Why Ezines are Like a Magic Wand…

Do you know why writing and publishing an ezine is a magical
marketing wand for any coach wanting a full practice? Stop
and take the time to imagine a few of these things:

…Imagine getting a note of appreciation from a subscriber
whose life was impacted by one of your ezine messages.

…Imagine getting email replies in your inbox from people
you’ve never met inquiring about your services or wanting to
buy your products.

…Imagine freeing up time for clients and networking because
many of your ezine tasks are automated.

…Imagine having more free time to write new products and
design new programs because you don’t struggle with your
ezine anymore!

…Imagine fulfilling orders for your informational products
and telecourses just from sending out a link in your ezine.
(Listen carefully and you might be able to hear a ringing
“ker-ching!”)

…Imagine never having to struggle with keeping to your ezine
schedule, or coming up with something to valuable to write.

…Imagine someone contacting you for your services because of
something you wrote years ago, something they’ve kept all
this time.

…Imagine ideas flowing from your fingertips onto the
keyboard and reaching thousands of people across the globe
every month with little of no effort or expense at all!

…Imagine the thrill of seeing an article you wrote picked up
and reprinted in another newsletter or journal, reaching
thousands of people you’d otherwise never come into contact
with.

Ezines are truly a marketing miracle for all coaches or
consultants wanting to reach and impact the working and
personal lives of as many people as possible.

What other opportunity is there for one person to reach and
teach so many others so rapidly, globally, and
inexpensively?

To learn how to write, format, publish and distribute a
monthly coach ezine for one low price go here:

Creating an Emotional Connection with Your Readers
Some psychological secrets to keep in mind for your ezine…

Readers are more likely to respond to your offers of service
or products if there is a resonance between you.

What do I mean by resonance? An emotional connection is
forged when your reader experiences being on the same ‘wave
length’ as you. This can be done several ways.

Now, this is not always easy to do in an email or ezine.
Why? Because people are so different, and what is appealing
on an emotional level to one is really aversive to another.

Furthermore, the written word, especially in email form,
lacks the vocal intonation and body language that usually
communicate meaning to your messages! So you have to
be very clear when writing, more so than with speaking.

Remember, in another article I talked about 50 percent of
people being ‘feelers’ and the other 50 percent ‘thinkers?’
So using emotional language will probably put off some
people instead of connecting with them.

Connecting with a Wide Audience of Readers?

Don’t forget that even thinking type processors are
emotional human beings too. And so are emotional processors
quite capable of being rational. So striking resonance means
you have to show you care and show that you are logical at
the same time.

Make no mistake: it is not easy to successfully connect on
an emotional level with a large subscribership. Here are my
suggestions for doing this:

1. If you speak about spiritual issues, keep them
non-denominational and generic. I recently read an ezine
that made a lot of sense to me, but then the writer admitted
to being an agnostic, even while expressing many spiritual
views based in a faith in a higher purpose. His subsequent
ezine expressed dismay that so many readers unsubscribed.

This could have been avoided by not admitting his personal
beliefs but keeping the concepts clear. Likewise, I would
avoid references to any particular religion or religious
doctrine. Ezines are read globally, and not everyone is a
Christian. This applies to mentions of holidays as well.
When you do reference your local customs and holidays,
show your readers you are aware of them being in other
parts of the world.

2. If you speak of political issues or refer to political
parties and beliefs, keep in mind that a successful ezine
should target people internationally, and not only would
national politics have no meaning to some readers, but you
could come across as being ethnocentric and not aware or
respectful of readers from other parts of the globe.

3. If you want to forge emotional ties, try reaching your
readers on a level of their “humanness”… universal needs and
wants of all human beings. We all want a sense of belonging,
we all want to feel a part of life and society and we all
seek meaning out of life. There are certain emotions that
are common world-wide: loneliness, alienation, love,
achievement, pride, shame—the paradox of being human means
we are sometimes bad and sometimes wrong as well as good and
right.

4. Another way to connect on an emotional level is to share
some of your own humanness. Mistakes are a great way to do
this. When a reader reads about something stupid you did,
they access a memory link to something similar that they
did. When you then explain your lessons learned, you are
teaching them indirectly how they can apply this lesson to
their own lives, without actually telling them to do
anything!

