The Introvert Coach
Sarah Short
Turning qualified coaches into well-paid professionals | ICF-Accredited Marketing Courses For Coaches | Mentoring | Straightforward, No Nonsense, Actionable Marketing Techniques | Prices from ￡3100 (inc VAT)
The stories we tell ourselves can keep us stuck.
One of the stories that seems to be very well-told is the tale of the introverted coach who can't market, because they don't like to make a show of themselves.
Let me back up a bit.
I'm an extrovert. I'm the most extroverted person you'll probably ever meet. I get my energy from being with others (online or in person) and I process everything out loud - even when I'm alone. If I complete a personality profile questionnaire, if someone is facilitating it they'll say 'gosh, you score high on the extrovert scale!'. Every single time.
What this means is that coaches regularly say a version of this sentence to me: it's alright for you Sarah, it's easy for you to market because you're such an extrovert. It's different for me because I'm an introvert.
Here's the thing.
A surprising number of Coaching Revolution coaches are introverts, and they're bloody good marketers. They are building amazing coaching businesses that either are earning them a good living, or are well on the way to earning them a good living depending upon where they are in their marketing journey. These introverted coaches and their wonderful marketing prove that not being able to market because you're an introvert is simply a story you're telling yourself.
In order to demonstrate to you that great marketing can be done by introverts, and it doesn't involve you standing on a metaphorical chair and shouting 'BUY MY STUFF!!' at the top of your voice, I'm going to share a list of some of our introvert coaches and a link to their profile so that you can go and look at what they're doing.
Because most coaches have no idea what good marketing looks like, I'm even going to give you a list of questions to ask yourself about what you can see on their profile that demonstrates good marketing.
Here's the list of questions to consider:
What you need to bear in mind as you look at these various profiles is that they are not marketing to you. What I mean is, you're a coach. The Coaching Revolution coaches rarely market to coaches (we have a couple of exceptions - coaching supervision businesses for example, they market to coaches).
Sometimes, when coaches look at the marketing of Coaching Revolution coaches, they say things like 'well that doesn't make sense to me!'. The most important words in that sentence are to me. The coach isn't marketing to you, they're marketing to a specific demographic which probably doesn't include you. If you wanted to buy coaching from any of them, they may well be happy to engage you as a client, but they're not focusing their marketing on you.
So, armed with the questions from above, which are designed to help you understand the focus each of our fabulous introverted coaches have with their marketing, here we go:
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Can you see how each of these introverts have a comfortable message that they share?
Introverts Make Excellent Marketers
I could carry on with my list of introverted Coaching Revolution coaches who are really excellent marketers.
Marketers don't toot their own horn, that's not what marketing is. Marketers speak to the kind of people they work with - people they understand and empathise with - about things that are important to those people. No bragging. No shouting. No pushy nonsense.
So - if you're thinking that it's different for you because you're an introvert, may I challenge your thinking?
Helping smart Pharma leaders close the gender gap without expensive external hires | Coaching | Mentoring
9 个月As one of the introverts that Sarah has mentioned, I can confirm that it is possible to market comfortably and effectively without having to be extravert or loud or pretending to be something I’m not. Because, let’s face it, you want potential clients to be comfortable with you and have rapport with you. And you only get that by being yourself. And demonstrating through talking to them about their situation in a way that shows you understand them and you ‘get’ them. And that’s what will make them comfortable with you. (And yes I do have clients who are extravert as well as introverts. )
??Author ?? Master Mentor Coach ??Creative Coach Supervisor ?? Leadership and Transitions Coach ??Retreat leader??Podcast host: Lifting the Lid on Coaching Supervision
9 个月I’m an introvert though most people wouldn’t think so by the frequency of my posts. I’m not sure that they would pass your test Sarah but they are working for my business
Student, iPEC Coaching at Higher-Powered Coaching
9 个月Excellent article. I saved it so I can check those profiles later today. Thank for the list of things to look for. I'm a visual learner, so it will be enlightening to spot these "creatures in the wild" doing their introverted marketing thing. Thanks for posting!