The Coaches Make a Difference Initiative is pleased to announce that the Coaches’ PR Toolkit we have been working on is ready to go, just in time for International Coaching Week. The toolkit is designed to be used by any coaching association, chapter, SIG, or training school to promote coaching to their own market niche or community. Visit our Free Resources page, and you’ll have immediate access to the following components of the kit:

• How to Work with the Media
• Sample Press Release for Coaching Week Activities
• Sample Press Release for Coaching Events
• Suggested Website Copy about Coaching
• Frequently Asked Questions about Coaching
• Coaching Research and Evidence
• PR Resources

This toolkit is being provided to the coaching community free of charge as a public service, and was created by a team of hard-working volunteers. Please see our Acknowledgements page for a list of everyone who contributed to this project.

Our dedicated team of volunteer coaches is currently working on creating this toolkit, and it is well underway. We are planning to release the kit on Jan. 10, 2008, in time for it to be used for Coaching Week, which will take place Feb. 3-9, 2008. We are excited to be able to provide this valuable resource to the coaching community.

The toolkit is designed to be used by any coaching association, chapter, SIG, or school to promote coaching to their own market niche or community. It will contain ideas for coaching events and media “hooks”, guidelines and suggested language for communicating with the media, examples of press releases and promotional copy, and instructions for using the whole package. It will be available online to any and all coaching organizations, at no charge and without copyright restrictions.

It’s not too soon to start preparing your group for Coaching Week now by organizing an event or media release. Jerri Udelson, the founder of Coaching Week, has posted some ideas at www.coachingweek.org and ICF also has suggestions available in their online Member Toolkit at www.coachfederation.org/ICF/For+Current+Members/ (available only to ICF members).

We’ll continue posting information here about the toolkit as it progresses. If you represent a coaching group not already on our mailing list, please email us so we can be sure to let you know when the kit is available.

We’re pleased to announce that we have a new PR tool available for coaches and coaching groups to use with the media.

We’ve prepared a list of 10 Frequently Asked Questions about Coaching to use with journalists for live interviews and stories, or in the press room area of your website. This tool is available in Word, so you can edit it to meet your needs, or add a logo and contact information. Instructions for using the tool along with CMADI’s conditions of use are included.

You can view or download it from our Resources page at www.coachesmakeadifference.org/free-resources/.

Please let the coaching groups that you belong to know that this tool is now available.

Thanks to everyone who contributed questions and answers to this tool!

CMADI is looking for some additional volunteers, and we want you! Here the opportunities we currently have available for volunteers:

Coaches’ PR Toolkit

When you join one of our toolkit teams, you’ll have the chance to connect with coaches all over the world to find out their best practices and resources for PR, collect samples of what they have been doing, and use your own brainpower and creativity to put it all together into a kit to share with coaches everywhere. This will be a fun, collegial, and educational project. Volunteers from outside North America are welcome! Here are the teams currently looking for new members:

Media Relations Team: Responsible for gathering and creating tools such as press releases, media tips, talking points about coaching, and links to PR resources. This team is chaired by Carla Schnitker, with vice chair Aprille Janes, and steering committee liaison David Stocum. Also on the team is Angelique Miralles. We need 1 more volunteer.

Marketing Communications Team: Responsible for gathering or creating tools such as flyers for (or descriptions of) coaching PR events, brochures about hiring a coach, and promotional copy about coaching. Currently on this team are Feroshia Knight and Pam Duffy, we need 1 to 3 more volunteers.

Research & Evidence Team: Responsible for gathering or creating tools such as case studies, research, and statistics about coaching effectiveness, and articles about coaching. Currently on this team is Ron Sloan, we need 2 to 4 more volunteers.

Communications Coordinator

We need one volunteer to receive email sent to CMADI, and reply or forward it to the appropriate team member, and also moderate the CMADI Yahoo discussion list. The average time commitment would be one hour or less per week, and the only requirements are that you pick up your own email at least once per day Monday-Friday (except during planned absences) and be fluent in English.

To volunteer for any of these opportunities, email us.

Here are two presentations about CMADI coming soon:

May 7, 2007 via teleconference
Pam Duffy will be speaking to the ICF Coaches Who Speak and Train SIG about the CMADI PR toolkit project. The session will take place from 1-2 PM Pacific, 4-5 PM Eastern, 9-10 PM BST. All ICF members are welcome. For details, visit the ICF SIG page.