They can feel a kinship to you because they know
you are like they are. But just be sure you relate something
authentically and that it has universal value. Again, be
aware that your readers may not be American or of your
religious or political philosophies; keep things generic and
universally human.

5. You can also create emotional pictures by using words
that ask the reader to imagine something. Ask them to become
aware of their feelings when they imagine something. This is
called hypnotic suggestion. One internet marketer is making
a fortune now selling the so-called secrets of hypnotic
selling. Nothing wrong with that, but what he is doing is
using the power of the imagination to get readers to tap
into their feelings. And since we all know that people buy
for emotional reasons and then afterwards find a rationale
for their purchases, this makes sense, no?

6. Be authentic. No matter what your philosophies, your
politics, your religion, your ethnicity, share something of
yourself. You don’t have to hide yourself, but when you
express your personal perspectives, be ready to admit that
is your perspective and you know that there are many other
people from different backgrounds and different
perspectives. Make it okay for your readers to be different
and still connect with you.

7. Extend a hand to your readers. Show you care. Ask them
for their opinions, ideas, perspectives, why not even ask
them to share something about themselves. Get a two-way (or
I should say multiple-way) dialogue with your readers going.

Get their input. First, it makes for interesting content.
Secondly, you can keep a finger on the pulse and know what
your readers’ interests are. Try either an informal or more
formal survey from time to time. Make it easy for them to
reply to your ezine. If your email distribution service
doesn’t allow this, give them an email address where they
can write to you.

Agree? Disagree?

Here’s my challenge to you: I know there are other ways of
connecting on an emotional level. Please share your tips and ideas about this essential
key to writing effective ezines. Just click on the comment button
and you can contribute, or criticize, and/or give your opinion.

I welcome your ideas and thoughts!

Thanks, Patsi
www.customizednewsletters.com

BIG P.S.:

Come visit with me on a teleconference Wed. Oct. 13, 4-5 p.m. ET.
I will reveal secrets to writing effective ezines that get clients to
call YOU! My colleague Sylva Leduc from Client Compass has
scheduled me to participate in an hour call for their Ask the Expert
Series. You can register for free as my guest by clicking here:
www.clientcompass.com/AskPatsi.htm

Sign up for my two free ezines, Newsletter Nuggets and BizBook Nuggets
and get note and quotes for busy folks. Sample article content.
http://www.customizednewsletters.com/free/index.html

Are You a Thinker or a Feeler?

My friend John Agno recently published this review of
personality types in his Coach2coach newsletter
(johnagno@signatureseries.com).
I think it contains important information to consider when
writing your ezine to attract clients.

=====

The Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory is a method for
helping people match their communication styles to others’ personalities.
Understanding Myers-Briggs allows you to foster the kind of interpersonal
climate that paves the way toward better understanding.

One of the four Myers-Briggs dichotomies is:
Thinking/Feeling—that people use to assess their preferred
ways of communicating, processing information, analyzing that
information, and coming to a decision.

The population is evenly divided between thinkers and
feelers. Two-thirds of men are thinkers and two-thirds of
women are feelers, but 70% to 90% of businesspeople are
thinkers, regardless of gender. The name of this
dimension is slightly misleading. Thinkers aren’t unfeeling,
and feelers aren’t fuzzy-headed. Both process information carefully.
The difference is in what facts each group considers to be most salient.

Thinkers are drawn to objective information. They tend to
overlook personal factors in favor of logical analysis. To assess a
situation, they detach and observe. In contrast, feelers are drawn to
subjective information. They focus on human values and the impact a
decision will have on the individuals involved. A feeler will think about
a situation by throwing herself into it and getting the “inside”
perspective.

=====

Have you ever read an ezine and got a queasy feeling of
disgust? Maybe it was just too subjective, airy-fairy and
touchy-feely? If so, then you may be like me, a
thought-processing person who wants facts and data when
reading an ezine. I like to cite studies whenever I write
about a concept, sort of like to prove my point.

But my readers aren’t all like me! (Well, on second
thought—process of elimination—maybe the ones that still
subscribe actually are. Probably all the “feelers”
unsubscribed a while back!)

