Heather's comments

I enjoyed meeting everyone and found the discussion lively, fun and thought-provoking!

What a timely subject for me now! I'm looking forward to the discussion.

I was going to attend, but it turns out that I have a scheduling conflict. I'd like to hear how it goes and attend a future event.

I could meet April 30, May 1 or May 5, if we're talking a Mon, Wed or Thursday soon. Mosaic sounds good (I live in Wallingford! :-)

I'm especially interested in learning about other coaches' niches, to increase my referral network.

Great idea! I'd also prefer the west side of the lake and on a weekday.

One of the most helpful points in this article is where you talk about remembering what you've already accomplished or conquered as a way to give you the strength and optimism to hold on and forge ahead. Great advice! It's finding our way through the dark challenging times that reminds us who we really are and what we're made of. I greatly enjoyed this article and find it inspiring!

I really appreciate your approach to helping people with their vocational woes! Finding our "right work" is a complex process, at the heart of which is looking inward at what we really value and what gifts we have to express. Thank you for writing this inspiring article!

I especially appreciate your point about how sometimes it can take weeks or even a year for a client to finally be ready to sign up. I've had clients that called me for a consultation, then called me back months later to sign up! So having a way for them to stay in touch with you, learning more about you, is perfect.

This was a really fun event! Educational, tasty, and I enjoyed the company. Thanks for hosting!

Dream Big Coaching Services tagline: Transform Vision into Action

Elevator pitch: I help professionals make career decisions that fit who they are and what they want.

Home, Business: State Farm (for no particular reason, and I'm not particularly attached). Auto: USAA (they have great service - you do need a connection to the military to join) Health: Lifewise Health Plans of WA (good insurance for people who don't belong to a group).

Congratulations! The site looks really interesting, and I've bookmarked it. I'm a mom entrepreneur myself and am very interested in the topics you'll cover, the blog, and all of that. Very cool!

I'll actually be walking around the lake with a friend of mine, so I'll look for you and wave! Please do more of these. I'll have a pup this fall with any luck and would love to participate!

Sterling, I love your blog! I will read it all the time, as we are hopefully getting a puppy in September and it's been 11 years since I've had a puppy...

Great advice and a lot of fun to read!

I agree with Amy. Arcania Wellness or Elemental Wellness.

Anything with a Crystal in it or the Moon is heading over to the woo woo...

I do post my fees on my website. For a long while I didn't, and then I found that I really want people to know a lot about me from my website and blog, including how much it costs to work with me.

Before deciding this, it felt like I spent too much time on the phone or in meetings with people who were not going to be a good fit for me. I know a lot about my ideal clients, and one aspect about them is that they are comfortable with investing in the cost of coaching.

As a customer, I appreciate knowing ahead of time what a service or product costs. I don't enjoy conversations about cost where I feel surprised and then have to reveal that based on the cost I am going to need to think about it a while. And then further to have the service provider ask me what is it worth to me to have great coaching, and all that. I like to think about cost and value by myself and not in conversation with a service provider. I work on the assumption (correct or incorrect!) that my clients are like me in this regard.

I can see the point of creating an opportunity for connection without having cost enter into it at first. The strength of the connection might override a potential client's first impression of the cost, for example.

I certainly don't believe that publishing fees is a "must". But for me it works quite well.

It helps me to look at my goals in big chunks (this quarter, this month, this week) and then set appointments with myself to actually do the work to get those goals done. So in this way I become my own client. Then I can give realistic responses to other clients' requests for information and appointments.

There are times when I move the appointments with myself around or cancel them, because I don't want to get too rigid about this. But if I don't block out some time ahead of time to attend to the non-client request stuff, I never get to it at all!

Before starting this plan, I used to think I would get 435 things done "by Aug 1." When I actually pull out the calendar and start looking at the time slots I have open I realize that I'll be doing great to get 11 of those things knocked off...So I've become a good prioritizer and am working on "letting go" of those other 424 things.

I guess the mindset shift for me has been "My business is one of my clients, not just the people who hire me." So my business needs my time, and the way I make this happen is to block it out on the calendar (usually on Monday for that upcoming week.)

This isn't a perfect system, but it helps me feel a little more sense of control.

We also talked about creating "good" post titles, and that what's good for human consumption, namely catchy titles that pique your interest aren't always the best for SEO.

And that led to a conversation about why we blog in the first place and who we are trying to attract (attention from new people? keep our existing fan base?)

If you're on LinkedIn, asking people to recommend you/write an endorsement is a pretty effective way to get a testimonial. It only takes people a few minutes and a couple of clicks, and they are usually glad to help. For some reason it seems more compelling to many people than a request to "write a testimonial". Maybe because they are also on LinkedIn and are valuing the recommendations others have written for them!

I do moderate my comments.

When I received some obscene comments in my e-mail inbox to review (lovely!) I was really glad I chose this route.

I have read other people's blogs discussing this same topic, and many who choose to moderate comments are simply tired of spam or inappropriate comments.

Plus it's just my instinct. If someone writes something rude, I'd like the option to publish it or not. My blog is mine, and I like having a degree of control. While I enjoy the conversation and community aspect of blogging, I don't see my blog as having to uphold all the principles of a democracy.

I certainly understand if other bloggers moderate comments, and it doesn't keep me from leaving a comment. I think it's just good sense.

On the flipside...if my blog were attracting dozens of comments a day, I can imagine that approving all the comments could get tedious. But I'd want to read all the comments anyway, so might as well do it before they are published.

I've been blogging for about six months, so maybe more experienced bloggers have another take on this subject!