May 23, 2007 via teleconference
C.J. Hayden will be speaking to the Coaches Coaching Circle about CMADI and the topic “If You Can’t Make a Living, How Can You Make a Difference?” The session will take place from 11 AM-12 PM Pacific, 2-3 PM Eastern, 7-8 PM BST. All coaches are welcome and there is no charge. For details, email Helen Burton.

If you’d like someone from the CMADI Speakers’ Bureau to visit your group, please email us!

We are forming some new teams at CMADI to work on our PR toolkit, and we’d like to invite you to help. Below is some information about this project and the teams that we are creating. If one of these speaks to you, jump on board! Just email us to volunteer.

Over the next 8 months, we will be creating the kit we have been talking about through a process of gathering examples, compiling existing resources, and creating new tools. If you join one of our toolkit teams, you’ll be connecting with coaches all over the world to find out their best practices and resources for PR, collect samples of what they have been doing, and using your own brainpower and creativity to put it all together into a user-friendly form. It will be a fun and collegial process, and you’ll learn a lot, too.

Here are the teams currently looking for new members:

Media Relations Team - Responsible for gathering and creating tools such as press releases, media tips, talking points about coaching, and links to PR resources. Currently on this team are David Stocum and Helen Burton; we need 1 to 3 more volunteers.

Marketing Communications Team - Responsible for gathering or creating tools such as flyers for (or descriptions of) coaching PR events, brochures about hiring a coach, and promotional copy about coaching. Currently on this team are Feroshia Knight and Pam Duffy, we need 1 to 3 more volunteers.

Research & Evidence Team - Responsible for gathering or creating tools such as case studies, research, and statistics about coaching effectiveness, and articles about coaching. Currently on this team is Ron Sloan, we need 2 to 4 more volunteers.

To volunteer for a team, email us and tell us which team you would like to play on!

Our outreach to coaching organizations worldwide about our PR toolkit project is continuing. We’ve heard from 70 coaching associations, schools, chapters, and SIG’s that their group wants a copy of our toolkit, 30 of them have offered to contribute to the kit, and 17 groups have offered to contribute volunteers to our effort.

Here are two upcoming presentations about the CMADI project:

Apr 19, 2007 via teleconference
Ron J. Sloan and Maia Beatty will be speaking to the Coach U Business Coaching SIG about CMADI and our PR toolkit project. The session will take place from 1-2 PM Eastern, 10-11 AM Pacific, 6-7 PM BST. All coaches are welcome. For details, visit the Coach U SIG page.

May 7, 2007 via teleconference
Pam Duffy will be speaking to the ICF Coaches Who Speak and Train SIG about the CMADI PR toolkit project. The session will take place from 1-2 PM Pacific, 4-5 PM Eastern, 9-10 PM BST. All ICF members are welcome. For details, visit the ICF SIG page.

If you’d like someone from the CMADI Speakers’ Bureau to visit your group, please email us!

We’ve heard back from 50 different coaching groups around the world so far that they want to participate in our project in some way. Two of these groups have invited members of the CMADI team to visit their organization and speak live about our PR kit project. If you live in Portland, Oregon or are an ICF coach who also speaks or trains, you’re invited to attend one of these sessions:

Mar 13, 2007 in Portland, Oregon
C.J. Hayden will be speaking to the Northwest Coaches Association, and Feroshia Knight will also be facilitating. The topic is “The Portland Coaches’ PR Kit” and will take place in downtown Portland from 7:15-9 PM. Any local coach is welcome. For details, visit the NWCA website.

Apr 2, 2007 via teleconference
C.J. Hayden will be speaking to the ICF Coaches Who Speak and Train SIG, hosted by Maia Beatty and Linda Layton. The topic is “If You Can’t Make a Living, How Can You Make a Difference?” and will take place from 1-2 PM Pacific, 4-5 PM Eastern, 8-9 PM GMT. All ICF members are welcome. For details, visit the ICF SIG page.

May 7, 2007 via teleconference
Pam Duffy will be speaking to the ICF Coaches Who Speak and Train SIG about the CMADI PR kit project. The session will take place from 1-2 PM Pacific, 4-5 PM Eastern, 9-10 PM BST. All ICF members are welcome. For details, visit the ICF SIG page.

If you’d like someone from the CMADI team to speak to your group, please email us!

