

So, as someone who wants to get the word out about their coaching services, what should you be doing?

Learn more and join at BetterBolderBraver.com

Are you a coach trying to help change the world one client at a time and to support people you love and care about?
However, is the sea of coach product platforms out there like the wild west to you??
Are you excited to expand your coaching from 121 to group, workshop, programme, cohort, community work?
Would you like to help your clients be more productive and to enjoy accountability but are overwhelmed with the tech available to do so?
We want to make your life easier so that you can do the work you love.
Please join us for this live masterclass to hear from one of our members, David Henzel, the CEO of upcoach, an exciting platform built for coaches by coaches as a place to host coaching courses, worksheets, communities and other services.

Taking a scattergun approach to reaching your market is a strategy that rarely works well. After all, if you’re aiming at nothing specific, then ‘nothing’ is likely what you’ll hit. If you’re a coach, better to have a specific target in mind and aim accordingly. Which brings us to the question, how to niche your coaching business?

However, trying to niche your coaching business, or any business for that matter, can feel daunting. Often, the assumption is that you’re narrowing your market, limiting your business. But in fact, niching isn’t about restriction, it’s about focus. To use an analogy: when Ford (or VW, or Seat, or whoever) design a car, do they try to create a vehicle for everyone? No, it’ll be an SUV or a runaround hatchback or a pickup truck, etc. depending on who they hope to sell it to. Each of those vehicles addresses a specific set of needs.

It’s the same with establishing yourself as a coach with a specialism: you’re focusing on a specific group of people and their particular goals.

Why bother? Because then you can focus all of your attention, services and marketing on this individual group of people. Which will save you time, money, and a lot of energy.

Learn more and join the community at: betterbolderbraver.com

When you’re marketing your coaching business, done beats perfect. By which I mean, when it comes to producing your articles, blog posts, podcasts, etc. if you’re continually striving to create the so-called Perfect Post, then you’re wasting your time.

That’s hard to accept for some, especially if you like everything to be just right.

If you’re a perfection-striver, consider this: on average people see about 5% of the content you put out there. Perfection may be a worthy goal in many walks of life but for marketing content, maybe you need to reframe it: the key isn’t to be perfect, it’s to get it done.

Time to focus less on getting it right, and more on getting it out there.

Learn more and start your 14-day free trial at BetterBolderBraver.com

“From a bird's eye view, everything in my working life has been about helping people to make marketing mean more”, says Anna Mullenneaux.

Like us, Anna believes that marketing can be a game changer if it comes from a place of self-awareness, service and compassion.

In 2011 she created Pimp My Cause with her partner, Paul Skinner, to help marketers and causes to connect, take on pro-bono marketing projects together, and create greater social impacts as a result.

They launched MarketingKind in 2020 to work with leaders who are passionate about using marketing for good. Anna helps members to create impacts with pioneering good causes (for example Battle Cancer, Local Village Network and Recycling Lives), to coach and support each other in becoming more conscious impactful leaders and to work with marketing heroes such as Seth Godin, Rebecca Henderson and Mike Berners-Lee to explore the biggest opportunities for change.

We are happy to call Anna a member of our Marketing Family, and we look forward to comparing notes on this Masterclass. You will definitely get positive energy from it, and hopefully also some tangible approaches to marketing that mean you, as a coach, can have great impact - not just in terms of growing a business but also so that you can do the greatest good for the most amount of people whilst staying within the safe bounds of what is good for YOU.

Join us LIVE for future conversations on our Crowdcast channel: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

A fundamental marketing question (for coaching or any other business) is: are you selling what your market is buying?

Yes, you’re selling your coaching services. And yes, your clients are buying them. But what exactly causes them to say yes? What aspect of what you offer clinches the deal? You may think you know but beware of assumptions…

In this week's podcast, we'll learn how certainty differs from a guarantee and why you might have been thinking about certainty in the wrong way.

For more content and conversations, and to join our community for coaches go to betterbolderbraver.com

In this episode, we join the fourth of our Monday Masterclass sessions dedicated to a chapter in the coaches marketing journey. You can join our LIVE weekly masterclass conversations for free, find out about upcoming events and save your spot with the event link on our website, better bolder braver .com

This is another big one: Product.

Here we get to how to build a Bold Offer & come up with a Brave Price.

Creating an offer that delivers the outcome that your client really wants, will enable you to be brave with your pricing. Moving away from charging by the hour in favour of shifting to a price based on the outcomes you deliver means you can be paid appropriately for your work and also build a more balanced lifestyle.

We get excited about this bit because it gives you the time and energy you need to focus more on delivering your best work.

So in this episode, we’re talking all about how to make the perfect coaching product that your ideal client want’s to buy.

Read the full Coaches Marketing Journey: https://betterbolderbraver.com/the-coachs-marketing-journey/

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

What’s your favourite flavour of ice cream? Mine’s pistachio. Maybe yours is too. Or maybe it’s rum & raisin… coffee & walnut… chunky monkey! Whatever you like best, it’s unlikely to be vanilla.

Vanilla is fine, vanilla can be great, vanilla goes with most things, vanilla is… if not liked by everyone, at least unlikely to be actively disliked. Vanilla is mass marketing, designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It may be nobody’s first choice but it’s an acceptable option. Vanilla marketing may get you clients but are they the clients you want?

Imagine pistachio marketing (or rum & raisin, etc.): unique, unlike any other flavour, distinctive taste, vibrant colour, not for everyone and sometimes hard to find but also a flavour that people actively seek out… so how can you make your marketing less vanilla and more pistachio?

This blog post is inspired by the beautiful analogy from Karen Webber that she shared in the Monday Masterclass discussion on 26 July

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

In this episode, we join the second of our Monday Masterclass sessions dedicated to a chapter in the coaches marketing journey. You can join our LIVE weekly masterclass conversations for free, find out about upcoming events and save your spot with the event link on our website, betterbolderbraver.com

This episode is all about everyone's favourite coaching and marketing topic... NICHING!

So this week we’re going to get creative with talking about Ideal Client and how this gives you clairty on your Niche.

Our ethos is...

If you’re going to use marketing to attract people to you, you might as well attract people you actually want to work with. In other words, people who you want as clients

Identifying your ideal client and therefore settling on a niche allows you to talk more authentically to a focused audience.

Knowing who your ideal client is and being able to niche leads to good conversations, healthier client relationships, better boundaries and more energy to work more. Or indeed less.

Read the full Coaches Marketing Journey: https://betterbolderbraver.com/the-coachs-marketing-journey/

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

One of the most important conversations that we had when we were cooking up Better Bolder Braver was with Lucy Mullins.

The reason that we wanted to set up the community was to support coaches AFTER coaching training. But we needed to make sure that there WAS a need for a supportive marketing community. Lucy helped us to see that there was...

Lucy is an experienced and professionally-accredited coach, a coach educator, coach supervisor and coach trainer.  She is the Co-Founder of #RideTheWave Professional Coach Training, a fresh and inspiring coach training programme for leaders, founders and people who want to make a difference in the world.

Please do join us for this very important conversation that will look at the space after coaching training. Lucy helps us to think through what coaches are equipped for after a comprehensive training course, and what there is room still to develop and get confident on in terms of putting oneself out there. Lucy herself is a successful coach and businessperson, and so will also be talking to us about her own relationship with marketing.

Lucy has worked encouraging, motivating and challenging people for over 20 years, since she started her career in the fitness industry. She has a BSc in Exercise & Health Science from the University of Bath and an executive MBA from the University of Oxford. She is an entrepreneurship expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and the Co-Founder of award-winning fintech start-up, StepLadder.

We are imagining this event to become a staple recording that we share with all new members of the community, so don't miss out on being at the live event, where you can ask Lucy questions and be part of the conversation. We welcome contributions and stories about post-qualification marketing and hope you will all get a sense from this chat of not being out there on your own.

#RideTheWave is an Association for Coaching accredited professional coach training programme (ACCT) whose core values are: #CelebratingDiversity, #Community, #SocialImpact, and #Laughter.

