Gary Wood is the new director of the Christian Coach Network. He’s not new to CCN, having served on the CCN board in the past.  But members have been getting to know him over the last few months, including me.  I’ve noticed that Gary has a deep desire for Christian coaches to be successful in whatever God has called them to do.  In the last CCN newsletter, Gary extended words of encouragement to Christian coaches and he gave me permission to share an excerpt of his article, Focused Persistence, here. 

I appreciate Gary’s willingness to tell the truth - that coaching is not “an easy road to riches” and it requires persistent work.  And I’ve enjoyed getting to know Gary’s heart of faith that believes that God faithfully provides for our needs as we work in alignment with His purposes.

Focused Persistence 

Bills have to be paid. Few of us have the luxury of not realizing a financial return for the time and effort we put into our work. If you can’t make a living, you can’t make a difference. Financial realities don’t wait for your dreams to catch up. They demand attention on their own terms.

Many budding coaches have become discouraged and left ‘the business’ within the first year or two of start-up. Truth is, often a solid business and marketing strategy was neglected in favor of a wide-eyed dream of eager clients flocking to buy ill defined services on the basis of thin air.

Coaching is not an easy road to riches. It never was. Those experiencing success have worked hard to achieve it. They have put in place good strategies, with clear offerings and consistent work, day after day, month after month and year after year. They innovated and cut their teeth on lean beginnings and steadily built business or ministry over time. They learned from every failure and turned on a dime to do it different the next time.

To those of you who have achieved … congratulations. You’ve worked hard for it.

To those who have not yet arrived, don’t be discouraged. You can build a solid coaching business. You may have to change some of your assumptions about how it will happen. You may have to work very hard on strategy development and consistent implementation, doing things you never felt comfortable with previously. There may be lean times where you will be cast on the Lord in new ways. But your persistent effort can pay off.

Be encouraged.

 
The Christian Coaches Network has just launched an exciting new website.  Check it out at www.ChristianCoaches.com

If you’re a new coach interested in cost-efficient resources, that’s exactly the topic Beth Cole (www.thewebservant.com) and I have been discussing.

Need an affordable website?  If you’re new to establishing a web presence, please know that you have many choices.  Put time into your research and learn what your choices are even if you’re not a technical person.  Don’t go with the first thing that makes sense to you - dig even deeper to best understand your choices and make an informed decision.

My recommendation is that you establish a site that can easily be updated with basic text changes, fresh content and your latest updates.  Most coaches aren’t technicians, but you can hire someone create a site that you can maintain by learning to update fairly easily.  That creates freedom for you and saves you money that can be invested in hiring technical help for when more major design changes or revisions are in order. 

Here is part of an interview with Beth:

Linda:  What are the most efficient, cost effective ways to create a great website?  

Beth:  For efficient and cost effective I’d say Wordpress.com, or a Wordpress hosting service like Page.ly, or  Web Coaching Solutions. 

Wordpress.com has a limited number of included free design themes. 

Page.ly offers free and premium themes with great support for Wordpress (like automatic upgrades). 

Web Coaching Solutions is plug-n-play with pre-written text and images. 

Any of these tools will allow you to manage your own content.  The Wordpress options will give you more freedom in terms of blogging, audio, and social media, etc. 

There are many free website solutions - many that come with a hosting package for instance.  Some have mentioned Site Build It as an option.  I have not used this tool so I don’t want to give an opinion. 

Linda:  When I interview you on May 18, can we talk about the pros and cons of the various options? 

Beth:  Absolutely, Linda, that will be fun!  It’s one of my favorite subjects and I will look forward to it.  

Linda:  I know I’ve been really happy with Wordpress at one of my sites.  I can see myself converting them all to Wordpress.  

Beth:  Here are couple of articles from my blog that may be helpful for coaches considering Wordpress:  Is Wordpress a Good Fit for You? and Choosing a Free, Premium or Custom Theme for Wordpress. 

Linda:  Thanks for the excellent resources Beth! 

OK, everyone!  Put this on your calendar now!  For more about creating a cost-effective website, join us as I interview Beth live at the next Christian Coaching Resources free monthly “Christian Coaching…Tell Me More” meeting on Tuesday, May 18 at 12 noon Central time.  Click here for free and easy registration. 

Beth and I invite you to comment on this post with questions you have about setting up a website. That way we’ll be sure to cover your special interests on May 18.

While putting together a list of free and low-cost tools on the web, I checked in with Beth Cole of www.thewebservant.com to include her expert input.  Later this week I’ll be posting a brief interview with Beth about cost-effectively creating websites.  In the meantime, we have compiled a list of tools for you to investigate. 

