Earlier this year we went on a quest to truly understand what the most successful coaches do to build their businesses. We wanted to know what path they took to get to coaching nirvana - a place where client leads seem to come to them with little to no effort, almost as if by magic. A place where they can increase their rates and get it.

What we discovered was unexpected. We were expecting that all of the best coaches would have developed masterful marketing skills to lazer in on their ideal clients with great efficiency. Instead, in many cases, we discovered that getting an abundance of clients was often an unintended benefit of the coach dedicating their time and effort to something beyond their immediate needs. They were building something bigger than themselves.

In one of the first modules in Coach Marketing Bootcamp, the business building program that we developed for coaches, we make a distinction between two forms of marketing techniques: hunting vs farming. Hunting techniques are active, one-time efforts that produce short-term results, quickly. Farming techniques are more passive in nature and produce results slowly but they can often snowball over time with little to no extra effort.

When you first start out and you really need clients, hunting techniques generally work best. Over time, you want to transition from hunting to more farming techniques to the point where you no longer do any hunting at all. Instead, all your clients come to you from seeds planted in the past. Like an apple seed planted several years ago, the tree keeps producing fruit year after year with very little additional effort.

So let me plant a seed for you. A type of seed that can grow into an enormous tree or even a whole grove of trees. The ultimate farming technique that we’re talking about is to create something bigger than yourself. Something that can develop a life of it’s own. Something, that when you walk away, will continue without you. Something that others are excited about and will support you in building.

One of the best examples of someone who has built something bigger than herself is Louisa Jewell, founder and president of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association. Kurt Shuster, Noomii’s CEO, had the pleasure of interviewing Louisa. Listen to the interview below.

For more information about the Canadian Positive Psychology Association, visit cppa.ca.

Also check out the 2nd Educating for Resilience Conference on November 7th, 2015. Here are the details:

Please join us on Saturday November 7th as the Canadian Positive Psychology Association, in partnership with Upper Canada College, presents the 2nd Educating for Resilience Conference in Toronto, Canada. This conference is for coaches, teachers, counsellors, educators, parents and positive psychology practitioners who are interested in learning how to increase resilience in elementary schools, highschools, colleges and universities. While traditional mental health programs focus on coping with mental illness, Educating for Resilience provides the strategies and techniques to increase positive mental health and fitness - a rapidly growing focus in the coaching and teaching community. We have brought together some of the leading practitioners in the field to share the latest research and practice that you can implement right away.

For more information and to register go to: http://cppa.ca/event-1945847

For the full conference program go to: http://bit.ly/1KNECbj

Our pre-conference workshop features Jillian Darwish from the Mayerson Academy who will spend the day teaching about the VIA Character Strengths; A one-day intensive, on Friday November 6th. For more information and to register go to: http://cppa.ca/event-2002869

Don't miss this inspiring and informative day!