You can find out more about #RideTheWave here:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ride-the-wave-professional-coach-training/

https://www.instagram.com/ridethewave_coaching/

https://www.facebook.com/RTWCoaching/

To join to the conversation and learn more about the community for coaches go to BetterBolderBraver.com

Are you a coach like lots of other coaches? Do you do what a lot of other coaches do? For some, this viewpoint holds them back. For others, it’s exactly what helps them stand out from the crowd.

If you want to get noticed, imagine you’re a bread company. Imagine your local supermarket with an aisle full of sliced loaves. It’s all just bread. But when you walk down that aisle, doing the weekly shop, you choose one loaf over all the rest. Why? In this episode, we’ll find out.

https://betterbolderbraver.com/empathetic-attraction

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

This week we ask What if happiness was your niche?

Many coaches say they don’t need to niche; some say they already have (but secretly haven’t): and others are clear and focused already on their niche audience.

If niching is about a target audience rather than a method, approach to coaching or outcome, then how can HAPPINESS be a niche??

This is what we discussed on this weeks Monday Masterclass with Carlos from The Happy Startup School.

The conversation went from why and how to have Happiness as a niche, to discover that although Carlos thought he wasn't any good at marketing he is already doing it really well but just didn't know that he could call what he was doing marketing.

It's all about shifting your focus from Conversions to Conversations.

Learn more and join the community BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

Thomas Kolster's 'Zone of Genius' is where marketing, business and sustainability meet.
He continuously challenges the status-quo with his vocal, and often provocative, views on values, purpose, and leadership.
"In an over-crowded do-good market," he says, "people don’t buy your values or your “why”, but rather who you can help them become... Change begins with you!"
We are looking forward to talking to Thomas, a dear member of our ‘Marketing Family’, about how the pressure of being a global citizen can be both exciting and inspiring, and can also feel overwhelming.
We want to inspire coaches to get over their fear of putting themselves out there in favour of focusing on the bigger picture system change they might affect, one client at a time.
And at the same time, we recognise that feeling that you need a "value", a "purpose" and a "why" can be tricky in itself...

Learn more about Thomas: https://thomaskolster.com/masterclass

Are you feeling that most marketing advice is simply not going to work for you? Are you fed up with hearing overhyped promises about “10x your income!” and “get 10,000 followers in just 10 days!”

We are too and that’s why our vision is to change the conversation around marketing.

Enough noise, hype and hustle. It’s time to switch it up and talk about ethical, empathetic human-centred marketing.

Learn more and join the community at BetterBolderBraver.com

Matthew Bellringer describes himself as a “Divergent Pathfinder - Taking a curious step into the uncharted with people who can't do "more of the same" as well as "supporting divergent individuals and the organisations which value them.”

On this Marketing Masterclass, we talk to someone who has made it their business to give permission - to themselves and to others who may be struggling with navigating the world as it is.

So much of the marketing that we practice as part of the Better Bolder Braver community is around giving ourselves permission - permission to ask of ourselves the coaching questions that we ask of others and then understanding how to capitalise on the answers in terms of how we build our businesses and put ourselves out there.

Rather than constantly trying to squeeze ourselves into a box - to fit in and do what everyone else does and what we think we are “supposed to do”, we like to feel we can be ourselves, have a unique but workable and productive approach and be understood, seen and useful to others as a result.

We will be talking to Matthew about quietly reinventing professions, challenging long-held assumptions, and engaging with the big, messy, tangled problems that affect us all. We’ll discuss thriving on one's own terms, rather than fitting into a pre-existing box, and the edge that involves implicitly challenging conventional ways of doing things by being both different-and-successful.

Ahead of the session, please consider this: What is it to establish something new? How can we engage with that which isn't fully explained/understood yet, particularly when that forms a part of our professional practice? And what it is to do well when this kind of exploration is one of your great skills?

Matthew is a consultant-facilitator and educator. He works with people and organisations taking fresh approaches to deep-rooted, complex problems, developing the ability to thrive in uncertainty. He specialises in work with the unique talents of neurodivergent professionals, academics and entrepreneurs. His background is in IT, Higher Education, psychology and entrepreneurship.

We’re often told to say ‘no’ more often – from life coaches to productivity experts, there’s no shortage of people telling us that ‘no’ is a good answer to give. But it’s not always a good answer to get… not when you and your business are looking for a ‘yes’.

If you’re a coach (or any other business for that matter) marketing your services to potential clients, however you’re pitching your offer, you’re basically asking, “Do you want this?”

And the default answer is often, “No.” Especially (perversely, even) if they need it.

This can be disheartening. After all, you’re trying to sell them a service you think has real benefits for them. You can see those benefits clearly; why can’t they?

First of all, most people have a learned distrust of marketing and advertising (we justify this by telling ourselves it makes us more savvy customers). Either we we’re looking to find fault with the ‘marketingspeak’ or we tell ourselves an offer is too good to be true. That’s a barrier to getting a ‘yes’, right there.

Secondly, most people have absorbed a number of what we could call sales-defeating messages. Even if the offer is good and we need the service, there’s still a learned mental script at work. It’s that little voice in the back of the head saying, “I mustn’t,” “I shouldn’t,” “I can’t.”

The good news is most of us like to buy. We just need to convince ourselves first that we should. As a coach seeking out new clients, your focus is on getting from “I can’t,” to “I will.”

Learn more and join the community at betterbolderbraver.com

Ellie is one of Better Bolder Braver’s Founding members. She’s been with us literally - and very much in spirit - from the beginning.

Ellie coaches new leaders and one of the things she likes to focus on with them is communication.

Communicating as a leader has never been as challenging as over the last two years. With the environment and government guidelines changing at pace with little or no notice, team members working more flexibly, dynamically and remotely, emotions running high and competing priorities, getting your communication right has never been so important.

Ellie says, “How and when your people receive a message from you and their emotional state when they do receive it can all play a part in how the information is digested and acted on… When you know your people well, it becomes much easier to plan your messaging with each team member in mind and anticipate how they might react.”

… But what happens when you don’t know people well and you are trying to communicate with them through your marketing? Ellie is going to tell us how the work she does with us in the Better Bolder Braver community is helping her in both her coaching work and in terms of putting herself out there as a coach.

Whatever your motivation for being a coach, your coaching is a business. As such, it’s there (at least in part) to make money. Yet, just like everyone else in the world, you only have so many hours in the day. How do you make the most of those hours?

There are various options to maximise your business earnings and they tend to boil down to a question of efficiency. For example, you could look into creating multiple revenue streams – not just coaching clients but offering courses, selling materials and other resources that could earn you some passive income.

Whatever the option, our main focus is not on “getting rich quick” or using coaching clients to “make a fast buck”. As ethical marketers, our focus is on a fair exchange of value with the client in a way that sustains and nourishes you to deliver more of your important work.

The question is how to do that while being more efficient and maximising your earnings. One way is to look for clients who will pay a higher price for your coaching service.

You can read the blog version on our website: https://betterbolderbraver.com/how-do-i-find-high-paying-coaching-clients/

Despite what many coaches may believe — despite what you may believe — coaching clients aren’t buying time. Yes, your sessions are timed. And in them, you spend a slice of your time with the client. But they’re not buying your time.

If it was your time they wanted, they’d happily pay your hourly rate to play Scrabble. Don’t get your hopes up, they’re not going to do that. So, what are they paying for? Well, obviously, they’re paying for what happens during the time you give them. They’re paying for outcomes… results. But maybe it’s not so “obvious” after all, because most coaches still market themselves as if they’re selling a chunk of time, a slot in the diary. Which means they’re selling something the clients don’t want to buy. Instead of something they really, really do want.

The good news is that fixing this doesn’t mean changing what you do, only how you market and sell it.

Learn more and join the conversation at BetterBolderBraver.com

This weeks episode is all about Turning your coaching method into an online course.

Are you keen to deliver an online coaching course? Do you feel that you have a unique approach to coaching that you want to share? Do you want to be able to offer coaching to more than one person at once? Do you want to take people on a unique, clear coaching journey?

Maybe you are sitting on a load of content that you have no idea how to package as a course or how to host, price or market it. Perhaps you've already created a programme but it isn’t selling...

We understand. We know how frustrating it is going round and round in circles and how worrying it can be to keep second-guessing why you are doing things.

