By marie mastria
 Coaching has become hot. The field of coaching welcomes those from other professions to share their information and experience with others.
If you are interested in a coaching career, there are many quality training programs, and the International Coach Federation (ICF) is the premier association for professional coaches, offering certifications for individuals and training programs.
To be successful, however, takes more than developing the skills needed to coach. Some years ago, those in the field had the task of educating the public in what coaching was. But as television stories and news articles about coaching have increased, the field has become more popular.
A new coach still must, however, make others aware of what he or she has to offer. Developing a specialty or niche may make it somewhat easier to introduce yourself to a particular target market. When one is starting out, there is concern that specializing may keep those outside the specialty from contacting you, but that does not seem to be so.
For us, one of our specialties has been serving commuters.
We see what is offered to that group as part of the health and wellness area which is our broader interest. This has not prevented us from working with business people, retired women, coaches, people with physical disorders, alcoholics ready to take on the world, mental health professionals looking to add a new specialty to their practices, and others.
Building a practice takes work and focus. Block out at least a half day a week for marketing. Look at marketing as part of your job, no matter what profession you are in. If they don't know you, they cannot refer to you.
You can hire someone to market for you, but you still have to be involved and physically present so they begin to know you.
Choosing two or three ways to keep your name in front of the public is a good strategy. Here are some suggestions gathered over the years. Using them will cut the time to a full practice:
1. Speaking: Start at local associations, such as libraries, business associations, schools, churches. People are eager to learn about new services, and giving some tips on how to improve themselves in the area in which you are speaking will help them remember you. Don't forget to have well done business cards to distribute. If you have books or tapes you've produced or have become affiliated with, you can sell them at the back of the room.
2. Article writing: With the internet, articles can be distributed easily through article submission sites. Journalists and newsletter editors comb these sites for articles that would be of interest to their readership. Just ten articles can give a new coach a jump start in becoming a familiar name with his or her target audience. The author box is especially important because it will give your contact information and a bit of information about you, as well as a copyright for the piece.
3. Teleclasses: Teleclasses have become a popular way to learn and to teach. Other than a telephone, a conference line, great information and an advertisement, no travel, no physical room or other overhead is needed. Unknown coaches have made names for themselves by providing good and useful teleclasses to their specialty populations. You can offer free teleclasses that are previews to paid series.
4. Web Site: A web site lends credibility and gives prospective clients a place to go to gather more information about you and to become familiar with you. You can present the impression you wish others to have of your practice, state your mission and list services you offer. You can even sell appropriate products such as e-books, hard copy books, CDs and affiliate products that might be of interest to your specialty population.
5. Associations: Joining associations allows both professional and social outlet. Some bring you face to face with your target population. For example, the Chamber of Commerce is good if you are interested in working with entrepreneurs and real estate clubs allow you to meet investors on a regular basis.
Professional coaching associations are important and the International Association for Coaching (ICF) is probably the most influential and most important to the professional.
6. Strategic Alliances: The coaching profession has attracted many brilliant and accomplished people from a wide range of fields. There are alliances to be made with those who have skills you may not have. Consider aligning yourself with others in order to shorten your time to a full practice.
Two types of alliances come to mind and both are necessary: Have a support group that you have consistent contact with. These are people who have goals that are similar and can share frustrations, suggestions and contacts with you.
The other type of alliance is with a person or, better, people, who will work with you to develop a project. Writing a book and developing programs are examples of strategic alliances.
This should get you started thinking of ways to develop your practice. By choosing one or two tactics, and fully working them, you will be on your way to a full practice.
The authors work with people who wish to develop coaching in their practices and life and wellness issues. Dr. Marie Mastria,PCC can be reached at http://www.commuterassist.com or 570-839-6394. Dr. John Bellanti,PCC, can be reached at 814-234-7220 or http://www.coachingthroughthecrossroads.com Dieting With Pleasure
By Richard Barker
 Oh dear. Have you put on a few more pounds? Have the celebrations taken their toll on your body shape? Considering dieting, but can't find the right one for you?
It's an all too familiar story of gluttonous orgy. Large meals, irresistible cakes and pies all washed down with copious amounts of alcohol. Why should we blame you though eh? The packaging of foodstuff is designed to make you buy as much as you can carry.
A fat you = A fat profit for the company.
That's business.
Many people will use the old excuse of having a slow metabolism. Your brain wants more food than your body needs. It's good to know that the power of advertising works.
Then there's the countless number of diets. How many have you tried? How many lasted more than a week? Very often with a lot of commercial diets, the only weight you lose and keep off is the weight in your wallet.
The problem with most diets is that they are just not an enjoyable experience. The prospect of replacing cakes with carrots is enough to send some people into shock. You also need to be dieting for the right reason, which is for you alone - not for anyone else. If you don't want to lose weight for yourself then you shouldn't even start a diet. Perhaps you are happy being fat. If not, how could you lose weight and enjoy it? With a little bit of psychology, that's how. You continue eating all the same foods you enjoy, but you'll find that you tend to eat less. The only sacrifice with this method is that you have to say goodbye to quick meals.
We rush around so much in this world, fitting in a snack or a meal when we have a spare five minutes. This has to stop. Eating is a pleasurable experience and a very important one. The speed eating culture has resulted in us forgetting to taste our food. I'm pretty sure the tongue misses all the action from childhood and the jaw is virtually redundant. One hand doesn't seem to be quick enough so we shovel with both hands.
