Coaching Archives - Nelida Ruiz Consulting

Take Your LinkedIn Professional Networking to the Next Level

Are you looking to take your social media professional networking or business development to another level? Building on my previous article, Three Essential Social Media Tips for Attorneys, CPAs, and Other Professionals, this article provides simple steps you can take to go from a basic LinkedIn profile to using LinkedIn or other social media for business development and professional networking.

Note: the links in the following tips take you to additional content on LinkedIn for help with the tips mentioned. Use the Help feature in Twitter and Facebook for help with those applications.

Follow the organizations you support.

1. Most people support organizations with monetary donations, volunteering, or sitting on boards. Simply following these organizations on LinkedIn or other social media channels can beef up your LinkedIn profile and professional networking. And you’ll become more aware of the organizations’ activities by following them on social media, opening up opportunities to do more. Reshare their content and like their posts–at least the ones you find most of interest. Your connections will get a feel for who you are beyond your resume. And you never know where that could lead. You may inspire someone else to support the same organization or meet others with similar interests.

Follow industry peers and referral sources.

2. You likely know many people within your industry. Perhaps you attended a conference where someone you know and respect spoke. Be sure to connect with those you exchange business cards and have meaningful conversations with. Congratulate others on their achievements. Like and reshare their content when appropriate. In the legal field, conflicts may bar an attorney from taking on a matter with some frequency. Maintaining connections on LinkedIn can provide two-way referral sources. And down the road, you never know where your career path will take you. Those connections can prove very valuable over the years as a source of business or even a new career.

Follow thought leaders, content producers, and organizations in the areas you rely on for information and expertise.

3. Most of us rely on information from industry sources to stay current in our fields. Whether you rely on information from business publications like Forbes or Harvard Business Review or more specialized content like JD Supra or Corporate Counsel, be sure to follow these sources on LinkedIn. When you find an article or post that is helpful or thought-provoking to you, you can quickly reshare, like, and comment on their content. That activity will then appear in the feeds of those you’re connected to, and those who view your profile will see it as well.

Get out in the community.

4. Are you attending a charity auction or fundraiser, walking or running in an event to raise funds for a nonprofit, or volunteering for a cause close to your heart? Share a post or two about the event. Most event programs also include a hashtag to use for the event. Don’t forget to tag the organization, using @ and the organization name. Just be sure your tag is the organization’s official account. Share details of the event in advance to help boost registration. At the event, take a photo of something of interest, like speakers, sponsorship signage or you with other attendees, and post during or immediately after the event. Again, you never know who you might inspire and the organization and event organizers will likely take note of and appreciate you spreading the word among your connections.

In my next article, I’ll share more tips on how to continue to amp up your social media networking and business development. Sign up to subscribe to all the tips.

Business Development Tips: Save Your Contacts

Taking 30 seconds to add each new contact you work with to your contact list can save you oodles of time in the long run.

Synopsis: One simple step can amplify your business development efforts and save you tons of time in the long run. Save your contacts. This article explains why and how.

Time is precious. And so is building your business. One piece of advice I give every attorney, professional and business owner I work with involves an everyday habit with email. Do you save your contacts? Your best marketing and business development tool is hiding in your inbox. It’s your contacts’ email addresses.

Your Email Inbox Isn’t Designed to Efficiently Store Contacts

Too many of us, simply rely on our email inboxes to store and find email addresses and phone numbers of contacts when we need them. That works well for contacts you’ve worked with over the past couple of weeks or month. But beyond that, it can take too much time to search your email to find the contact details for someone you worked with six months ago.

You might have to guess at part of his email address and hope it auto-populates, you might have to search your email to find an email exchange that includes your contact’s phone number in the email footer, or you may have to ask a colleague to provide the contact details. Worse, if emails at your firm or business are archived or deleted after a period of time, you might lose those details altogether. Yet, simply taking 30 seconds to add each new contact you work with to your contact list can save you oodles of time in the long run.

How to Save Contacts in Outlook

Start today. Follow these simple Outlook instructions for each person you email today. Hint: just click on the person’s email address, and select Add to Contacts. Keep it up as you work; if you find yourself searching your email for someone’s contact details, be sure to save that someone as a contact. You’ll thank yourself later.

Give Contacts to Marketing

And if you’ve already developed this habit, don’t forget to provide appropriate contacts to your marketing department as well. They can ensure your contacts are receiving thought leadership content and invitations to seminars.

You can’t rely on your clients searching out information they might need or don’t know they need. Provide valuable content at regular intervals. And to do that, email addresses are one of your most valuable marketing tools.