We know this because we’ve just finished making our very own online course, The Better Bolder Braver Marketing Journey. Whether you’re just starting your coaching business – or you’re a seasoned sage – we’ve created a “Self-Service” training course that will help you build a better coaching business. The course will guide you week-by-week through our 6 step process, giving you time to implement as you go.

So today we take you on a behind the scenes sneaky peak of what it was like for US to build our own course. We wanted to provide coaches with an overview of the ins and outs of conjuring up, building, packing, shipping and marketing an online video course.

We will be really transparent about...

- having a unique approach to coaching (your method)

- designing a journey to take your client on

- distilling that into learning and exercises

- writing (and editing) copy

- making (and editing) videos

- keeping content interesting / image use

- choosing and using an online course platform

- pricing

- shipping

- marketing

- feedback and iterating

- knowing when it's not working and being ok with that

We also answered questions and got the audience inspired with ideas.

Learn more and join the community BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

In our community of coaches, the question of ‘product mix’ often comes up. People want to know how best to expand their portfolio of services: How do I start a course? How do I create a programme? How do I set up a community? Good, valid questions, although frequently people worry about them before they’ve even got their first product sorted (or selling). So how can you make the perfect mix? In this episode, we'll find out.

Read the blog version here: https://betterbolderbraver.com/how-to-create-your-coaching-product-mix/

What are we building at betterbolderbraver.com

Simon Batchelar intros the podcast and what you can expect when it launches.

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It is with great joy that I announce a new and wonderful era of collaboration and cheerleading for Better Bolder Braver. I am very pleased to share with you that two of our longest-standing community members, ⁠Ellie Lloyd-Jones ⁠and ⁠Kieran Morris⁠ - two of the most delightful beings there are out there - will be stepping up to help mentor new members.

Having worked their way through the community's signature Coach's Marketing Journey course themselves, and having now built wonderful coaching businesses that continue to grow, they are in a great position to help me guide others along the way. In this brief video, we tell you all about how this new collaboration will work and announce some new sessions for the BBB calendar to complement the existing live sessions - all for the same community membership price of £50 a month... Despite rising costs of living, it's important to me and other community members that we keep our space open and affordable for other coaches on a similar journey in building their businesses.

I will be talking more, moving forward, about how other BBB members are becoming marketing experts, stepping up to support and collaborating to help others to build resilient and sustainable coaching businesses.

Ellie, Kieran and I very much hope you will taken advantage of the 2-week community trial period and join us in time for the first of the next Coach's Marketing Journey Check-in sessions on Tuesday 24th April 2024.

Join Better Bolder Braver before April 24th 2024:

https://bit.ly/3TDYB37

Leslie Mello is a brand consultant, designer and nutritionist who loves to help natural health practitioners thrive. She is also a member of the Better Bolder Braver community. Check out her gorgeous website: https://www.mellobranding.com/ She is dedicated to supporting natural health professionals with everything they need to launch a successful practice and keep growing and - like us, Leslie is on a mission to help people-helpers to grow their business in a healthy and sustainable way. She says, "Marketing your business works best when you have a healthy brand built on a solid foundation." She cares about all of the BBB things and herself describes on her website how, Many people get overwhelmed by things like how to choose a business name, create a logo, make a website, content creation, marketing and more. It can seem like the market is flooded with competitors who are already super successful. I promise you are unique and have a lot to offer! In this live podcast recording session, we talk to a fellow member of what we call our Better Bolder Braver "marketing family" about what beautiful brand assets are and what good, ethical marketing looks like.

Most marketing advice for coaches doesn’t work.

Why? Because the Holy Grail of traditional marketing strategies is the conversion.

And as a coach, conversions are not what you’re chasing.

You’re not selling vacuum cleaners, or water bottles, or any other ‘disposable’ product or service. Conversions are not your focus. The heart of the coach’s marketing journey isn’t the ‘sale’ at the end of it, it’s the conversation that takes place between you and the prospective client.

You’re not just chasing a sale, you’re looking for the right sale, to the right client… and that requires a conversation, an exchange with someone who resonates with what you do and sees the value in the outcome, feeling or insight that you’ll guide them to.

So, how can you shift your marketing mindset? How do you wean yourself off the conversion drive and focus on creating opportunities for conversations instead? We have a few ideas…

Helen Isacke is the founder of the Trusted Coach Directory, established in 2016. She has a varied background, having worked in hospitality, IT, HR, recruitment and marketing. Helen changed direction again when she trained as a coach in 2003. She was an Accredited Coach with Association for Coaching, trained in a range of profiling tools including Type Dynamic Indicator, Talent Dynamics, Team Dynamics & FIRO B.
Helen’s coaching experiences and opportunities led to her finding her niche; working with newly-appointed managers. This experience inspired her to write ‘Soft Skills for Strong Leaders’, published in 2013. Helen has two grown up daughters, and lives in Marlow where she is most at peace walking along the Thames.
Helen has been on her own coaching journey, which led her to founding the directory, which - as a platform and service - is shaping the future of the coaching industry. In this Marketing Masterclass, Helen will talk with us openly and honestly "about the mistakes I made when setting up, and some tips around each mistake/topic, to help coaches build their business with confidence in an ever increasingly crowded market."
Come with your listening ears and also any practical questions that you think Helen - or we - might be able to help answer.
www.trustedcoachdirectory.com

We are so happy to have one of our coaching industry besties - Lucy Mullins - to talk to us all about diversity in the future of the coaching industry, and to join us in discussing how to have fun with marketing your coaching business. Lucy is also a wonderful advocate for how coaching not only helps create personal change, but can impact big picture system change in the world too. She's also a fantastic example of a healthy "work/work" balance as we call it.

We've invited Lucy to write here a dedication to the Future of Coaching - to share with you all ahead of the discussion...

"We set up #RideTheWave to bring more diversity to the world of coaching and to make positive waves in the world through the power of coaching.

#SocialImpact, #CelebratingDiversity, #Community, and #Laughter are our core values at #RideTheWave and guide everything we do. We also believe these values are the key to the future of coaching.

We believe that the Future of Coaching is about more people being equipped with coaching skills, more people being able to access coaching, and more positive impact in the world.

Here at #RideTheWave we are committed to contributing to the future of coaching by…

1. Educating and empowering a diverse range of coaches around the world so that there is a coach for everyone

2. Training and inspiring a new wave of leaders to use coaching skills within their organisations

3. Demystifying coaching so that it becomes a universal set of skills and tools used by people around the world, in both their personal and professional lives

4. Sharing coaching tools and skills from our community with people and organisations who wouldn’t normally be able to access professional coaching

Here’s a bright future for coaching."

....Join us for what will no doubt be a heart-warming and heart-felt discussion about how you as a coach can build something just right for you, great for others and wonderful for the world.

Qualifying as a coach is a fantastic start to an exciting and rewarding journey. You get to make an impact on your clients’ lives. Your training has taught you all about how to coach, including practical experience through co-coaching. The challenge now is finding some clients.

But how to find them when the ink is still wet on your coaching certificate?

Not to worry – the process is simple and doesn’t cost a lot of money to get up and running, although it may be less ‘sales-y’ than you think. Marketing coaching services is a little different to the classic sales approach, being focused more on conversations than conversions.

This episode will point you in the right direction and offer some signposts to a marketing strategy that isn’t just about chasing leads, likes and views.

You can read the blog version on our website: https://betterbolderbraver.com/how-do-i-get-coaching-clients-after-qualifying/

Do you enjoy selling?

Most coaches would say not. In fact, most business owners and coaches will manage to find anything else to do other than sales. It might be absolutely essential to your business but that doesn’t mean you like it. Why not?

The reasons are various and common:

• You don’t want to get a ‘no’ (nobody enjoys rejection).
• You’re anxious about whether you can deliver (imposter syndrome).
• You feel under pressure to get a ‘yes’, which makes you feel like you’re pressuring them to buy

And let’s face it, if you’re running your own coaching business, you want to coach. That’s probably why you got into it in the first place, right. After all, few people set up a business just because they love the sales process.

What if you could sell more, do more business, without needing to do so much actual selling? Listen to this episode to find out.

You can learn more and join the community at betterbolderbraver.com

Has anyone ever told you that you need a marketing strategy? Maybe people have also recommended various marketing tactics to you?

