Health Coach TIME MANAGEMENT. Copyright 2013 The Health Coach Group All Rights Reserved

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1 Health Coach TIME MANAGEMENT 195

2 Beyond Time Management Health coaches in particular have found themselves in a bit of a time crunch and I am not sure that we all realize the true impact of healthy living has made on our lives. Society spent decades gaining technological and time saving advances. During this time, we got pretty used to not spending our time growing our own food, going to the market daily for fresh foods, preparing 3+ meals a day, walking to get what we wanted, researching anything we wanted (beyond Google), cleaning our homes with elbow grease instead of super heavy-duty chemicals or even doing our shopping at the store instead of Amazon.com. Not only did we save time with conveniences, we filled our time with other things. Women became full time workers, business owners and/or fund raisers, we fill our time with learning new things. We have mastered social media and created whole new international relationships online. 196

3 Beyond Time Management All these things take up our day.and now, we are bringing much of what technology took away.back into our lives. This is much more of an issue than time management. Sometimes running to the pantry to open a can, throw it in the microwave and eat a hot meal sounds awfully tempting as long as we don t think about the health repercussions. Just so we can get back and take care of pressing customer service issues, new product production, keeping up with a new project a member of our tribe has going.. For most of us this isn t an option. We got to where we are today because of health issues brought on by the decades of technological advances. It is an evil circle. 197

4 Beyond Time Management I have seen time management become as much of a time burden for some people as a time saver. But, something has to give someplace. This is not a full time job it should take 15 minutes weekly and 5-10 minutes daily. Stephen Covey is still a good person to fall back on. Weekly Review your roles. (Physical, Social, Mental, Spiritual) This is the sharpen the saw step. If you don t take care of these on a daily/weekly basis, your life starts to show signs of strain. The roles and responsibilities are not always the same, but as long as you review them and take them into consideration, you should not find your life out of whack too often. Choose big rocks. Ask yourself this every day; What is the most important thing I can do in this role this week that would have the greatest positive impact? Schedule your week. Get the big things done, then fill in the rest. Daily Check your appointments for the day. These are fixed commitments to yourself or others whom you have promised time to. Make a realistic list. This doesn t mean your task list is completed from top to bottom. After you check your appointments for the day, you can estimate how much time you have left and fill the time in. Prioritize your list. This is one of the most relevant steps you take. This keeps non-important activities from overtaking the most important events. 198

5 Beyond Time Management By keeping track of your activities, prioritizing and reorganizing you get to the next step the things that you need to either eliminate or delegate. If it is more important that you spend time with your kids, put in a 12 hour day of work, eat well and get a workout in. What are you willing to give up OR what can someone else do for you? If you are lucky like I am, you can delegate to your husband. (I haven t always been in a position to do this). He can go to the grocery store, do the laundry and prepare certain meals. Maybe he can even take the kids to and from activities maybe not. Sometimes it isn t what you want to delegate but what you can delegate, because someone else is able or willing to do it for you. That is where your values and roles come in. Will you regret the time not spent taking your children to school or yoga after they grow up and move away from home? These are the decisions that can be made and not regretted if you plan your time now. Will you regret the time spent cleaning your house after your kids grow up and move away from home? Maybe not. Time management is much more than creating time in the day for something it is asking for help, saying no, negotiating trade-offs and incorporating new options. 199

6 A Day in the Life of a Health Coach Monday April 1 6 workout C Post blog 7 Get kids ready for school/juice B Grocery store 8 shower A (2) Prepare for coaching sessions (5 minute review) 9 A Prepare for Gro Corp meeting (1 hour) 10 Meeting with Susan newsletter 11 Meeting with Jen 12 Lunch with Bill Meeting with GroCorp 5 Get kids from after care 6 Prepare dinner

