[Platform Online Book Study] You’re not a writer. You never wanted to be a writer. In fact, that’s one of the reasons you became a coach. Coaches talk. They don’t write.

Unless, of course, you are a coach who wants clients. It turns out that writing articles, blog posts and newsletters is a perfect way to get clients to come to you.

When writing, a good rule of thumb is to write as if you were hanging out with your friends over a Latte at Starbucks. Coaching is a relationship, and people are going to become your clients because they have gotten to know, like and trust you.

You – the person, not the Encyclopedia Britannica.

How do you write that popular post? It’s simple. Write the way you talk.

That’s good news by the way. These days you have full permission to break most (not all) the grammar rules you learned in fifth grade, but please don’t tell Mrs. White you heard it from me :).

1. Be conversational – Write your blog post as if you were writing a casual letter to a friend.
2. Avoid buzz words and jargon – While the terms ‘active listening,’ ‘powerful questions’ and ‘dancing in the moment’ have great meaning to us, they have cause a zombie-like effect in your average reader.
3. Avoid corporate speak – You are a person, a coach, not some nameless, faceless corporation. Speak in the first person, address your reader as “you” and use the exact words and phrases that your readers use.
4. Tell stories – Think back to last Sunday’s sermon. If you are like most people you remember the stories and not the main points. (Pastors, please, tell more stories!) Talk about some of the successes your clients have had, the things that have personally helped you or give an example of how certain principles will look when applied to their lives.
5. Keep it short and sweet – People read differently on the Internet than they do offline. Their attention span is shorter. Their eyes skim the page. It really helps when you add those headers, sub-headers and images. Make your blog post or article candy to the eye.
6. Relax – Because you are showing your human side, don’t obsess about perfection. It’s important to keep generating fresh content. You won’t be able to do that if you set your standards impossibly high. Yes, you will want to proofread your work, but if you notice a mistake after you hit ‘publish’ that’s okay. Your readers will understand and relate.

The bottom line is to be yourself. How easy is that?

Kim Avery