Did it sometimes sound like they were talking about the same thing? What exactly is the difference between your marketing strategy and your marketing tactics?

In this video, I'm going to answer that question and explain why you need both and which to use first.

You can read the full blog version of this video here: https://betterbolderbraver.com/marketing-strategy-vs-tactics

You can download the guide template I talk about here: https://betterbolderbraver.com/coachs-marketing-plan

Abe is co-founder and CEO of Ruzuku, an easy-to-use online course platform for entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, and small businesses.  He helps authors, coaches, speakers and other independent experts create their own online courses and learning communities. His mission in life is to make it ridiculously easy for bloggers, authors, coaches, speakers and other passionate experts to create engaging online courses and learning communities.   Ruzuku has hosted more than 75,000 courses serving over half a million students around the world. Abe specializes in learning design and user experience research, and earned his Ph.D. in human-computer interaction at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is an adjunct professor in the School of Education at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he teaches seminars on educational innovation.  Abe says, "Ruzuku was built from the ground up with a focus on streamlining the course creation process. Experts want to share their passion and expertise, but technical hurdles and cumbersome tools can make this difficult."  In the Better Bolder Braver community, we are on a mission to help coaches create products and services that stand out and support their own mission to help their ideal clients, whilst not burning out or over-extending themselves... to help them streamline their marketing and share their expertise so that people understand quickly what the value of working with them is.   A coaching programme is a great way to engage potential clients and create meaningful experiences for them. They can also be a great way of disseminating information and conducting group coaching. But are they all they are cut out to be? Are we at risk - when creating course material - of reinventing a wheel that has been engineered many times by others? How can we make our lives easier, help as many people as we can, be true to our values, mindful of our limits, still be really creative and keep up with the Joneses?  Free workshop: https://mirasee.com/2022/ic-replay?redirect=false Free course: https://courses.ruzuku.com/courses/2dc0af1e-baea-409a-91f9-3185253fc1fd/checkout/price-3w2Q6Y80_IfeIwE4ZFf0fA

As a follow on from our recent podcast episode, "Why you want fast results from marketing but won't get them", this episode is all about establishing good, sustainable marketing habits that will help you build a long-lasting, healthy coaching business.

Drawing on the parallels between physical fitness, self-awareness and Marketing-as-another-self-growth-opportunity, Frances and Gemma discuss the concepts of; aspirations, being prepared, being The Victim, The Pursuit of Happiness, Living in the Moment, nourishment, motivation, being in control, goals vs the bigger picture, figuring out your "Why?", energy, stamina, confidence, self-worth, systemic thinking, habits, patience, perfection, punishment, momentum, small wins and taking action.

Gemma is a weight-loss management and physical fitness consultant. And - Frances would say - a Buddhist philosopher. Listen to this honest conversation about both of their body stories and business strategies for a deep dive into how it really feels to be in control...

We have arrived!

After a combined 40 years of being on the marketing train, we have arrived at Better Bolder Braver.

This podcast is designed to set out our vision, so that you can be clear about what we are trying to do, how, when and why – so that you know if the Better Bolder Braver community is the one for you.

https://betterbolderbraver.com/the-better-bolder-braver-vision/

Most marketing advice for coaches is frankly Bullshit. Luckily there is a different conversation going on about how to have a more authentic conversation with your clients.

There are a lot of tactics, hype and over-promising in the world of marketing so this session is all about re-setting that hampster wheel and focusing on the most important part, the people.

We'll be joined by Adam Bastock SEO and digital marketing expert.

Adam Bastock is an eCommerce specialist who has been involved in all sorts of eCommerce over the last 10 years – from running his own Etsy store, to being the marketing-person at a series of eCommerce brands. He now focuses on practical SEO advice to help Shopify and WooCommerce retailers to hit their first £1m.

Adam is on a mission to make things easier for businesses to be seen online. He has collaborated with Simon on a YouTube series called “Bullshit Busters” which - if nothing else - has THE most catchy jingle and is therefore definitely worth listening to.

In this, super geeky Monday Masterclass, Simon will be talking to Adam about SEO and what it means for coaches... how to optimise your websites and what the hell 'algorithm' even means. These two are wonderful when the marketing banter gets going... don't miss it!

Find out more about Adam here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambastock/

https://www.abastock.co.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY7Vsllruds

Join the conversation and learn more about our community for coaches at BetterBolderBraver.com

Social media is a great tool, especially LinkedIn for making connections, networking, joining like-minded communities, and of course, finding clients. But like any tool, it only works when you know how to use it.

The top three questions we get from coaches about how to use LinkedIn are:

1. What should I post about?
2. How do I connect with more clients?
3. How do I convert connections to clients (i.e. get them to say yes to working with me)?

In this podcast, I’ll answer these three questions (though not necessarily in the above order!) and talk about how as a coach you can use LinkedIn to attract clients who are the perfect fit.

You don’t need to create endless content and you don’t need to rely on ads. Our process is all about starting meaningful conversations with your LinkedIn connections and finding clients organically.

You can read the blog version on our website: https://betterbolderbraver.com/how-do-i-find-coaching-clients-on-linkedin/

I’m really proud to announce that we are partnering with EcoSend, a “pioneering platform dedicated to increasing email marketing productivity and performance while minimising the carbon footprint associated with digital marketing”. 

The coaching industry continues to boom, with over 71,000 professional coaches in the UK alone. In this conversation we discuss helping coaches make wise choices about your marketing in mind of your own Wants, Needs, Limits and Boundaries, those of your Ideal Client, and the Planet.

The environmental impact of our digital activities is an often overlooked subject, despite studies indicating that sending one email campaign can generate as much as 26g of CO2. It is estimated that over 340 billion emails are sent every day, and processing, sending, receiving, and storing the contents of every email requires energy. Even small improvements can add up to make a significant impact when deployed at a global scale.

There is so much noise out there about how to sell coaching to generate a six-figure (or “10x” your) income. For three years now, Better Bolder Braver has been all about how to avoid the Toxic Marketing Bullsh*t. The BBB community and the Coach’s Marketing Journey course offers you guidance and support about building up a coaching business via feel-good and ethical marketing practices.

I have myself moved Better Bolder Braver’s email marketing operations over to Ecosend to reduce our carbon footprint. Building on this, I have partnered with EcoSend to support you to do the same.

Better Bolder Braver friends (that’s you!)  benefit from a discounted EcoSend service as well as some incredibly helpful hand-holding from their team.

As part of this partnership, I’ve been asked by EcoSend to provide them with marketing mentorship - so that they can enhance their own efforts to reach like-minded companies and individuals committed to creating responsible businesses.

The move to EcoSend has been utterly painless, even for a technophobe. If you are minded to make the move, I’d say DO IT! It’s arguably the easiest way you can have a positive impact on the environment as an entrepreneur.

James says:

"Great email marketing campaigns shouldn’t come at the expense of Planet Earth. We're thrilled to be partnering with Better Bolder Braver to support coaches in nurturing and growing their audiences, while sharing a positive climate message and reducing their digital carbon footprint." 

You may also like to visit the MarketingKind and Ethical Move websites for more information about good, ethical marketing - and the Carbon Literacy Trust, which was set up to advance understanding and action on climate change. I trained with them recently and wholeheartedly recommend it.

I’d really love to know if you make the move to EcoSend, and how you are getting on with email marketing generally.

Please be in touch if you'd like the magic link that entitles you to 15% off the EcoSend service.

Divorce can result in an INCREDIBLE journey of transformation…

This is what Lucinda Empson - a member of the Better Bolder Braver community strongly believes. “There are many personal and professional challenges standing between pre-divorce and the new YOU”, she says... “Divorce does not mean lonely.”

Lucinda hosts a community for professional women, who are getting divorced - a place where busy professional women can take time out to recharge, learn something new and make friends… women juggling work, home and the demands of a divorce.

But divorcing women hasn’t always been Lucinda’s niche audience. She is a medical doctor. And so when she joined the Better Bolder Braver community, it was doctors whom she assumed she was best placed to coach. But the work that she’s done in the community - working through our Coach’s Marketing Journey - has helped her to realise that just because a person’s journey mirrors your own doesn’t mean it is most nourishing for you to coach them.

