What Is A Life Coach? How 1:1 Coaching Can Help You Move Forward And Crush Goals
08 Oct
Allison Todd and Friends, Business Coach, Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business, Grow Your Expertise

What Is A Life Coach? How 1:1 Coaching Can Help You Move Forward And Crush Your Goals

Have you ever found yourself stuck in life? Whether you’re at a loss for what you want to do or you have an end-goal in mind but no clue how to get there, feeling stuck in life is all too common. And chances are, a life coach is someone you could benefit from greatly to provide that necessary nudge in the right direction. 

Life coaches are specialists who help their clients analyze where they are now, where they want to be in the future, and how to connect the two. They help people who aren’t sure how to move forward or what their next best step is by looking at what obstacles are getting in the way and helping an individual find solutions to overcome them. 

How Does it Work?

While the process of working with a Life Coach is similar to how therapy works, it differentiates itself by focusing more on the future rather than looking at your past and understanding your present. Life coaching is more direct in nature and gives individuals the encouragement they need to move past any resistance that’s keeping them from their goals. 

Typically, a coach will begin your relationship with a discovery call during which they’ll ask questions to get to know you a little better and to figure out how they can best help you.

You’ll discuss the frequency of your meetings and if there is any “homework” that they may want you to do before your time together. More than likely, they’ll send you some paperwork to fill out that will help them identify your current obstacles and background. 

Once your sessions start, your time together will be spent discussing what goals you have for your future and the things that are keeping you from achieving them. While your coach won’t tell you the exact roadmap or steps to take, they will help you define them for yourself. At the end of your time with a life coach, you’ll walk away with actionable steps to get you on the path to where you want to go. 

Work with Me

I’m a Life Coach based out of Atlanta and I have over 15 years of experience in the coaching industry. I like to call myself a “confidence coach,” because I feel like my mission is to empower driven, passionate entrepreneurs to launch, grow, and scale their businesses and achieve the success they deserve. 

I found my way into the coaching industry after serving in several leadership roles including my current position as Corporation Relations Manager for United Way of Greater Atlanta.

I earned my Masters of Arts in Human Resource Management and Development from Webster University and my Bachelors of Arts in Communication Theory and Rhetoric from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

In conjunction with my coaching business, I created a Business Clarity Mastermind that’s open to the public and teaches practical strategies and tools to take action and grow your business. 

If you’ve been spinning your wheels about where your life is headed and still haven’t found any traction, I would love to talk about how I can get you back on track and moving towards the future you envision. Your path to progress is just one click away. 

19 May
Digital Marketing, Grow Your Business

Top 2020 Digital Marketing Hacks for Your Business

Consumer habits keep changing. How can you identify the digital marketing hacks for your business in order to attract your consumer? In the past several years, there’s been a steep rise in the number of consumers going online to access products and services. It is estimated that the total global online retail sales are going to rise significantly to around $4.8 trillion by 2021. Allison Todd, Operations and Digital Growth Strategist, unfolds the top digital marketing hacks that businesses out there can leverage in the coming era.

If you want to scale your online business, it is imperative that you target your audience, in order to attract your consumer. Once you start targeting the audience, your online traffic increases. Eventually, your website clicks start increasing. Then, you begin to speak specifically to your consumer and your revenue begins to grow. Here are some of the top digital marketing hacks that you should crack, now:

Content is Still King

With the ever-increasing utilization of social media platforms, the delivery of high-quality content has never been more important. Your content will attract your target audience to your brand and core offerings. The delivery of top-class, high-quality content to the target audience goes a long way towards building brand loyalty and ensuring customer retention.

Voice Search Optimization

With the ever-increasing deployment of technology like Google Home and Alexa, businesses should work on content optimization including voice searches. The way in which the end users conduct searches online tend to differ significantly –whether they are typing or speaking.

Integration of Chatbots

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming one of the major implementations for delivering optimized & personalized user experiences. The use of chatbots or ‘chat robots’ help to automate and ensure communication with the end customers. The modern chatbot technology offers the assurance that customer interaction is taking place effectively while the customers are being provided with timely responses.

Update SEO

Every year, the major search engines out there like Bing, Yahoo, and Google keep update the respective search algorithms to improve the overall user experience. To comply with the algorithm changes, you should update the SEO for your website as well. By doing so, you can remain on point with the latest digital marketing trends as well as practices to yield the best results. Therefore, it becomes imperative for you to ensure that your website is updated with the latest changes in the search engine’s algorithm changes.

Repurpose Old Content

While most business owners are well-aware of the potential benefits of content for their business, they do not post updated, relevant content on their website. A comprehensive digital marketing strategy, includes the repurpose of old content on your website.

