CBC Reba: Don’t be an Internet Marketing Magpie (and call yourself a coach)

Continuing my Cross Blog Conversation with Reba Collins of Internet Marketing Boomer. In her last post she asks me…

What was it that allowed you to tell yourself, “I know enough about internet marketing to teach others how to do it.”

Reba, as with all the questions before – these are AWESOME!

What allowed me to feel like I could teach?

When I first started to present resources, in a lot of situations I did not know enough to teach others. I found other people with expertise to interview and partner with. As time passed I gained experience from applying the information I was learning and eventually felt comfortable sharing results and lessons learned.

When you ask ‘how does a newbie find confidence‘ – do you mean how does someone find the confidence to teach internet marketing? I think that may be what you mean so I’ll give you my thoughts on that.

First, some people are natural teachers. The desire to teach comes from deep inside. As soon as a teacher absorbs information they find themselves thinking about ways to share it with others. In the Work at Home Mom Community we have the added maternal instinct which makes us what to take care of others, especially newcomers.

What’s really important is to realize that a teaching gift alone is not enough to equip you to teach. You also need high quality information. When it comes to teaching internet marketing to others, the more well rounded your own education is, the better suited you are to share info with others.

If your goal is to simply disseminate accurate information and provide resources though a blog, a newsletter or a podcast, and you are taking care to keep your body of knowledge up to date, you’re probably good to go.

But what about Coaching and Consulting?

If you want to go beyond sharing information and delve into telling someone what to do in a specific way, that is a different situation entirely. It’s downright dangerous for someone without real life internet marketing experience to coach and consult.

Most of the people who come to me for coaching already KNOW what to do. It’s the specific application to their unique business that’s tripping them up.

The reason they come to me is that they see me engaged in the business of internet marketing. They know I am not just learning and acting as an internet marketing magpie – I’ve been applying and learning from my experiences. I’ve had some great successes and a few miserable failures – and that is ultimately what makes me a good coach today.

My clients want me to look at their business through the eyes of experience with similar business activities and give them measured advice.

So ultimately, what gives me confidence is my experience.

I actually coach a lot of moms who want to do what I do. They have the natural teaching gift, they have the big maternal urge to nurture others in their businesses and they want to know how to get there. My advise is always to spend some time DOING before they tackle TEACHING. Build up some experience so that you have more to share than just what you’ve learned from others.

Reba, I have REALLY enjoyed this CBC Thanks so much for doing it!