We learned on a recent Marketing Masterclass with Vix Anderton about someone who is very energised by coaching fellow recovering perfectionists. But some people are better placed serving others, with quite different life paths. And that this is related to our own relationship with our past.

Have you really considered who your ideal client is? On what inspiration are drawing in order to know who you are best placed to surround yourself with? Why is niching so important for the sustainability of your marketing and your business?

We will discuss all of this with Lucinda, who will generously and openly be sharing with us how she came to pivot her niche and how she is now building a very exciting and unique coaching business as a result.

When we came up with Better Bolder Braver, our minds almost immediately went into creative brand overdrive.

Having both been in marketing for about 20 years, we knew how important it was that people quickly experienced what it would be like to join our community and experience our approach to marketing through our “look and feel”.

We needed someone to help us to think it all through, hold our hand and help us out our ideas about colour, shape and tone into action.

Enter Martine Warburton.

Martine is co-director of Huskii Studio - a creative digital design and branding agency on the south coast, who Simon had worked with before. She studied design at Goldsmiths before embarking on a 20+ year freelancing career in design, working at many of the biggest London creative agencies. She went on to grow her own business; Puree Design and merged this with co-founder Andy to form Huskii Studio. Huskii has gone from strength to strength in the last 3 years, using design thinking and creative skills to help SMEs to grow and startups to launch.

Huskii’s focus has been to help connect their clients more deeply with their audiences through the power of design, branding and user experience focused web design. Martine loves running brand workshops and creating brands from the ground up.

In inviting Martine onto the Monday Masterclass, we want to give coaches a “behind the scenes”  special insight into what it is to really do branding properly, and how deep the thinking does need to be to get it right.

Brand Guidelines Walk Through: https://youtu.be/jtJXe9jZeKs

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

"I find that if I treat the book as holy, people receive it as holy.  I think books have been devalued - free e-book here, two-for-one bestsellers there - but actually we are still deeply in awe of them as objects. If we write them holy and sell them holy, then I think the economics are totally different." - Charles Davies

Are you considering getting a book out into the world? This Monday Masterclass is one for you. But it's also for anyone else who is working-marketing-hard as another way to figure out what they actually care about, want to say and want to be remembered for.

It's also for coaches navigating what is presented to us by social media as 'what good looks like' in terms of products to build, ways to reach people and good coaching/creative practice.

Charles Davies has (nearly) finished a book that is"pretty much 15 years worth of original work summarised and structured and nearly good to go".  He has previously self-published, Poems for Meditation and a rewrite of the Tao Te Ching - I thought I was on the way to work, but I was on the way home.

Charlie’s work makes it easier to find your way when you don’t know what to do. He’s developed a unique approach to clarity, which he’s taught to management teams, coaches, entrepreneurs, schoolchildren, Zen masters… Boots UK used it to plan for Christmas!

Charlie uses his work to decide what to buy in the supermarket. It’s based on Buddhist teachings, but the forms it takes have been defined by what is most helpful in different situations: the very clear ideas process for when you don’t know what to do, identity yoga for when you’re stuck, the happy money story game for when you need to have a tricky conversation about money. Do NOT miss out on his blog post, 79 ways to pay!).

Charlie talks about "the practice of not devaluing the content or medium or work or people". We feel that this is what good, ethical marketing looks like. Together, we will talk honestly about writing, clarity, simplicity and 'holiness'.  We will discuss new ways of doing publishing, the power of testimonials and how your coaching can be intertwined with your book writing or selling practice. Magical stuff.

Charlie will probably mic-drop loads of power bombs in as well, such as this: "What will the presence of this object bring to your life? And how much is that worth to you? That’s the question…".

Get ready to get existential. And why not get familiar with Charles prior to the event via www.charlesdavies.com.

This Monday Masterclass will be our last before the festive break.

Joy to the World.

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

"The human voice is more persuasive than the written word, and stories have the power to change worlds and lives. You can use your voice to create positive impact - to build trust, educate, and "deepen the conversation".  

This is what Mark Steadman truly believes, lives by and helps others understand, feel confident in and get creative with. He runs a school for purposeful people who want to use their voice to create impact, but who are also trying to keep on top of life.    

Mark founded Podcode - a "podcast school and community for changemakers" - so he could share his knowledge and experience – the wins and losses he’s racked up – during his time behind the mic. He's on a mission to help social entrepreneurs feel empowered to technically produce and emotionally own their podcasts... generous gifts to those they want to help, compelling story tools to those whose support they would like and mirrors up to their own needs, wants and values.  

We will be talking to Mark about how it feels to him to support the People Helpers - to feel like an 'Agent of Change' himself, and how being in a community and having a guide to follow can support not only an individual but an entire movement... starting with yourself.  Mark has been making podcasts since 2008. He works with best-selling authors, entrepreneurs, artists, and celebrities. His work has been highlighted by the BBC, and he presented the Comedy award at the inaugural British Podcast Awards in 2017. He runs the Birmingham Podcast Festival in the UK’s second city, and has produced a murder mystery podcast in under 15 minutes, live on stage, twice in one day.   

He founded the podcast hosting company Podiant in 2016and sold it in the Spring of 2021. He now spends his time exclusively helping podcasters get results on their terms.  Mark has had both Simon and Frances on his own new podcast show, Ear Brain Heart. Through these conversations with entrepreneurs, thinkers, and change-makers who are working towards a better future, Mark explores the way we show up for audiences, build trust and effect change.   

And we are delighted now to return the invitation.  

If you would like people to hear your story... look no further.  

Descript for editing: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=PVcNrA  

Seths Podcast Ads podcast: https://shows.acast.com/akimbo/episodes/podcast-ads  

Marks Podcast: https://podcode.co/listen/earbrainheart/

Are you a coach who is really struggling to "put yourself" out there in the world?
Is there a voice in your head (that perhaps harks back to your childhood) that is telling you that everything you need to produce has to be perfect before you share it?
Are you convinced people are not interested? Scared of rejection? Worried about what people will think of you? Embarrassed about (being seen to want to be) taking centre stage?
If you've read thus far, you are - what we call in the Better Bolder Braver community - "Problem Aware". YOU are not the problem... the problem is the hold up at your end. And the JUDGEMENT about that hold up!
Please - give yourself a break. Put your feed up. And have a listen to our resident Mindfulness Coach, Alex "mindfulskills" Irving, sharing and caring all about what you - as a fellow coach - can do to befriend yourself and your relationship with what we are calling here your "Inner Critic".
The aim of the BBB game is to provide coaches with a safe and compassionate community within which we can play with, and practice, putting ourselves and our services out there with great clarity, confidence and joy.
Alongside technical tools and strategies for doing good, ethical marketing, we hold each other kindly - and to account - for taking our goodness out to the world, so that we - and "Our People" can benefit from this work.
"We are not for everyone" - says Marketing Godfather, Seth Godin... and that's OK".

Having already had a Monday Masterclass about " Ethical Marketing". we are looking forward to diving even deeper into this subject with arguably the movement's main pioneer herself.

Alice Karolina is the Founder of the ethical move. The organisation's strapline says it all: How we sell matters.

Alice is a Values + Ethics Strategist who has studied manipulation in sales in all its forms throughout her life. She created the ethical move out of a strong personal conviction to break the cycle of consumerism - which she believes is the root of our global crisis, and at the heart of true change. Realizing that our insatiability is created by psychological tactics in order to make a profit, she decided to find a way to break the spell. The ethical move is paving the way for a new standard in marketing based on trust and honesty - which seeks to empower conscious consumers, and open the door for a transparent, thriving marketplace.

Better Bolder Braver is on a mission to change the marketing conversation - starting with coaches, we believe that we can address the toxic noise out there that makes coaches - and others - positively turned off by marketing, pricing, selling and in some cases running a business entirely. We want to empower coaches to use the skills they have developed in their coaching practice to ‘do good marketing’ and thus create more sustainable coaching businesses that are great for them and their clients.

We are incredibly honoured, therefore, to have Alice as a guest speaker and particularly as the ethical move has recently announced their new Intention Pledge and with it their “commitment behind how we communicate and our shared willingness to break the cycle of consumerism”.

