Can Coaching Help Your Writing Career?

In order to succeed as a freelance writer, you need to wear many hats in order to launch, run and grow your business. Besides doing the actual writing for your clients, you most likely perform your own marketing, do your own filing, serve as a one-man or one-woman research department, act as your own project manager, save your own business receipts and maybe even do all your own accounting. Some of these hats that you wear probably don’t fit you as well as others, right?

Of course, the ideal world would be one where we could outsource all those functions that we don’t do well or find distasteful—much like why other people hire us to write for them. But for those business functions that we either keep because we can’t afford to hire someone to do them, or hang onto because we really want to do them better, there exist some pretty affordable options out there to get coaching on them from experts.

One of these options is to join what are known as monthly coaching clubs in the area of expertise where you want or need help. While many business and success coaches can and do charge some eye-popping fees for their time and programs, the ones who form clubs put coaching within our financial reach by holding sessions with and providing tools to multiple clients simultaneously, and by charging palatable monthly rates.

While the concept has grown tremendously on the internet, it’s by no means new. Weight Watchers, for example, is a type of coaching to help people learn to change their approaches to food and exercise. Toastmasters International has provided people with a place to hone their public speaking skills for nearly 90 years. On the Web, I performed a quick search and found a coaching club to manage and eliminate debt (http://www.debtfreecoachingclub.com/ ), increase productivity (http://www.theproductivitycoachingclub.com/ ), learn how to write for children (http://www.cwcoachingclub.com/ ), and even one with the intriguing name of “What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know™ Coaching Club” (http://www.whatyouknowisworthmorecoachingclub.com/ ). As you can see, these clubs pretty much run the gamut.

I personally belong to a couple coaching clubs and have found them to be worth every penny. First of all, not only do I get the opportunity to learn from and ask questions from some pretty successful people, I also get to expand my professional network with the other members in the club. You never know whose ears might perk up when they hear that there is a ghost writer in their midst! The two I belong to are:

Robert Middleton’s Action Plan Marketing Club  (click the “Marketing Programs” tab at the top of the page). Robert targets independent professionals trying to market their services both on- and off-line. Not only are his twice monthly 90-minute coaching calls worth their weight in gold, the club includes a step by step marketing tutorial, recorded interviews with other marketing experts, help with forming your own mastermind group, and a place where you can upload your professional profile so that others can find you and your services. At $29 a month, which you can cancel at anytime, I can’t imagine a better bargain.

Stephanie Frank’s Success IQ Inner Circle. While I can only make every other one of her weekly coaching calls, I still get more than my money’s worth from my membership (besides, I can always catch the call I miss afterwards because they’re all recorded). In fact, I still can’t believe she coaches every week for only $27 a month! Stephanie’s program focuses on ways to eliminate any roadblocks we place in the way of our own success, and I find her enthusiasm contagious. Besides the calls, the club contains a library of audios on topics ranging from peak performance and goal-setting to self-confidence and time management. I always walk away from the Tuesday calls feeling pumped up and motivated.

So if you find there’s an area in your life where you and your writing career can use a boost, perhaps joining a coaching club is a way that you can get the help and guidance you need within your budget.