It is important to appeal to your readers. If half of them
are feeling-types, and half thinking-types, you may have to
step back and look at how your writing reflects your own
preferences. You probably need to modify some of your
phrasing to include the people NOT like you.

Like the MBTI information (taken from Financial Planning,
March 2003) included above, feelers aren’t fuzzy headed at
all. You can appeal to their emotions, their sense of
caring, and write an ezine that is well-rounded and appeals
to both the feelers and the thinkers.

My challenge to you: take a look at the last ezine you wrote.
(You are writing one regularly, aren’t you- yes yes of course
you are…)

In what ways does it reflect your personality type? How can
you rewrite it to appeal to both feelers and thinkers?

Let me know how you do, just press the comment button
below and comment… (Or, for all you ‘feelers’ out there,
let me know you care! I love you, really, I just can’t express it!)

Patsi

Interview with Judith Scwader, after reviewing In Focus
ezine from www.ClarityofVision.com

PATSI: Hi, Judith. And thanks for your note. Always
good to know people are there and reading what I write!

JUDY: It’s my pleasure.

PATSI: At first glance I like the way you’ve laid out
topics and features with
links to the web site presentation.

J: 🙂

P: I’d be interested in knowing if you experimented
with other forms of
formatting and distribution and what decisions led you
to this formatting.

J: We originally planned on using HTML, but two people
in our company have Macs, and we discovered to our
dismay that the formatting didn’t come out the same
with Macs as PCs (at least not with the tools we were
using). There were so many problems with getting the
formatting to look good for both Macs and PCs – it was
too much tech to learn to be worth it to me. Then,
when I realized all the other attendant hassles to do
with filters, AOL, etc., we decided to forget about
HTML altogether. However, I had already invested a lot
of time in branding: (the logo and the banner and the
colors) because we thought we were going to go with
HTML. That’s why we decided to go with the web site
version.

P: I personally like it, and find it easy to use. It is
a great way around sending out a long text ezine, and a
nifty way of getting around the html problems.

J: I’m very glad you found the layout of the text email
easy to use. I wish there were some way to make the
text email more visually appealing.

P: What other formats have you tried? I’m also doing a
sort of survey, informal, asking people the histories
of their ezines and how they started, what numbers they
started with and how they grew their lists, and how
quickly, that sort of thing that would be helpful to
new coaches starting their ezines.

J: Very interesting that you should be looking into the
question of how coaches build their lists. I am at
this moment coordinating a cross-promotion of our 47
Author-Coaches. One of my main purposes, (in addition
to promoting our book series), is to help our clients
build their lists.

P: Would you share yours with me? I’m gathering info
for an e-book and would love to put something in there
about yours, with all contact info too.

J: Yes, it would be my pleasure to relate our
experience and perhaps give others some mistakes to
avoid and ideas to try.

I’ve only been with this company since May. When I
entered the picture, the list had about 100 opted-in
members for a sporadic text newsletter. It wasn’t the
founder’s focus: she didn’t have time as sole
proprietor then.

Then we were very fortunate to be included in a couple
cross-promotions much like the one I am coordinating
now. That built the list to almost 400. That’s when I
took over the ezine and decided to make it official and
regular. Our first monthly issue was August. We also
have issued 7 mid-month, shorter version “e-notes.”

Now that we’ve got it set up, and I am focused on it,
I’ll build the list steadily through sign up forms on
every page of the site, creating more traffic there,
and pop-ups on some of our sales pages. As well, I’ve
got some JVs in the works in which I’ll promote
subscribing.

It’s a lot of stuff to put in place, and gradually is
coming together. Once it’s all in position, much of it
will be on auto-pilot (except creating the content, of
course.)

P: As far as a more thorough review of your ezine, I’ll
read the content more thoroughly tomorrow when I have
some time….I can’t see anything glaring that bothers
me, and I usually do in most ezines. Keep up the good
work.

J: Thank you!

P: Some of the formatting is uneven, but I know that
happens with everyone even using a formatting utility.
Do you use an online one or other tool?

J: I’d be grateful if you would tell me about the
specific uneven aspects of the formatting so that I can
fix it. I don’t use a formatting utility – I didn’t
know that was possible.