Make the most of the latest digital marketing hacks for your business! Learn more about the hacks we use and gain support from my community while you grow. Join us, here. And if you need some ideas specific to you and your business, contact Allison Todd.

05 Apr
Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business

How to be Creative with your Blogging Process (Step Four)

Learn how to be creative with your blogging process by taking the fourth step. Note this is not the final step but it is step four. Now that you have made it to the final day of How to be Creative with your Blogging Process, I hope you have a general idea of what it takes to create your content. The next series will show you How to Market Content with your Blogging Process.

Complete the Process

To complete the process here’s a recap of the four steps to creative blogging success.

  • Brainstorm
  • Organize Ideas & Create the Planner
  • Select Images to Connect to your Content
  • Complete the Content & Tell Your Story (Hooray!)

Step four is all about filling in the gap. You have the title and blog summary from your Editorial Content Calendar. Perhaps you also saved your blog draft after selecting the image in step three. And here we are at the final step before scheduling your post. This is your opportunity to tell your story. Let’s grow!

creative blogging process step four

Happy writing! Connect with me on social? Let’s keep each other motivated and inspired to do what we love! I can’t wait to hear your reviews. Helpful or nah? I’ve got tons of content and curriculum.  If this didn’t help, I am sure there is something that will.

Subscribe to my Confidence Coach Notes and you will always be in the know.  That means first dibs on everything.  And that include the goodies!  If the Four Step Creative Blogging Process was helpful let me know in the comments. I’d love to know if we can make a difference next week with a new process.   

04 Apr
Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business

How to be Creative with your Blogging Process (Step Three)

Learn how to be creative with your blogging process by taking the third step. So glad that you are still with me! Yesterday, we reviewed step two. Did you select your planner yet? The Confident Culture got me to give them all four tools for all four steps. They have been showing off their work in group coaching. What fun.

Back to Work (Step Three)

The best part of a blog is the image. I invest the entire emotion in my image. I want the reader to know what I was feeling when I shared the content. How about you? Do you invest in your images, create them yourself or use no images at all? I work with a designer who delivers image packs. Let me know if you are interested and I will share the info.

creative blogging process step three

If you have the images outlined with the content, the vision begins to come together. At this point, you can decide to post all images and titles as drafts OR start writing. Either way you are super close to the finish line. Let’s take a mid-day break and invest time in image selection. Challenge yourself to plan the next 30-60-90 days.

90-Day Action Plan

Once you have your editorial content plan complete, you will know what type of images you need. Go ahead and lay out 90 days, it makes life much easier. And then grab your images. If you don’t have any (see above) , I know someone. Take some time to fill in the blanks on your planner. But, don’t stop there.

Make sure you are reviewing your story. Read it out loud to yourself. Fill in the blanks and begin blogging. If this Four Step Creative Blogging Process (Step Three) is helpful let me know in the comments. I’d love to know if the next 3 days make a difference in your process.

03 Apr
Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business

How to be Creative with your Blogging Process (Step Two)

Learn how to be creative with your blogging process by taking the second step. Wait, if you haven’t completed step one yet, click here. Once you have completed step one come back to begin step two. Okay, everybody ready to create and editorial content planner and manage your ideas?

Choosing the Perfect Planner

If you are like me, you may have to experiment with a few different planners first. Personally, I prefer a pen and paper planner and a digital planner. I find that most of my brainstorming happens with pen and paper. However, I begin to develop the ideas in a digital form. I love the way I can arrange things with the drag and drop features. And the safety feature better know as Ctrl + Z or “undo” saves me a ton of time.

So how about you? What type of planner do you prefer? I have also tried the passion planner (which you may like) but it was super heavy for me. I have finally married the idea of the start planner which allows me to plan 12-months in advance and carry 90 days at a time. By now you have figured out I prefer to do my planning in an actual planner.

creative blogging process step two

Editorial Content Planner Template, Too.

How you design and share your content will depend on your creative style and audience needs. The most important lesson to gain from this step is how your organize and plan your content. However, here are some basic fields that should be included in your planner. Create your template in google drive, evernote or excel. You will be surprised how productive you can be.

Content Planner Topics:

  • Date and Time
  • Topic or Headline ( I like a column for both)
  • Content or Details ( I like to summary the blog so it has a jump start when I complete it)
  • Author (Unless you are the only author, no need to type your name 30 times)
  • Status or Due Date (I like both because I need to see my due dates)
  • Keywords (Identifying these early on is super helpful for me)

Managing your ideas in an editorial content planner assists with social media, podcasts, videos and blogs at the same time. And once you organize your content and manage your ideas, you will be even more creative.

