The Style Guide Visits the ICF-GTA Conference in Toronto

On Saturday, October 4, I had the pleasure of attending the Fall Community Conference of the ICF-GTA, which is the International Coach Federation's Toronto Chapter.

Building your coaching business? Expert speakers say: "Be a good writer, or hire a good writer"

The focus of the conference was Business Building for Coaches, and several of the speakers reinforced that good writing is an essential marketing skill.

Nicki Weiss and Susan Jacobson talked about Building Strategic Partnerships and Alliances, and Nicki identified her newsletter as the key to her success, helping her to:

1. Demonstrate her expertise and value to potential alliance partners
2. Nurture her relationships with those prospective partners over time
3. Market consistently and effectively to the members of her alliance organizations
4. Continue to build her visibility and credibility when she places her newsletter articles in trade publications and websites
5. Develop the curriculum for her teleforums and workbooks by expanding on her articles

From all of the questions Nicki got, it was clear that the coaches in the room knew about the importance of newsletters and article marketing but were missing some crucial pieces to actually put them to use.

Another speaker, Liz Walker of Marketing Masters, presented the elegantly simple Duct Tape Marketing system. She talked about how important it is for prospective clients to know, like and trust you.

Good writing is essential for every stage of the Duct Tape system, so much so that Liz said very clearly, "You have to either be a good writer or hire a good writer."

The Style Guide was in good company

I also participated in the conference as a door prize sponsor. To help conference delegates with their writing efforts, I donated two copies of the Style Guide as well as a Talk-Write Article package.

As it turned out, I was in good company as a sponsor. My client and colleague Sandra De Freitas, the Tech Coach for Coaches, also donated copies of her book, Does This Blogsite Make My Wallet Look Fat?

Comments

[Sandra De Freitas]

Hi Linda,

Thank you for posting a picture of the sponsors! I was sad I couldn't attend and was so happy to see our name in "lights" :) Thanks Linda!

[Linda Dessau]

Hi Sandra,

You're welcome! I wish you could have been there as well. Next time!