P: I use http://www.formatit.com/
because I can set the
width. You still have to go through it when you paste
it to make sure the quotation and apostrophe marks
haven’t been transformed to things bizarre, but it does
a good job of formatting and it’s free! Look forward to
hearing more about your experiences with ezines.

J: I hope what I’ve shared is useful. Let me know if
you’d like some specific information about our
experience should you decide to use part of our story
for your e-book, etc.

And thank you, Patsi, for the opportunity to have your
professional review of our ezine.

Best Regards,
Judith Schwader
Judith Schwader [judith@clarityofvision.com]

To read IN FOCUS Ezine, see below:

=====================================
*IN FOCUS* E-Zine
September 7, 2004-Vol. I, Issue 2

brought to you by Clarity of Vision, Inc.
Read more here…
http://www.clarityofvision.com/ezine/

=====================================

Why (Some) Coaches Have Trouble Writing Their Own Ezines
(Just one opinion, of course!)

I have a theory about why so many coaches struggle to write
their own ezines. Maybe not all coaches struggle, but I hear
about this all the time.

Many coaches are extreme extraverts. In the Jungian sense,
this means that they are people who derive their energy from
interacting with others. Carl Jung, a renowned Swiss
psychiatrist and colleague of Freud, studied how people take
in information, process it, and act according to habitual
preferences.

Later, his theory was used to devise a measuring tool for
these preferences, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI) was developed. It has since been widely used and
expanded. It is an excellent tool for understanding how
one’s own thought process preferences show up in life and
work.

Many people confuse the terms extraverts and introverts to
mean either socially outgoing or shy and withdrawn. The
terms are actually defined by how one derives energy.
Extraverts get it from other people. Introverts find energy
through internal thoughts, reading and thinking. They may
interact quite successfully with others and appear outgoing
and sociable. But for the most part, social interactions are
an energy drain for them and eventually they need to renew
themselves by retreating. An extravert just continues
getting energized as social interactions continue throughout
the day or evening.

Coaching is a People Business

So, getting back to coaches, many people who are outgoing
and energized by interactions are drawn to the field of
coaching because it is concerned with growing and developing
others through conversations. Coaching really is a people
business.

When it comes to sitting down and writing an ezine, who do
you think is going to be energized and excited by this task,
the extravert or the introvert? Right: the introvert who
goes inside, asks questions, searches for answers and
expresses him or herself on paper! Activities such as
researching, reading, and writing are all very energizing
activities for introverts.

But for the extravert coach, who derives energy from others,
the task of writing an ezine does not seem very appealing.
He or she is faced with the computer screen or blank piece
of paper. No energy there, for them. They may have many
things to say, but they prefer saying them to people.

People are multi-faceted and just because you have a
preference for one way of thinking and behaving does not
mean you are incapable of acting in the opposite direction.
Extraverts are all capable of studying and writing and
introverts are all capable of interacting successfully with
others. I do not mean to imply that these preferences are
rigid and concrete. They are simply preferences and habits,
and we and all called upon to act out-of-preference in order
to be successful in our work and lives.

The Law of Human Economy

The law of human economy says that people seek the greatest
amount of benefit with the least amount of effort. Boy, do I
know this to be true! Think about it, Every day we seek out
the maximum results with the minimum of effort. Here are a
couple of questions we ask ourselves when organizing our
work:

1. How much time should I spend on this task to get it done
and still get what I want out of it?

2. Is there a simpler way to do this?

3. Who can I get to do part of this, or all of it?

4. Which tasks do I like doing because I know I do them
well, quickly and efficiently?

5. Which tasks can I put off because they’ll take too long
and I’m not sure I’m going to get good results anyway?

Choices and Advice

„X Do not choose to skip writing an ezine.

„X Spend your time on the 20 percent of the activities that
bring you 80 percent of your results and revenues (Pareto
Principle).

„X Do what you love, outsource the rest.

„X Do what you know, learn about the rest.

„X Learn to love parts of what you don’t love.

„X Get to know which parts you can learn, which things best
left to others.

„X Always ask the people you hire to do tasks to tell you
how they do them, so you can at least learn to understand
better.