I thought you might be motivated to get started, so I created a template for you. This will help you get started with your digital planner. And if you don’t have a paper planner, print the digital planner. A creative process is important. Don’t skip steps to your success.

Happy writing! Connect with me on social? Let’s keep each other motivated and inspired to do what we love! I can’t wait to hear your reviews. Helpful or nah? Subscribe to my Confidence Coach Notes and you will always be in the know.  That means first dibs on everything, plus goodies! 

If the Four Step Creative Blogging Process (Step Two) is helpful let me know in the comments. I’d love to know if the next 2 days make a difference in your process.

02 Apr
Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business

How to be Creative with your Blogging Process (Step One)

Learn how to be creative with your blogging process by taking the first step. Welcome back if you tuned in yesterday. If not, take a peak at How to be Creative with your Blogging Process. Fast forward and here we are at the first step. First things first, do you know what will you write about? Have you thought about how you will design your voice? Let’s learn more about you.

What’s Your Story?

This could be the best way to begin your process, thinking about your story. Step one is to begin brainstorming ideas. Wait, before you do anything grab your pen and paper. Then, write down all of the ideas that come to your mind. Whatever you do, don’t overthink what you are writing, just write. I like to play loud music while I brainstorm but do what works for you.

All of your ideas may not be great but could lead to greatness. As a result, this is where you create the foundation of your creative blogging process. How you brainstorm, where you brainstorm and the tools you use to do so make a big difference. My personal style is to brainstorm about what’s on my mind or what I am current business challenges. Then, I outline them.

creative blogging process step one

Which topics stand out to you and which make you say hmm? In other words, everything that you wrote down won’t be used. But take your time to review your list after active brainstorming. Then, identify the good, great and not so good ideas. It’s important to collect your ideas and figure out how to organize them. Some people like to use post-its to build their content and organize their blogs.

Let’s Start Brainstorming

Whatever your choices, take time now to determine what your brainstorming process looks like. Prepare to venture into uncharted waters, unfinished thoughts and mind motivation moments. To help you get started, here’s are a couple of brainstorming problem-solving, mind provoking questions:

Brainstorming Question List

  • What was my biggest challenge this week/month? What did I learn from it?
  • I want to learn more ________________ (insert topic) to improve my professional development?
  • Who does your expertise attract? And, what do they want to talk about?
  • What have you learned about your expertise? What would you do differently?

If you need more, the questions continue in the Confidence Culture community. Once you know what to blog about, how will you plan your blog for the next 30-60-90 days? Come back tomorrow for Four Step Creative Blogging Process (Step Two).

If this Four Step Creative Blogging Process (Step One) is helpful let me know in the comments. I’d love to know if the next 3 days make a difference in your process. Don’t forget we will end the week with some Blogging Goodies. In the meantime, sign up for Confidence Culture Membership and download your Blog Brainstorming Template & get your Brainstorming Question List.

01 Apr
Confidence Culture, Grow Your Business

How To Be Creative With Your Blogging Process

Are you ready to learn how to be creative with your blogging process and make it yours. With these four steps, you can create, plan and post your blog! I figured the best way to learn is to take it day by day. The Four Step Process will show you how to ignite your creativity. So, what is your blog topic?

What Will You Blog About

Yes, you need to know what you will be blogging about. We can’t get creative until you identify your topic(s). I often ask myself what do I like to read? And normally, I write about those things. Then, when I need some creative discovery, I get deep in my research. Depending on the day, I can be a skimmer or a reader. Best practice says if my skimming turns into reading, that might be my next blog topic. Either way, I write about what I love. Hence, you should too.

If the research doesn’t motivate you, focus on solutions. No doubt, marketing your expertise is a great way to grow your brand. Plus, everyone likes solutions, right? I often will use some of my confidence coaching topics or business consulting topics to write about. This gives the reader some good tips, tools and techniques (for free)!

creative blogging process

Who Inspires You?

I am inspired by love letters. I love to write letters to people who motivate and inspire me. And, that’s love. Sometimes, words for one, can benefit many. Whatever works for you. After all, it’s your blog. It’s a space to carve your voice and architect your creative process. Your audience will appreciate your creative content.

I will share the Four Step Creative Blogging Process this week. If you need to ignite your creativity, come back each day this week. For extra tips, tools and templates, join the Confidence Culture. With your membership you will receive:

  • digital group coaching
  • how to instructional videos
  • access to the resource library
  • membership access
  • an accountability group and more!

If this process is helpful, let me know in the comments. I’d love to know if the next 4 days make a difference in your process. We will end the week with some Blogging Goodies. Subscribe and stay tuned.