We will be hearing from Alice how the ethical move left behind their certification-style standard, and how the new pledge came to be. And we look forward to learning how as marketeers and coaches, we can all “take responsibility for our part in changing the marketplace” by putting the person before the sale, respecting privacy, helping people make the best choice, communicating inclusively, truthfully, and clearly ...and helping all audiences feel welcome.

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

Perfectionism is a big challenge for many coaches around marketing – It’s certainly been so for Vix Anderton … Luckily for Vix, though, she is an expert in self-compassion and - as she describes it - “softening or loosening around perfectionism rather than overcoming it.”

“At its heart, perfectionism is a defence; it’s a collection of habits, patterns and strategies we use to protect ourselves. It can be highly effective and it comes with a high price - in our attempt to protect ourselves, we prevent ourselves from being seen. The more deeply we can welcome each and every aspect of ourselves, the more comfortable we are in our own authentic expression and the less we need to hide behind our perfectionism.”

Vix describes herself as a recovering perfectionist, embodiment coach, cyclical living and authenticity maven. She guides overachievers, overthinkers and recovering perfectionists to reconnect with their authenticity and resilience. With her own experience in high-stress environments from war-zones to boardrooms, she’s now an advocate for using the principles of cyclical living and authentic relating, helping people manage their energy and emotions to bravely build more sustainable and authentic ways of being.

“Talking about ‘overcoming’ something is my inner perfectionist’s voice. Somewhat ironically, it wants to be perfect in not being a perfectionist! How I approach my perfectionism really matters, otherwise I find myself inadvertently reinforcing the same perfectionist thinking.”

We invite you to join us for this nourishing conversation if you are in any way looking to reinvent your perfectionist cycle and to employ some practical self-compassion in your marketing as a coach. Vix will help us to learn to trust our bodies more and make more empowered and intentional choices to live and market authentically.

Humans have been "trying to figure it all out" for a while now...

The most important thing about this podcast episode with highly qualified coach and excellent human, Vix Anderton, is that it comes at a time when so many could do with an injection of hope.

The balance of self-work and bigger picture system change are very alive for a lot of us right now.

But how can we mitigate the overwhelm? We are only human. We are but dust.

We recently ran a BBB Tools & Techniques workshop just for coaches (available on demand for BBB members) about 'Cyclical Living' with Vix. This podcast episode is about that subject... and so much more.

Recently, Vix - an ex-military, recovering perfectionist, has been thinking a lot about the importance of PURPOSE... or, indeed, the importance of not necessarily having one.

Her first book, Enough, is "an imperfect antidote to perfectionism". And now she is embarking on a second... listen to this episode to hear all about what she's cooking up. It's going to be another banger, no doubt.

Whilst arguably IMperfect, Vix's writing, which recently has been focused on themes such as "an alternative approach to discipline", NOT reaching your goals and "leaning into mystery" is pretty damn impressive/permissive/refreshing.

Earth yourself in a moment of realistic optimism and consider creating positive change - both individually and collectively - without a rigid plan.

P.S. If you want a pretty good idea of what perfect MIGHT look like, were there such a thing, do check out Vix's website - from the 'look and feel 'of it to the delightfully-to-the-point blog headlines, it's a great example of where coaching and marketing make magic happen.

Joe Portsmouth has 51.3K Followers on X (formerly Twitter), 15K email subscribers and 26K followers on Linkedin. The headline for his newsletter - Write-On - is, "Hulk Smash Your Revenue Goals With Mouth-Watering Copy (Even if you think your writing sucks). In this conversation, Frances and Joe talk about Joe's course, The Storywriting Playbook - Joe's 5-step approach for writing compelling stories in copywriting that has helped him generate over $50,000,000 in revenue. The also talk about The Journey of Consciousness, ethical marketing, how learning how to tell stories can boost your confidence more widely, and how business use stories for good. If you'd like to sign up for Joe's course, you can DM him via Linkedin.

When you “show up” in your marketing, you are making a choice — a choice to put yourself out there and a choice about how you invite, respond, react and what you give to your audience — your people.

A number of the coaches in the Better Bolder Braver community are inspired by it enough that they are now building coaching communities of their own.

We were ourselves inspired by The Happy Startup School community and have learned so much about building communities from our hosts, Carlos Saba, Laurence McCahill and Lana Jelenjev. And today we have the pleasure of Lana’s magical company to discuss with us the power of community - of holding space, creating and nurturing connection, and supporting change and growth in great company.

Lana describes herself as a “Community Alchemist” alongside being a “Learning Experience Strategist, Speaker, Author and Neurodiversity-Friendly Schools Instigator”.

The founders/community leaders that she serves are - she says - “big visionaries, impact-driven and action-oriented. They have experienced firsthand a deep problem in the world that needs addressing and are dedicated to it as their life mission, and in finding a solution.

These founders are not afraid of change. They are keen on bursting silos, creating shifts, and challenging systems. These individuals carry strong convictions and are eager to work towards their vision. Sometimes, this eagerness can be their weakness as they find themselves overworked, overwhelmed and out of sync with their own bodies. Their driven attitude has created difficulties in boundary-setting, getting clarity and structure, and pursuing actions that are not moving their mission forward. They realise that they have engaged in patterns, routines and decisions that are detrimental to their wellbeing as founders and are - as such - detrimental to the organisation as well. They begin to question how they can be of service to the world, given that their own internal processes are in disarray.”

Lana is one of the most passionate and inspiring people we know. Any coaches looking to build a community should look to her for guidance. And following her lead has helped us to make the Better Bolder Braver community a better, bolder and braver space for coaches to be in.

Join us for the next conversation LIVE on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

Nearly three years ago, BBB Community Mentor, Kieran Morris, joined a fledging community for coaches on a hunch that it might be just what he was looking for.

He'd already spent time and money on many of the magical silver bullet solutions out there – outsourcing his social media to an agency, trying out a 'bulletproof lead gen' strategy, signing up for those seminars that promise to teach you how to win at LinkedIn.

He truly hated them all – the strategies, not the people – and had rarely felt so little alignment with my own values and vision.

Finding Better Bolder Braver made it feel as though a door had been opened to another world for Kieran. He met people he loved, formed deep friendships, collaborated, get clearer on his coaching offering and became less attached to the idea of what it is to market oneself as a coach.

Kieran is now working for that very community as a Mentor, alongside his friend and fellow community old-timer, Ellie Lloyd-Jones.

Both felt that that they wanted to offer their expertise and lived experience back to the others with whom they share this inspriing space.

On this podcast episode, Kieran and Ellie chat about their plans for a new offering in the BBB community.

Their new sessions - 'Know Yourself' and 'Show Yourself' - will run alongside the existing curriculum, and will give space for members to explore the depth and breadth of what it is to put ourselves out there – emotionally and practically.

What IS Marketing? Here is Frances's perspective…

The headlines are:

- Marketing can only ever BE one perspective: Your story. And how you contextualise it. That becomes your product.

- Good marketing involves self-awareness, good leadership and generosity through conscious, creative and purposeful curating.

- Our audience has a responsibility too.

- Most current marketing noise out there is toxic.

- Marketing is about taking responsibility for yourself and others.

- Good marketing is a gift of creativity.

- Responsible marketing is meeting people where they are with a product that is driven by their need, but also speaks to yours.

- Responsibly marketing is a conscious move away from the concept of a "simple answer" or a "single solution".

- A useful perspective is also one that shows workings, invites interpretation and guides action. 

- Marketing is curation. It is a gift.

- Good marketing is an invitation to people to create THEIR OWN solution.

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership BetterBolderBraver.com

The BBB Podcast is back!And here's the latest episode, which is all about... PODCASTING!

In this jovial chat - designed for any people-helpers out there looking to do good, ethical marketing - we give you a raw and ready-to-help rundown of how to go about doing podcasting properly, how to repurpose the content and be inspired by ideas about creating conversations with your "low hanging fruit".

BBB "in-house" podcasting and email marketing expert, Mark Steadman, is all about how to organically grow your followers and build great relationships with them across your podcast and/or email platforms.