Many of these online tools have free trial periods so you can try them first:

To offer group coaching via telephone:  For the bridge line, I’ve recently had good connections with www.freeconferencecall.com .  Beth says try Whistletree for bride lines also.  To help facilitate your groups (up to five for $27 per month with no long term contract) look into www.groupcoachingmanager.com .

For an online scheduling tool:  I just started using www.timedriver.com and so far, I’m really impressed.  Simple to set up and after the generous 90 day trial the cost is $29.95 for a year.  Beth says also check out Genbook, or Acuity Scheduling (allows payment) .     

To create surveys:  Use www.surveymonkey.com to create surveys to engage your potential clients and invite them for input.  The basic account is free.

To covert a document to pdf:  Try www.pdfonline.com to convert documents to pdf format.  Beth’s additional recommendations include www.freepdfconvert.com and Adobe’s PDF tool (subscription).,

For email marketing and list management:  I use www.constantcontact.com .  Beth recommends another popular possibility, www.icontact.com .  Both offer free trials.

To request money and facilitate client payments:  Until you obtain a merchant account and shopping cart which is more costly, www.paypal.com will facilitate invoices and requests for payment.  Clients can use their credit cards or bank account to make payments.

More on managing client billing:  Beth uses www.freshbooks.com and says other popular solutions are BlinkSale and Harvest.

For delivering ebooks:  Beth recommends www.ejunkie.com  .

For delivering ecourses:  Beth recommends www.icontact.com.

What recommendations for free and low-cost online tools do you have?  Let us know!  Leave your recommendations in comments below. 

Finally, a strong recommendation from me:  To contribute to your success, go order Beth Cole’s ebook, Essential Web Marketing.  It’s a great investment at only $19.95.  Click here to learn more.

Last week, the topic of our free monthly tele-seminar here at Christian Coaching Resources was “How Much Does a Coaching Business Cost?”  Participants received an outline that included the following budget line items.  I shared how to determine the priority of each line item and how to avoid the most common mistakes that new coaches make. 

As a new coach, it’s important to consider all line items below.  Get excellent input from an expert - preferrably a mentor coach who’s been there before you.  Your mentor coach helps you maximize your financial investment in your business by helping you determine which of the items below are most important for you and merit your investment.  Your mentor coach will help you prioritize and plan each of these items based on your unique vision for your business or ministry.  If you are in need of a mentor coach, contact me to learn more.   

Initial Start Up Expenses - 

• Training
• Adequate work space
• Computer and peripherals to include printer
• Security software
• Mentor coaching to include business vision and marketing plan
• Registering with your state
• Branding
• Website
• Domain registration
• Business cards
• Other print marketing

 On-going Expenses -

• Phone service
• Internet service
• Web hosting
• List management service
• Office supplies

Other Expenses:

• Marketing
• Certification
• Professional association fees
• Training and professional development
• Shopping cart
• Virtual Assistant
• Financial accounting software
• Tax Accountant

Return here for more posts this week on maximizing your financial investment in your business or ministry.

Judy Santos, MCC, founder and director of the Christian Coaches Network, passed away on Tuesday, March 2, in Bellingham, WA.  She was a beloved coach, mentor, colleague, friend, mother and grandmother.  As a community of Christian coaches, we grieve with her family and all those who knew and loved her.  At the invitation of  Tony Stoltzfus at www.christiancoachingcenter.org, I wrote and posted the following as a memorial feature in Judy’s honor.

It may be her cheerfully raspy voice or delightfully distinctive laugh that we first remember when we think of Judy Santos.  After all, as coaches living in a virtual community, many of our most significant relationships are developed over the phone.  Judy’s students, clients, colleagues, and friends will miss the sound of her voice and her laughter.

Those who met Judy in person were often struck by her diminutive size.  Coach Mike Pfau (Crossways Life Coaching) said recently, “I recall when I first met Judy at a CCN conference. I told my wife, ‘She is such a small lady but she has the spirit of a lion!’”

A pioneer in Christian coaching

“Tenacious trailblazer” is one way coach trainer and author Susan Whitcomb (Career Coach Academy) describes Judy.  Her impact on the Christian coaching community began in 1998 and executive coach and author Jane Creswell (Coach Approach Ministries, Internal Impact) tells it like this:

Judy and I both were students at Coach U and had listed ourselves as Christians in the Coach U networking database. Judy contacted me and others about our interest in having lunch together at the ICF conference in 1998 in Scottsdale…It was a table of about 6-8 people. Judy shared her vision for a network and a few of us became the first board members of the Christian Coaches Network in the Spring of 1999. It was exciting to be a part of that conversation and think of the potential that could result from a network of Christian coaches. It reminded me of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he wanted all of us who come after him to be united. This felt like a uniting effort.