7 Activity List Fill in any daily business activities that are not included Clients Finances Administrative Referral marketing (10 min) Bill paying Thank you notes Billing Scheduling Meetings Taxes Program & Product Production Customer Service Record keeping Planning & Review Scheduling Planning Employees/Subcontractors Delegating Empowering Supervising Marketing Social Media Website Advertising 201

8 Daily Business Activity Business can be consistent if you plan ahead. The activities on the previous page can be set up in a routine and systematic procedure. Everyone, including yourself, should have a clearly understood role to play. Because you have set up routine procedures, problems are systematically solved and your business works smoothly. Look at the activity list on the previous page and brainstorm on how it can be done more effectively. What is right and what is wrong with the way it is being processed now. 202

9 Clients Chain of Events Customer sees Facebook post Customer goes to website and fills out opt-in form Customer goes on mailing list Newsletter goes out weekly Customer purchases 6 month program online Customer sets up appointment with online scheduler Auto mailer sends out first module (session 1) Give customer session 2 and have them set next appointment time Repeat 203

10 Clients Chain of Events If you have set up your payments through Book Fresh or some other scheduler, you will have no bookkeeping to do with the client. Payments will be made up front and you can focus on working with your client. This chain of events could be slightly different if the client calls you to set their first appointment or if they are referred by someone else and they you. The secret is consistency, if you do it one way once, do it that way all the time. Business runs smoother, clients know what to expect, employees know what to expect and you don t have to think about it over and over again. One more thing, the easier and least steps it takes for your client to sign up, the more likely they will. Below write out how you your chain of events moves and what you can do to make it run smoother: 204

11 Clients Chain of Events Now, look at your list and this list, what would you add and take away? How can you streamline things to run smoothly and evenly time after time? Do a flow sheet for these beginnings: Telephone call, friend refers, you hear someone needs a health coach, you are asking for a referral you can go all the way back to writing the sales page on your website if you want. The more prepared and consistent, the better. 205

12 Clients - Sales It s time we get down to the actual selling process. It s a crucial process for any business out there. This is different than the sales funnel or the client chain of events. This is the actual one on one communication between health coach and a the potential client. When you talk to someone who needs your service, you are communicating. Forget about selling. This is my forte! I love it, maybe a little because I like succeeding. Mostly because it makes me feel good to fill a person s needs. This is where many health coaches freeze up and it is not necessary to feel that way. People appreciate someone who will listen to what they need and then thoughtfully respond to it. Have you ever talked to a sales person who has the close 3 times rule? They are good at intimidating a sale out of some, but they have the smallest number of happy customers and the most cancellations and refunds. The law of numbers may be with them, but true service and client retention will never be in their grasp A successful sales person serves. They DO NOT sell. That is right a health coach does not have to be a salesperson to get clients. This is the difference between a person who constantly struggles and one who successfully fills the needs of their clients. Whether you are online on the phone, or brick and mortar. Listening is as important before you work with a client as during. 206

13 3 Secrets to Big Sales # s 1. Only market to the people who fall in your niche. The people you established earlier as being your target market. This used to be called qualifying. You are only talking to the people who want to listen. 2. Don t have a $ earnings, sale, target anything in your head when you talk to the customer. The only thing that should be in your head is how you can help that person in front of you. Decide up front, it is your job to explain to that person what they need to solve their problem. To do that, you have to listen to them. Hear what they are saying and address what they are saying not what happened to you, your neighbor, your kids but address that person and their need. If what you have to offer is not what they need don t be afraid to say it. If you are honest, you will prosper maybe not with this person, but with their friends, neighbors, kids or parents. You do not have to be a cheesy salesperson to sell health coaching. If they ask a question do not talk around it. Be direct and answer their question exactly as they stated it. 3. Know what you are talking about and know if you don t know. Don t ever try to bluff your way through. Admit if you don t know the answer and tell them where your great resources for that answer are. There is nothing wrong with not knowing. It is very wrong to pretend like you know. 207

14 Spare pages for lots of ideas! 208