This is a great episode to listen to if you are thinking about your ideal client and who you want to surround yourself with.Better Bolder Braver Tools & Techniques workshops are open to community members as well as all "people-helpers" more widely who are interested to join BBB and do good ethical marketing.

The corresponding podcast episodes are designed to compliment these workshops - with each host being a guest on the pod.If you are not a member of the BBB community and so missed the workshop, here's your opportunity to not miss out!

Register for our next Tools & Techniques workshop here

Every coach has been there – especially when you’re just starting out: you need clients, and the quicker the better. At least, that’s how it feels.  So, how do you attract people to work with you?  

You could use Facebook or Google Ads to put your offer in front of a wide audience in the hope that they feel like signing up for some coaching. You could pay someone to send lots of LinkedIn messages on your behalf and hope that of the 1-2% of people who reply, at least some decide to click ‘buy’.  

There’s no shortage of quick ways to advertise. Although it will cost you money before you make any money – catch-22.  

So is there another way of attracting coaching clients without spending money on Ads? Yes there is and this episode will show you how.

In this episode, we join the first of six Monday Masterclass sessions dedicated to a chapter in the coaches marketing journey. You can join our LIVE weekly masterclass conversations for free, find out about upcoming events and save your spot with the event link on our website, betterbolderbraver.com

This week is chapter one Mindset.

This is the stage in which we invite coaches to consider their value & impact. Yes, it's a big one. And it can go existential. So this is also about self-compassion and a safe place to reflect.

We will be talking about how you can recognise and appreciate what effect you can have on your clients' lives. This in turn helps us to feel more confident about talking about the outcomes, results and insights you can serve to those who work with you.

We also encourage coaches at this stage to think carefully about what makes them feel safe, inspired, confident and energised. From here, anything is possible…

Read the full Coaches Marketing Journey: https://betterbolderbraver.com/the-coachs-marketing-journey/

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

As a coach, you probably feel like you need to grow a huge online audience – the bigger, the better. This means you spend a lot of time and energy chasing more and more likes and followers. It’s exhausting.

Have you stopped to think about how you turn these followers into customers? Or how many you really need? It’s not as many as you might think.

Listen to this episode to find out more about how to attract better coaching clients.

Learn more and join our community for coaches at BetterBolderBraver.com

When coaches ask “How do I advertise my coaching business?” the tried, trusted (and tired) answers are: SEO, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Squeeze pages, set up a marketing funnel, or my favourite, a baffling combination of all of these presented as if it’s some kind of Secret Formula™ for success!  

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you don’t need any of this. In fact, I’ll go further and say, I can’t tell you what you “need” or “should be doing”.  

What I can and will do in this episode is show you how you can start to put your coaching business out there without the need for what you might be thinking of as “advertising”.

What connects Property Law to the BBC, Freud to Modern Dance, Classical Music to Swimming in Swiss Lakes, Film Production to Music Festivals and the National Garden Scheme to Venice Biennale. My Dad...

I talk a lot about what I call a "work/work" balance (as opposed to the well known concept of the work/life balance). 

Coaches - in particular - are very likely to have chosen to move into the coaching space as a way not only to help others flourish, but  because the attraction of a more independent, entrepreneurial, creative and joyful work life are very attractive to them. 

They may class themselves as having reached their "midlife", see themselves on a "Second Mountain", be disillusioned by the corporate world, by being beholden to the 9-5 structure of time, or just bored of the rat race... Covid and Working From Home have  helped us all reconsider our options. 

But bills need to be paid.

And when you are just starting out as a coach, getting clients can be tough. So sometimes we need to do other work to supplement our income. AND, when we have a unique blend of work practices going on, it can really help to make us stand out... as long as we are able to speak to why the various hats we wear make us an Authority, have Empathy, and have an interesting Story enough that people want to work with us, employ us, appoint us or ask us for our help.

My father is Steven Fogel. I am going to be interviewing him on Thursday 20th October about his life. He has had "a lucky discovery that left him feeling happier and more fulfilled." Here's what happened...

Blogging, networking, promoting, cheerleading, researching, grouping, connecting, having conversations... Linkedin is a one-stop shop for it all. But are we getting the most out of it?

Laura Fox leads the way as a Linkedin expert. She captures audiences with her passion for, and knowledgeable training, around Linkedin's capabilities. If you have a technical question about the platform, she's the person to ask. But she can also speak to the energy and humanity that Linkedin allows us to bring to putting ourselves and our businesses out there.

Laura has worked in Marketing & Advertising for 19 years, specialising in Personal & Employer Brand and B2B Marketing. Having worked for LinkedIn for 7 years, she has deep, specialist knowledge of the platform. Initially hired in a global consulting role, Laura was brought in to educate LinkedIn’s internal sales team how to build brands in the digital space, whilst helping them pitch LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions to large Enterprise businesses. After 2 years, Laura moved into Sales managing a portfolio of clients across all sectors, and eventually running a UK team.

After seven transformational years, and two children, Laura set up her own LinkedIn Consultancy in 2018. Clients include Mattel, Unilever, London Business School and many others across a broad range of sectors. Predominantly Laura advises on how to leverage LinkedIn to support Hiring, Marketing, Sales and to elevate your Personal Brand.

Learn more and start your free 14-day community membership at BetterBolderBraver.com

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

Whether you already host a podcast or want to start your own, there are a lot of questions that come up for coaches.

We're lucky enough to have two podcasting powerhouses as members of this community Mark Steadman and Rob Lawrence. Mark hosts Ear Brain Heart and was there at the dawn of podcasting. Many of you will recognise Rob's voice from the Association for Coaching podcast as well as his own show, Inspirational Creatives.

In this live show, we'll be discussing, and answering, some of the most common questions that we get asked about podcasting and inviting questions from the audience.

There will also be an opportunity to share your favourite podcast and a shameless plug section where we'll give a shout-out to shows from the audience.

It's time to get curious, inspired and energised to hit that record button and get podcasting.

In this first episode of our mini series to celebrate the new Better Bolder Braver offering for Businesses, I speak to an old friend, inspirational coach and consultant in Innovation, Warren Minde. We discuss Personal Brand at work and how important it is to get clear on one's limits, needs, skills and values. We talk about how being a leader is like parenting, but also how important it is for employees to establish their own, independent sense of self. If you are a business owner, an employer, or person working in an organisation with other people, then conversation is definitely for you. To find out more about how Better Bolder Braver can help YOU at work, visit our website: www.betterbolderbraver/corporate And you can find out more about Warren and his work via https://www.linkedin.com/in/warrenminde/

We are kicking off this "Monday Masterclass" series of events to promote the Better Bolder Braver community by showcasing one of our biggest fans and someone who - in turn - we hugely admire.

Lucy's openness to learning, dedication to getting herself out there as a coach - to help as many people as she can - and her excitement to be in our community make her the best kind of Better Bolder Braver member.

We hope you will enjoy what will no doubt be a very grounding and candid conversation. Here's a bit about Lucy...

Lucy Bramley is a Sustainability Coach. She works with people who want to focus on growth and wellbeing. She enjoys supporting people in identifying what they want their lives to be about, understanding their strengths and values and helping them find meaning and purpose.

One of her specific areas of interest is the brain. She works with concepts such as neuro-agility, psychological safety and positive psychology to equip people to use their brains optimally. Based on these concepts, coaching sessions with Lucy are a rich opportunity for growth... "indeed, she says, "I still learn a lot from the experience myself... That's the beauty of the brain - we all have the ability to keep learning and developing all our lives. We just need to be open to growing these skills."

Another area of passion for Lucy is the natural environment. "There's a synergistic link to brain health in the ability to be in touch with nature. In addition there is so much we can learn from nature in terms of functioning in a system, making the best use of resources and being conscious of our personal impacts on the wider world."

Lucy weaves principles from 'permaculture' and environmental sustainability into her life and her coaching. She believes living a sustainable life, both mentally and physically, is critical for our health and happiness now. "It is undoubtedly critical", she says, "that we focus on this today for our entire ecosystem to survive and thrive in future".

Lucy has worked in the tech sector for the past 23 years and says about it "This is an amazing place to work, at the leading edge of change and innovation... However I have become increasingly aware of the unsustainable cultures that many of us struggle to thrive in at a great many companies today. Organisational designs which lack clarity about scope, reward structures based on bell curves and everyday practices such as wall to wall meetings are not healthy. The opportunities that these issues present lead me to believe there's never been a better time to be a coach, and to be in a vibrant community of different types of coaches."