„X Do not be overwhelmed by tasks you don’t know anything
about, everyone starts somewhere (even the so-called
expert).

„X Spend some time and a little bit of money learning (buy
books, hire a coach, take a course, etc.).

„X Get good advice for your particular needs.

„X Use the internet to find good resources.

„X Use your association memberships to find others to help.

„X Ask for help.

As always, here’s to your successful coach ezines!

Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D.
www.customizednewsletters.com

A note from Patsi:

Here’s a great article by Michael J. Katz of Blue Penguin Development. Michael writes a great ezine about ezines, and is author of the e-book E-Newsletters that Work.

The Five Deadly Fears of E-Newsletter Publishing
(and how to overcome them)

by Michael J. Katz

Fear of Having Nothing To Say

As a small business owner, you know a lot more than you may realize. And although running out of material is the number one reason cited by small business owners for not launching an E-Newsletter in the first place, I have never come across anyone who knew enough about a particular industry or topic to start a business in it, who didn’t also have a nearly endless supply of content to choose from.

The people who are going to read your newsletter have questions. You on the other hand, have answers, opinions, experience, and perspective. When it comes to your industry, you understand what matters and what doesn’t, and how all the pieces fit together. These brief, useful nuggets are the things you write about.

Fear Of Technology

An E-Newsletter has a lot of moving parts. There are mailing lists to manage; links to set up; images to lay out; responses to track; and dozens of other small pieces to coordinate and fine tune, all in the course of writing and publishing a newsletter month after month. Managing this process efficiently requires a fair amount of technology churning away in the background. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that email marketing has finally evolved to the point where there are dozens of vendors out there who, for a very small fee, will take care of most of this for you.

Fear of Publishing On A Regular Basis

Although you may be sold on the value of a regularly published E-Newsletter, you may still be worried that once let out of its cage, this beast won’t ever leave you alone. The truth is, you’re right to be concerned. If I had to point to one factor that plays the most significant role in the failure of company E-Newsletters, it’s that the people behind them stop publishing.

First, publish monthly. A monthly schedule however, means that the next issue is never more than 30 days away, and you will find yourself less concerned with achieving perfection each time.

Second, create a publishing schedule and stick to it. First Tuesday of the month, third Friday, whatever. The important thing is that you bake it into your monthly work schedule. An E-Newsletter will never be today’s top priority, and unless you explicitly determine when it will come out, you’re more likely than not to keep pushing it to the back burner.

Fear of Writing

I hear it every day from the small business owners I work with: “I can’t put out an E-Newsletter, I’m a lousy writer.” Well, you’ll be happy to learn that writing an E-Newsletter – like email in general – is a lot more like talking than writing.

After all, E-Newsletters are simply glorified emails, and email is fundamentally a two-way conversation. The more you can write in an authentic, friendly, spoken manner, the more it will feel to readers like somebody (i.e. you) is really on the other end. So don’t worry about something that your high school English teacher would be proud of. Focus on turning out something that breaks down the walls between your company and your customers. Something real.

Fear That SPAM Makes It All A Waste Of Time

There’s no doubt about it, SPAM has decreased the effectiveness of E-Newsletters over the last 12 months, and we are all much more aggressive with the delete key than ever before. But, let’s put that into some perspective. A good E-Newsletter sent to your house list will still be opened by over 50% of the people it’s sent to. That’s 5?, 10?, 50? times better (you pick) than the percentage of people who read your newspaper ads; respond to your direct mail; or accept your unsolicited phone calls.

The fact is, for the small business owner, an E-Newsletter represents the first time in history that she’s ever been able to cost effectively communicate with her entire customer and prospect base over and over and over again. Not only that, but thanks to the inherently democratic nature of email (i.e. the big boys don’t get any more space in the email inbox than the rest of us), an E-Newsletter gives us the opportunity to not just compete with, but outperform our much larger competitors for the attention of readers.

Yes, SPAM has taken some of the shine off of this diamond. But make no mistake, it’s still a diamond.

A Final Comment

You may be waiting to launch your E-Newsletter until everything is “just right.” Until your mailing list is large enough; until you’ve stockpiled enough columns so you’ll never run out; until you’ve hired that new marketing person; etc., etc.