Very simply, you need to learn to taste your food again. Savour each mouthful. Examine the flavours. You'll be surprised at what you've been missing. Have a good long chew so that you experience the textures as well as tastes. Some flavours need to warm in the mouth before they are evident to our senses and some flavours require sustained chewing for them to be released. Does it taste as it smells? Do you want to sip a little wine and chew? Mix the flavours? Become an expert in the subtle differences in taste. You'd be surprised just how many people don't do this. What an absolute waste of the human senses.
This method has the effect of extending meal times. You are also likely to feel full up with less food. Remember that eating is what keeps us alive and it would be such a shame to pass through life without seriously enjoying all the flavours and textures that the world's food has to offer. How many top level chefs do you know who are obese?
Richard Barker writes for the Hammock Survival Weight Loss Section. Feel free to reproduce any article as long as the author's resource box remains intact. Visit now for many more articles on diet and weight loss. Two Deaths on the Same Afternoon
By Jack Deal
 I guess it's not unusual for two people you know to
die at the same time. It happens and it happened to me the other day...
The first was Dr. J. I knew him when I worked in the local hospital as a Grief Counselor and Pastoral Care Coordinator. I worked critical care and the emergency room. Dr. J was arrogant, wealthy and somehow oblivious to all the death he dealt with every day. Not that he wasn't a good doctor; I suppose in terms of skills he was as good as the next one in line. But like many so-called caring professionals he was driven by one bottom line...his.
He drove a fancy Euro sedan and always wore lots of gold jewelry. He seemed to be one of those that if he has it, he has to flaunt it. To him, everyone that wasn't a doctor was simply in the wrong caste and wrong social level. Simple employees were definitely not worth much on his social status scale.
When I quit the hospital I opened up a used car lot and became a used car dealer. I also ran an auto repair shop and got to know the Mrs. Dr. J. She was a whiny, neurotic bundle of nerves that always was in a dither about something on her car or in her personal life.
She would complain that the good Dr. J was not giving her enough allowance and it was through this happy couple that I first began to see the California 'non-divorced though divorced' status: couples living together that can't stand each other. But hey, one has to have their priorities straight, no? After all, it's all about the money, honey.
California is a common property state and by law assets are split down the middle in a divorce case. Over the years I saw many male business men that were set back 10-15 years in their businesses by a divorce.
The smarter ones simply did not divorce and that was the route the good Dr. J chose. He told his 'ex' that he was not going to divorce her but would give her a monthly allowance instead. I forget what that amount was but it was a nice pension for having lived with the presumptuous Dr. J for some 20 years.
Of course it wasn't nearly enough to cover what she felt were her necessities let alone what she 'deserved'. She was always stressing over her 'baby' car and bringing it in for rattles and other imagined problems. I suppose she must have been very foxy when younger but at this point in her life she was simply dull and dingy.
We always charged her to look especially since I had to spend a lot of time on her explaining why many of her car problems were imagined. I expect that in her distorted world there were many other things that were imagined as well...perhaps even her marriage to Dr. J was imagined.
So the good Dr. J died and went to wherever and I just hope he managed to salvage a few assets and status perks that he could take with him...and I wonder if she went to the funeral. I sure didn't. I sometimes would wonder how great it would be if wherever they went they in the afterlife they went together.
The other death was Sarah Teal. Oddly enough I met her ex before her but like so many people I have come across I got to know her pretty well by connecting the dots and pieces of her psyche over an extended period of time. Connecting dots is a not a too hidden secret for understanding human psychology and honing people skills.
Sarah was so sweet...always had a smile and a good word for others even if her day and life were going sideways and she seemed to have more than her share of sideways days.
I sold her two cars, the second a low mileage Euro sedan I bought at Golden Gate car auction that she just loved. The car was from Alaska and had one of those electric plugs sticking out of the grill to preheat the engine on subzero mornings. She probably drove that car a good ten years and I would see it and her all over town with the electric plug sticking out of her grill.
She even got me to help her out feeding the homeless at the local center. Unlike Dr. J, she truly felt all people were the same and there was no such thing as castes or social strata.
She recovered from her lousy marriage and managed to bring up her two kids by herself with dad taking them an afternoon a month. Some dads are such duds and she sure married one. I have come to since realize that who one marries is absolutely critical as it can take decades to recover from a bad marriage especially if children are involved.
Sarah had even dated some of my old friends trying to find a Mr. Right if there is such a thing. I remember she went out with one of my oddball friends she met at one of our famous Solstice parties. She said he grabbed her on the first date and she whacked him. Needless to say they only went out once and I always felt badly that they met at our party.
I last saw her less than a year ago in the parking lot at the mall. She had remarried and moved to Carmel and her new Mr. Right seemed like a really nice guy...something she really deserved and I was so happy for her. She showed me her newly constructed teeth and was so happy about them and her willpower to stop smoking cigarettes to keep those teeth sparkling white.
I guess her teeth stayed white but years of chain smoking had damaged her lungs and she died of lung cancer. I couldn't remember the exact ages of her kids but both were adults at least so they could fend for themselves...who knows what happened to dad.
Such is life and such is death. In the end I suppose we all get what we deserve...I just hope my friend Sarah Teal got what she deserved and that jerk Dr. J what he deserved.
And maybe, just maybe, there is some sort of justice after all.
Jack D. Deal is the owner of Deal Business Consulting. Related articlesmay be found at http://www.jddeal.com and http://www.freeandinquiringmind.typepad.com Share Your Opinion. (0 posts)
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It is important to know that you have options when it comes to counseling and therapy, and to always remember that ultimately YOU are in charge. If you were hiring someone for a job, wouldn't you ask for referrals, interview applicants, and make a decision based on who best suited your needs at the time? Choosing a therapist is no different. 