You can find Lucy here:

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lucybramley

You can join the next conversation on our Crowdcast channel. Save your spot today: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

In this episode, we join the third of our Monday Masterclass sessions dedicated to a chapter in the coaches marketing journey. You can join our LIVE weekly masterclass conversations for free, find out about upcoming events and save your spot with the event link on our website, betterbolderbraver.com

This week we’re talking about Story.

Empathy, Authority, and Journey. These are the words that we find help clients to get clear on their story.

To grab the attention of your ideal client, you will need to show empathy combined with authority and to tell an honest and engaging story that will make you stand out from the crowd.

This is the bit about marketing that can really get coaches in a pickle. How authentic should I be? How much do I need to tell? Do I need to bare my soul? How will people react when I'm really transparent? I'm scared of feeling exposed.

What can come up are feelings of vulnerability, a lack of boundaries, regret, embarrassment, fear and a real lack of clarity about what the point of it all is.

As coaches, there is the inherent message when telling your own story that you too are a human being. This serves us very well most of the time, but there is the 'professionality question' that is front and centre of our minds too. So in this episode, we’re going to look at how to tell a great story.

Read the full Coaches Marketing Journey: https://betterbolderbraver.com/the-coachs-marketing-journey/

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

If you are mindful about it, I think your marketing can help you understand yourself.

It's a set of questions, and then using the coaching skills you have to answer them.

At Better Bolder Braver, we create space for coaches tackling marketing to name, discuss and use the emotions that doing marketing evokes. We support our members to work through challenging emotions so as to be more confident about putting themselves out there to help others.

Alex Irving is a member of the Better Bolder Braver community. He is a Mindfulness coach - helping people find clarity, calm and compassion.

For Alex, it’s no problem if you find meditation and “doing mindfulness” difficult. In fact, he positively celebrates people who can admit to themselves and others that it’s a challenge… Alex loves working with people who have tried things like mindfulness and meditation and for one reason or another have found that it hasn’t worked for them. “We can figure it out together.” is his approach.

In the community, we are hot on getting comfortable with the uncomfortable… with naming our challenges, our limits and our appetite for change in an open, vulnerable and curious way. Alex’s approach to helping people develop a realistic and sustainable relationship with mindfulness can teach us a lot in terms of how to approach our marketing. With self-compassion, a sense of humour, a willingness to adapt and with an ability to see that we are unique, we can approach our practice not with a sense of guilt and frustration but instead with gratitude for how it can support us in other areas of our lives.

With Alex, we will be exploring “Marketing with Love - How to build kindness and compassion into your marketing. Alex shares our view that Marketing is a relationship - a connection between you and those you wish to reach. And, “in every relationship”, he says “we see ourselves in particular ways... More than. Less than. Better than. Worse than. Good enough. Not enough. Seen. Not seen. Valued. Not valued.”

How do you see yourself in relation to those you are reaching out to? And however that is, is it set in stone?

In this masterclass, we’ll explore how we can build kindness and compassion within ourselves so that we can market with love.

Alex has a grounding, calming and joyous presence. Join us for this masterclass and learn how to meditate… on and through your marketing… and much more.

In this episode, we join the fourth of our Monday Masterclass sessions dedicated to a chapter in the coaches marketing journey. You can join our LIVE weekly masterclass conversations for free, find out about upcoming events and save your spot with the event link on our website, betterbolderbraver.com

The last chapter Journey is the peak of the Better Bolder Braver Marketing Journey is all about mapping the way for the client.

Clients are much more likely to work with you if they can see where they are starting from, where they will end up, and how they will get there. Showing them 'their journey'  is a really effective way to show your clients what they can achieve and that you're the perfect person to guide them along the way.

Read the full Coaches Marketing Journey: https://betterbolderbraver.com/the-coachs-marketing-journey/

Join the next conversation: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

When we heard Tad on The Happy Startup School’s Friday Fireside series, we fell in love.

Tad describes himself as “a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned to be a hippy again).”

We very much share Tad’s view that marketing can make you feel good, can be ethical and “conscious”. Tad says that you don’t “have to choose between marketing that works (but feels awful) or marketing that feels good (but gets you no clients).

He has been touring his marketing workshops around Canada, the United States, Europe, and online, bringing refreshing and unorthodox ideas to conscious entrepreneurs and green businesses that help them grow their organisations and businesses (without selling their souls). Instead of charging outrageous amounts, he started doing most of his events on a pay what you can basis–where people came to the whole workshop and then paid him whatever they wanted to pay at the end.

He is the author of sixteen books and workbooks on marketing. He is now dedicated to spending the rest of his days preserving and fostering a more deeply respectful and human culture.

Join us for a cuddle of a conversation, where we will be putting the sparkly ‘Ting!’ back into Marketing for anyone for whom it is feeling toxic, exhausting and compromising in an ethical, life-style or self-growth sense. But who still wants it to work.

Building a community is hard. It can feel like an enormous amount of work, and like a big risk. That’s why we’re inviting 50 coaches to join us as pioneers and help us in building our community.

Learn what these members get, why you should consider becoming one and how to secure your place.

https://betterbolderbraver.com/founding-50-members/

How do you feel about marketing yourself to prospective coaching clients?

Comfortable? Assured? Positive? Confident?

Or are you (even a little) nervous, uneasy, hesitant, uncertain…?

Whether it’s a 1-to-1 pitch, a Zoom call, or recording persuasive content to camera, if you’re feeling any of the latter emotions, you have company. Most people don’t like the idea of putting themselves, or their business, out there. It often feels daunting to explain or justify what you do… especially in front of a camera!

If you feel in need of more confidence when selling and marketing yourself, listen to this episode for three practical steps that will help you put yourself out there and feel better about doing so.

Learn more and join the conversation at BetterBolderBraver.com

Marketing is often talked about in relation to ‘products’ – but how does that apply when you view what you do as a service?

What’s more, why bother thinking in product terms? Why not just market your services?

For the simple reason, people (potential clients) are more comfortable buying products. Products – whether the latest iPhone or a tin of peas – are tangible, demonstrable, easier to attribute value to.

If your marketing can give people something to grasp (literally or metaphorically) about what you’re offering then they’ll see it as valuable – at which point they start to think seriously about buying.

Here we often talk about marketing your coaching as a product and I realised the other day that I’ve never actually written about a very common question I get asked: What is a coaching product? In this episode we'll find out.

You can also read the blog version: https://betterbolderbraver.com/how-to-turn-your-coaching-service-into-a-product/

At Better Bolder Braver, we pay homage to - and stand by - ‘The Ethical Move’ Pledge, which is creating a movement around ethical marketing. We encourage all of our members to consider the Pledge for themselves.

Part of the team behind the ethical move is Karen Webber, a fellow marketing coach, trainer and strategist who, through her consultancy business, Goodness Marketing, helps small businesses with big hearts do marketing that feels good, does good and gets good results.

Originally from a seaside town in South Africa, Karen now finds herself living on the edge of the Peak District, where she makes up for the lack of ocean by spending as much time as possible outside in the hills or in water.

We are so looking forward to immersing ourselves in the world of marketing ethics with Karen on this Monday Masterclass and we encourage you to check her out via any of her social channels - her content is honest, refreshing, so informative, inspiring and also super funny.

Check Karen out here:

https://goodnessmarketing.co.uk/

https://goodnessmarketing.co.uk/newsletter

https://www.instagram.com/goodnessmarketing/

https://www.theethicalmove.org/

Join the next conversation on our Crowdcast channel: https://www.crowdcast.io/betterbolderbraver

Not everyone learns in the same way. As a coach marketing their services, seeking to showcase your expertise and reliability to a target market, you can’t afford to ignore the fact that how people like to absorb information differs, according to one of four broad preferences.

Why is this a potential problem?

Because if you always market the same way, using the same method (the one you’re most comfortable with, no doubt) you’re only engaging a fraction of your potential audience.

But don’t worry, reaching more people, broadening your appeal, isn’t a huge or complicated task…