I’ve got news for you. No matter how much you plan and prepare, things are going to go wrong even then. So don’t worry about it, just get in the game.

Three reasons: First, because the cost of error online is exceedingly low. If you make a mistake – or simply change your mind! – you can fix it. Nothing about your newsletter need be permanent, from the name to the look to the content. Every issue is an opportunity to start fresh.

Second, because time is your enemy. Relationship marketing (of which, your E-Newsletter is a tactic) is a long term approach. The sooner you get started reaching out to your circle of contacts, the sooner you’ll see the results.

Third, because experience is your friend. You can do all the research in the world, but until you’ve got a living, breathing newsletter of your own, it’s just a theoretical exercise. There’s only so much insight to be gained intellectually; the real “A-ha’s” occur when you get behind the wheel and drive it yourself.

Bottom Line: These five fears are common among burgeoning E-Newsletter publishers, but on closer examination, not all that daunting. To quote author Julia Cameron in her terrific book, The Artist’s Way, “Leap, And The Net Will Appear.”

Copyright © 2003 Michael J. Katz. All rights reserved. Michael J. Katz is founder and Chief
Penguin of Blue Penguin Development, Inc., a Boston area consulting firm the helps clients
increase sales by showing them how to market to their existing relationships, and that
specializes in the development of electronic newsletters. He is the author of the book, E-Newsletters That Work.

28 West Elm Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748
www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com
508-478-6258_

Content is King!

If the maxim “location, location, location” expresses the three most important concepts for business real estate, then for coaching ezines, it is “content, content, content.”

Ezines only work when they are read, when people subscribe, and they tell their friends to subscribe because your ezine delivers something of true value.

There are some important steps to consider when deciding on content. The most important questions to answer are:

1. Who are your readers?
2. What do they want to know?
3. What do you have or know that they want?
4. How can you create value for them?
5. How can you create connections and relationships with readers?
6. How can you inspire action on their part?

Good content engages the reader, gets their attention and builds relationships over time. Readers come away from your ezine with a good feeling about you and your professional services. Good content will also implant an underlying message that inspires action. Readers want to know more, or finally take some steps about a particular concern or need they’ve been thinking about and you’ve been talking about.

The action you are looking for is some sort of contact, an email, a question, a phone call. This is an opening for you to deepen the relationship. This is the reason ezines are effective. The reader should be calling you, not the other way around.

Your content should always be:

1. Useful: so what if a study shows some amazing fact? Tell them what that can mean to them. What should they be doing? Always remember, WIIFM: what’s in it for me (your readers)? Spell it out for them.

2. Interesting: not ho-hum, heard this before. Tell your readers something they don’t know!

3. Consistent: published regularly. They expect to get it every month. If they don’t, what kind of impression do you think you create?

4. Personable: reflects your voice and personality. People have a lot to read, so don’t give them academic articles without putting something personal in it. They want to get to know you or they wouldn’t have signed up for your ezine. Tell them what this topic means to you personally and how you apply it in your life and work. But please, keep this reasonably in balance!

Your ezine must stand out in inboxes full of spam, advertising and fluff. You can do this by providing quality content and writing from your heart. People don’t tolerate either being bored or overwhelmed by too much information. Make sure you create quality content that includes both interesting information, practical steps, and authenticity. When you communicate your enthusiasm and energy for your topic, people will believe that this is really worth reading and thinking about.

By the way…

If you have trouble writing good content for your ezine, don’t let that stop you. Ezines are too important
to be skipped. Instead, look for ways to get good content from other resources. You can buy it or borrow
it, providing you use appropriate credits and respect copyright laws.

Look for my next blog soon about easy ways of creating interesting content without having any particular
writing talent at all! (Hint: if you know how to talk, you can write!)

See you soon,

Patsi

When is the last time you took a good look at your ezine with an eye towards making
it better? Maybe you have a coach who helps you with your practice development tasks.
Or, maybe you are just flying by the seat of your panties…!

When I started out as a coach, I took a look around at what the top coaches were doing.
Wow, was I ever impressed and intimidated! There’s some good stuff out there. There is
also a lot of fluff.