Six Things You Need to Know about Working with a Coach

This article explains what working with a coach is like and how working with a coach is different than a mentor.

Synopsis: Nothing has taught me more about achieving goals than coaching others to achieve theirs. In this post, I’ll share the top six things you need to know about working with a coach.

Achieve goals using a professional coach — *Working with a coach is a different dynamic than the one you might have with a boss or mentor even though it may seem similar in concept.*

#6. You don’t have to know your goal to work with a coach.

You may not know exactly what your ultimate goal is. And thankfully, knowing your goal isn’t required to start working with a coach. Maybe you just know something needs to change in your career or your personal life. You and your coach will discuss what isn’t working and why you feel that change is needed. Together, you can develop a plan from that conversation. And through that plan, your goal will be a natural outcome. It’s reverse engineering. Your coach will make sure it’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. And that’s just SMART.

#5. You’re being too hard on yourself.

When we set a goal, we tend to give ourselves credit for only the big sweeping actions we take that leapfrog us toward our goals. If we haven’t moved the needle significantly, we feel we haven’t made any progress. That’s just not the case. The reason we don’t hammer down on the gas pedal when a streetlight turns green is it’s uncomfortable for us, our passengers, and even the drivers around us. If you don’t feel immediate change and whiplash when you’ve started working toward a goal, that’s okay. A coach will be able to point out how each action you’ve taken is progress, even if it’s just changing the rudder of your attitude from “I have so far to go” to “I’m doing it.” That subtle shift in thought will take you far. And that leads me to my next coaching lesson.

#4. Great things are accomplished one small step at a time.

Everything doesn’t have to change all at once, and the best and most lasting changes don’t happen immediately. There are dozens if not hundreds of tiny actions that move us closer to accomplishing our goals. Keep a list of every action you need to take that gets you closer to your goal. And the smaller the steps you break those actions down into, the better. Did you write a list of three contacts to network with? Check. Did you contact one person on the list? Check. Did you set an appointment to talk to someone? Check. It all adds up. And every time you review your list to check off an item, you’ll see all of those actions accomplished, giving you the momentum to keep going.

#3. Lists are the best tool you can use.

There was a craze over the past couple of years around bullet journaling. There are countless tools, journals and planners out there developed by motivational coaches for goal setting and tracking. I’ve probably tried at least half a dozen or so myself. What I’ve learned is you don’t need some fancy tracker, journal or planner. In fact, the easier you make the tracking, the more likely you are to do it. The important thing is to keep that list! See #2 again if you need a reminder about why. Your coach likely will have a few trackers and lists they’ll ask you to use. It doesn’t matter whether it’s handwritten on a note pad, typed into a document, tracked in an app on your phone, or charted and forecast using pivot tables in Excel. (I’m kidding about Excel.) The point is: just make sure you’re continually reviewing your list to add new items and check off completed items. One action often leads to another action. For instance, if you’re networking and you’ve added a name to your list, you may also want to review that person’s LinkedIn profile prior to your meeting or outreach. This is where reviewing your list is key.

#2. You’re hiring a coach to keep you accountable to yourself.

It’s very easy to let life, your career, your family, and/or your hobbies crowd out your goals. You hire a coach to help you stay accountable. You’ll meet regularly in person or by phone to check in and discuss your progress. Things may come up from time to time that slow you down, but don’t let that be a reason to put off your coaching. That’ll only set you back further. As a coach to several busy professionals, I never mind when appointments have to be rescheduled even more than once. And I’m also happy to use our meeting time to review the list, brainstorm additional actions, and discuss what may be getting in the way. Just because you don’t feel ready for a coaching appointment, doesn’t mean you should cancel. After all, you hired your coach to keep you accountable and get you back on track.

#1. Your coach plays a different role than your boss or mentor.

Working with a coach is a different dynamic than the one you might have with a boss or mentor. Although a great boss can exhibit qualities of all three, a manager has to balance your needs with the needs of the team and company. When those conflict, the company is the priority. What’s good for you might not be good for business. A mentor is more similar to a coach than a boss. But, generally, you select your own mentors. A mentor may be someone who’s already accomplished what you’d like to accomplish or someone you simply admire. A mentor shares her experience with you and may even introduce you to others who can help you in your career. She may help you gain additional experience or achieve a promotion. A coach has specific training in active listening to help you achieve your goals and a variety of tools to help you. A coach will assess the steps it’ll take and give you specific tools to move you forward and track your progress. If accountability, consistent momentum, and specific tools are what you’re looking for, then working with a coach may be the best way to reach your goals. But nothing precludes you from working with all three! In fact, I recommend all three, and a coach can help you make the most of each.

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Nelida