International Coaching Week will be celebrated Feb 4-10, 2007. The week is acknowledged in Chase’s Calendar of Events, and it’s the perfect time to educate the public about the value of working with a coach. Coaches around the world schedule community events, pro bono coaching, and workshops to promote coaching during this time.

The CMADI Steering Committee is pleased to announce the availability of our first tool for the media kit we are creating for the use of coaching organizations, a sample press release for Coaching Week.

One of the most common types of events for groups to offer is complimentary coaching sessions for the public, because this is a low-cost, easy-to-organize way for people to experience coaching and coaches to become more visible. We have drafted a release your group can use to publicize an offer like this in your city or to a specific niche you serve. Brief instructions and some conditions of use are on the 2nd page of the document.

If you are an ICF member, there is a also a Coaching Week toolkit available in the Member Resources area of the ICF website.

Also, Jerri Udelson, the originator of Coaching Week, has launched a blog where coaches and coaching organizations can post their Coaching Week events and press releases at no charge. If you or your group is planning an event, go to the Coaching Week blog and click on “Post your Coaching Week event,” then choose your region to make a post.

Please spread the word about Coaching Week. More awareness of this event in our community will translate to more scheduled events, and boost the awareness of coaching by the public.

The Coaches Make a Difference Initiative began its outreach this week to coaching associations, chapters, SIG’s, and training schools around the world. Below is the letter we are sending to over 300 coaching groups. We would like to make sure that your organization is included in our outreach efforts. If your group hasn’t yet received a letter or call from one of us, please help us out by forwarding a copy of the letter below to the appropriate person at your association, chapter, SIG, or school. Don’t forget to fill in the information on the first line of the letter before you send it.

<< Subject: Helping your organization promote coaching in your market niche or community

[first name], I’m writing to you in your role as the [job title] of [organization] to let you know about a project being undertaken by the Coaches Make a Difference Initiative. We are a group of volunteer coaches who have banded together in an independent task force to assist members of the coaching profession to increase their visibility and become more financially successful. We are not affiliated with any one organization or school. You can learn more about us at www.coachesmakeadifference.org.

The first project our task force has undertaken is to create a PR toolkit that could be used by any coaching association, chapter, SIG, or school to promote coaching to their own market niche or community. Our vision of this tool is that it would contain ideas for coaching events and media “hooks,” guidelines and suggested language for communicating with the media, examples of press releases and promotional copy, and instructions for using the whole package. When complete, we will share this tool with any and all coaching organizations, at no charge and without copyright restrictions.

Our goal is to give groups of coaches around the world a powerful tool that will enable them to promote their own brand of coaching, reach their own unique niche, or promote their own organization as a source of coaches, thereby creating a “tipping point” in the public awareness of coaching. We believe that empowering multiple groups in this way will have more of an impact than any single group or coach could create working alone.

We are aware that many coaching organizations have developed PR tools for their own use, and don’t intend to reinvent the wheel. However, what we have seen is that these tools are not well-utilized. Members don’t know they exist or where to find them, instructions for using them are incomplete, or the tools are the tools are primarily designed to promote the organization itself rather than the coaches who are its members.

Our intent is to first gather any existing tools we can find, then create those that don’t yet exist, put them together with instructions for their use, make them available on the web to all coaching organizations, and widely promote their availability and use.

We’d like to invite your organization to participate in this project at any level you feel called to. Please take a few moments to respond to the questions below and email us your response.

1. My organization would like to have access to the PR toolkit when it is complete.
_____ Yes _____ No _____ Don’t know; will have to check with others first

2. My organization has tools that we would be willing to contribute to the toolkit. (For example: sample press releases, tips on working with the media, flyers about coaching events, promotional copy on our website, articles or brochures about coaching, or descriptions of successful events.)
_____ Yes _____ No _____ Don’t know; will have to check with others first

3. My organization would like to help with this project by contributing one or more volunteers.
_____ Yes _____ No _____ Don’t know; will have to check with others first

We’d like to have your response by Feb 9, 2007. If you are not the correct person in your organization to respond, please let us know who else we should contact.

Thanks for your assistance in this important endeavor,
Coaches Make a Difference Initiative Steering Committee

C.J. Hayden (chair)
Helen Burton
Pamela Duffy
Carla Schnitker
MaryLu Stefan
David Stocum >>