The War on Fluff

Fluff is any newsletter or ezine which stimulates a yawn and triggers an automatic finger
reaction on the delete button. If I see an opening paragraph about the weather or a U.S.
holiday or something blatantly self-promotional, I can’t help myself. My finger is trained
like Pavlov’s dogs only they don’t salivate they hit the delete key.

(I just don’t think holidays are interesting, maybe I’m wrong, but also we are living in a
global community, people! Your snow storm isn’t relevant to people in Australia and neither
is Valentine’s Day! As for religious holidays and politics, you should know better by now…)

If your ezine is working, readers should be calling you or emailing with questions and comments.

If your ezine is working, you should be getting new subscribers every week.

If your ezine is working, your readers should be forwarding it on to their friends and associates.

If your ezine is working, your articles should be getting picked up and reprinted in other ezines
and on other websites.

Here’s my Free Offer:
Get an Ezine Makeover!

For the first ten people who ask me, I will take a look at their ezine and give my
professional comments, say, three good features and three ideas for improvements. Or whatever
is required to help improve the ezine. My review will be from three perspectives:

1. Overall look and design (graphics, formatting, essential elements)

2. Content (articles are interesting, well written, well edited, researched and supported by facts)

3. Effectiveness (will it get clients or build credibility, or what it is designed to do)

Here’s how to do this: email me your ezine. I will respond within two days with my review.

My Request to You:

Please forward the link to this new blog to as many coaches as you can, or consultants, or trainers
or others who write and publish their own ezine to build their professional practices. That way we
can grow the number of visitors to this blog and get more input, ideas, tips and tools for creating
great coach ezines.

Special Announcement:

I will be at the ICF conference Nov. 1-6 in Quebec City. First, I will attend the Executive Summit, where
the top Executive Coaches gather to discuss best practices. Then I will be at Booth #53 where my
associate Elge Premeau and I are launching our e-book The Guide to Great Coach Ezines. We will
have a number of free bonuses you can get just for coming by and saying ‘hello,’ or rather ‘bonjour!’
It should be great fun to meet everyone, especially those interested in publishing their own great
coach ezines.

Second Announcement:

October 13 yours truly will be guest speaker/teacher at the Client Compass Ask the Expert Series. I
will give a teleclass on creating great coach ezines. You won’t want to miss this class for the 12 Steps
to an Effective Coach Ezine.

I actually started this blog before introducing it, but that’s the beauty of blogging: you can be spontaneous!
I was so spontaneous, I forgot to save my blog so here I am re-writing everything and kicking myself…

Introduction to Coach Ezine Blog

This ezine exists as a forum for tips, tools, techniques and sharing ideas for writing and publishing your
own coach ezine.

Everyone in the coaching business will tell you how important publishing your own ezine is if you want to grow your coaching practice.

All coach training schools tell you about this important task. Some marketing gurus will even claim that
Publishing your own ezine is the royal road to riches! Heck, for a few bucks these gurus will
sell you their e-books, mini-courses and telecourses. They all have value too, well, most do.

But the fact is, you still have to sit down, write, format, distribute and grow your list. You still have to do
the work, even if you get help from services.

Even though I created Customized Newsletter Services six years ago (it was originally known as Coaching Matters), this blog is not here to promote my services, or those of other experts. But I would like to share some of what I’ve learned over the years about coach ezines, and important resources for all coaches interested in making their ezines better.

I also would like you to share your knowledge, and experiences with your ezines.

Once I finish learning just how this blogging thing works, you can participate and give us your secrets to writing effective coach ezines. You can even supply your ezine sign-up info and share that, although blatant marketing is clearly not appropriate here.

I think other coaches would like to see what you are doing for your coach ezine, and that way we can learn
and grow and get better at doing this task.

Here is how I see this blog working:

1. Book notes from books or articles that inspire content for coach ezines

2. Share quotes that make for good ezine filler, and maybe some humor too?

3. Tips for easy writing

4. Tips for easy formatting

5. Favorite distribution services and problems encountered with service providers

6. Resources for ezine content, formatting

7. How to get more clients from ezines

8. How to tie in the ezine with overall marketing strategies, website, etc.

Other ideas? I’d love to hear from you. Please posts related to coach ezines, that is afterall our focus here!