Following the formation of the Christian Coaches Network (CCN), coach Ruth Ledesma compiled, Coaching by the Book:  Principles of Christian Coaching (2001). Ruth collaborated with other CCN members who contributed chapters for this book, the first Christian coaching book to highlight the relationship between Biblical principles and coaching concepts.

The most well-known Christian coaching book, Gary Collins’ Christian Coaching:  Helping Others Turn Potential Into Reality (2001, 2009), introduced me to Judy Santos.  Gary described the formation of CCN as he acknowledged the ways she contributed to his book.  I wanted to know more about CCN and called Judy in 2002 .  She impacted my life and career in many ways, but most significantly by my connection with CCN.  Through Judy I discovered a community of excellent coaches who were deeply committed to Christ.  Over the years I’ve enjoyed meeting CCN coaches from across the U.S. as well as Mexico, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia.

The Christian Coaches Network has sponsored three live conferences, and I’ve experienced all three - Virginia Beach (VA) in 2003, Seattle (WA) in 2005 and Charlotte (NC) in 2007.  Assembled together at each conference were a diverse group of coaches – diverse in background, training, denomination, niche, calling, etc.  All, however, were united by a desire to be Christ-honoring coaches.  Those attending the conferences found the community encouraging and invigorating.

Coach Mary Ann Deitschler was the conference chair for the CCN live conferences.  Of Judy she says:

Her goal was for Christian coaches to impact the world and make our presence known in the coaching community, and I believe it was realized. She was a tireless leader willing to invest her time, energy, and resources to make it happen. It was a pleasure working with her because her approach was always direct, honest, mature and solution-oriented.

Coach, Teacher and Mentor

Judy was an ICF Master Certified Coach and many of our fellow Christian coaches knew her as their personal coach.  Coach and author, Jane Birr, says, “Judy was my first coach 10 years ago as I started my life coaching business. I could not have asked for a better person to guide me on the journey.”

In his recent Professional Christian Coaching Program newsletter, Christopher McCluskey, coach trainer and author, wrote of Judy’s impact as a teacher and mentor to many:

Many…were trained by Judy in one of the 33 Foundational Coach Training [PCCP/ILCT] classes she had co-facilitated over the last 10 years, [and] were prepared for ICF exams in her practicum classes.  When combined with her earlier years on faculty with Coach University and the private mentor coaching she provided for hundreds of new coaches, there is no person in the world who has directly trained and equipped more Christian coaches than Judy Santos.

Leaving a legacy

Judy left the helm of a significant part of her professional legacy to the new director of the Christian Coaches Network, Gary Wood.  Two phone gatherings - virtual memorial services in honor of Judy - were beautifully facilitated by Gary on Tuesday, March 10, 2010.  Those on the bridge lines shared a time of reflection, sadness, celebration and inspiration.

Personal stories were shared and one of the themes I noticed was Judy’s care for others demonstrated by her commitment to praying for personal needs within the Christian coaching community.  Several remembered her faithful, specific prayers for their families in times of difficulty.

Another theme at the virtual memorial services was Judy’s love for her family.  As much as she demonstrated her love for coaching and Christian coaches, her love for her family was preeminent.  Many in the coaching community knew her delight in her children and grandchildren and that was strongly noted as we shared memories of her.

When I read how Judy’s family described her, it was delightful to see that they who knew her best remember her in the same ways we in the coaching community do.  Her family says:

She is remembered for her unwavering Christian faith, her wonderful sense of humor, her tenacity, strong opinions and her love.

Judy’s battle with cancer began five years ago.  Recently, after the illness returned and progressed aggressively, she said she would be healed on this side of heaven or the other.  She went on to her healing in heaven on March 2, 2010.  Until we see her again, she will be greatly missed.

Furthering Judy’s legacy

In the past few weeks, Gary Wood has passionately and actively taken on the leadership of the Christian Coaches Network.  As with all change, new and exciting initiatives are emerging, and Judy gave her input and blessing before the official leadership transition last month (Feb 2010).

Judy’s faithful commitment to prayer will remain the same at CCN.  An intercessory prayer team, lead by coach Stephanie Oden, has long been part of the fabric of the community.   Additionally, coach Vicki Corrington will be facilitating a new monthly prayer gathering for CCN members.  Judy set the stage for prayer to be a continued hallmark of her legacy.

The Christian Coaches Network is in the early stages of establishing the Judy Santos Award of Excellence.  CCN leadership and Judy’s family agree that this will be a fitting tribute to Judy’s career and her impact on the profession of Christian coaching.  If you wish to donate to support this award and the recognition it will mean for Christian coaches in Judy’s honor, you can send a check in memory of Judy to Christian Coaches Network, 142 Pratt Crescent, Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada, P1P 1P5. CCN is not a charitable organization and therefore unable to issue receipts for charitable giving purposes.  However, donations will be acknowledged to Judy’s family.