A couple of weeks ago I was feeling a strong sense of panic. With not much more than three weeks left to finish my professional coaching program at Adler, I was way behind where I should have been. I still needed to conduct 20 coaching sessions.
Family and health issues had kept me offline and out of the loop for more than two months Now, unfortunately, there could be no extensions. I had to catch up and finish. That was it.
I sat myself down and thought and thought. Then I had an idea. I’ll offer free coaching through my blog and through Twitter. That will do the trick.
After all, I had more than 19,000 followers on Twitter. It wouldn’t be a problem to find clients, especially for free coaching. I was very wrong.
Much to my dismay, after two months offline in a rapidly changing social network, it was as if I no longer existed.
I thought some more and realized that I needed the help of somebody with influence and expertise to get the job done.
I reached out to two of my friends, Larry Brauner of Online-Social-Networking.com and Darren Rowse of Problogger.net, and asked for assistance.
Darren was awesome. He “tweeted” his followers on Twitter and found me some of the clients I needed. Larry… he went far above and beyond the call of duty.
Instead of simply recommending me to his contacts, Larry gave me a crash course in social networking. Within 24 hours, he was able to help me set myself up on one of his social networking sites, Beyond Business Coaching, and he was able to explain how to create a profile, start a blog, and write a post.
However, Larry didn’t stop there. He took the time to review my first post, suggest improvements, and help with the layout. Then, after everything was set up, Larry shared my blog post with his network of social media contacts.
Within hours, 15 people had signed up for one of my free coaching sessions. Needless to say, I was totally blown away. I had never imagined that social media was that effective.
What I’m most grateful for is that Larry – and Darren to a large extent as well – didn’t just feed me fish. They taught me how to fish. They taught me how to connect with clients online and how to find new ones too.
I want to grow my coaching practice on the Internet. I want to do it right and be effective, but I don’t have the time to learn all the intricacies of social networking or social marketing. Of course I’ll be looking to Larry for the ideas and guidance I need to make it work.