Patsi

Becoming Fully Engaged: Managing Energy, Not Time

A note from Patsi…

Every once in a while I run across a book I wish had been written years ago. And I wonder why no one studied or wrote about this important concept before and in such a genial way: It’s not about lack of time, it’s lack of energy! Two of my favorite authors, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, have teamed up to tell us how to manage energy so that we can become more fully engaged in our lives and work.

Jim Loehr is a sports psychologist who has trained some of the best professional athletes (Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Dan Jensen, Ernie Els, Grant Hill to name only a few). His focus is in mental toughness for high performance. Along with his partner Jack Groppel, also a Ph.D., they eventually expanded their high performance training techniques to corporate executives and CEOs. Tony Schwartz is an excellent journalist who has also authored many articles for Fast Company and other journals. He co-authored with Donald Trump The Art of the Deal, and authored What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America.

As some of you know, I am an avid tennis player, playing daily and in local tournaments. The physical part of the game is a factor relatively easy to learn and to train. But competing at any level, whether for fun or for pride, challenges your mental and emotional capacities to the max. I have learned that managing negative emotions on the tennis courts is a great training ground for life and work. You can’t get mad at your doubles partner without interfering with both of your performances. It’s a waste of precious energy. And that’s just as true at home as it is in business! Nothing matters if your energy is depleted.

I have found both of these books fascinating to read, and I have already applied several of their training techniques into my life. Within a few short weeks, my focus and energy has improved. I have been able to increase my productivity in both my marketing and writing efforts. To read these books and learn the secret energy tools of star athletes and CEOs, click on the graph next to each book title and order them through Amazon.com.

We have already created a 2000-word and a 1000-word article on this topic, “Managing Energy: the Key to Sustaining High Performance.” To read a brief synopsis click here:

Purchase the article and use it as your own in your newsletters, ezines, or marketing materials; order it on line and it will be downloaded to your computer immediately with full reprint rights. Or if you would like, we can format an attractive PDF or HTML file with your photo, company name and logo, and marketing message embedded into the four-color graphic ezine file.

Here are a few notes and quotes for busy folks:

1. The Power of Full Engagement: Making Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. NY: Free Press: Simon & Schuster 2003.

The Dilemma:

Everyone has more ideas and creativity than they can execute because in today’s multi-tasking, multi-media life, our energy gets used up – not to mention that there is little juice left at the end of the day for creating quality moments with our loved ones. This book offers practical tools for conserving your energy reserves and expanding capacities. Read this book and you will learn:

a. How to mobilize four key sources of energy: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
b. Balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal
c. Expand capacity in the same systematic way that elite athletes do
d. Create highly specific positive energy renewing rituals

This is a definite must-read for anyone interested in sustaining high performance and still having quality of life.

2. The Corporate Athlete: How to Achieve Maximal Performance in Business and Life by Jack Groppel, Ph.D. NY: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2000.

Elite athletes train 90 percent of the time and only actual perform a few hours every week. Corporate executives have little time for training and are expected to perform at their best under high stress during 12 to 14 hours a day. Executives may take a few weeks off each year, while athletes have off seasons lasting several months. Even then 47 percent of workers report taking their laptops with them to answer email.

Nuggets

Based on scientific research and observations of professional athletes and CEOs, Groppel reveals the integral roles that nutrition, fitness and self improvement play in sustaining the winning edge. His 21-day training program incorporates 5 keys to success:

a. Motivate yourself and others – what works for you will work for those around you.
b. Train yourself mentally and physically – concentrate on growing 1 percent better each day.
c. Hone your performance skills – savor the moment and love the battle.
d. Observe recovery time – development throughout life depends on the amount of recovery you get.
e. Cultivate spirituality – value every second of the day.

This is a sample from BizBook Nuggets, a monthly ezine I created for coaches. To subscriber, email dr.patsi-57738@autocontactor.com, and get some nice reports on executive coaching.

I hope you enjoy reading these two books, and I’d really like to hear from you, your thoughts on the
subject, other books that you have found helpful, etc. Just click on the ‘comments’ word below.

Email me anytime, or visit www.customizednewsletters.com.

Take care,

Patsi Krakoff