Taking Action

This week has been about setting the base to get things up and running. We've been working on setting up Webinars to allow participants to learn more about the approach and content of CoachingOurselves. Since I have a limited IS background, this process was unfamiliar to me when we first started working on it. We have now managed to have the webinars open for registration at http://www.coachingourselves.com/en/webinars and have figured out the logistics of syncing it with Cisco Webex.

Now that the webinars are up on the website, I can begin my promotion of them. But how? How can you attract interested managers to sign up? My promotion needs to begin with those who have taken action to express their interest in CoachingOurselves. I have started this process at our social networking sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These are very important places for promotion because there's a pretty good chance members of your groups on these sites are interested in learning more about your company, in my case CoachingOurselves. Next, I can turn to our CRM system. People who have expressed an interest in learning more about what we have to offer would probably be interested in attending a half hour free webinar for this exact purpose. By setting up the webinars and then contacting those who have expressed interest in the past, it shows that we are reaching out to our customers, providing them with the information they need.

Another thing I have been focusing on this week is reaching out into untapped markets. The marketing proposal I spoke about last week was about finding associations and organizations in need of management development and then figuring out a way to reach them. I figured out the way to reach them is through continuing education units. Certain professionals need to earn a specified amount of CEUs on an annual basis in order to maintain their certification with their particular association. Bingo! I have noticed several associations may have a need for management and leadership development. If I can reach these associations through the offering of CEUs, we will be that much closer to "changing how management is practiced!" I have been spending some time researching and approaching these associations in order to figure out the best way to go about helping them with professional development. I have heard back from a few and am excited to see where this path will take me.

Marketing success story of the week: reaching outside of your usual clientele to identify a new market in need of what your company has to offer, and creating a larger target market in the process!

Settling In

I am nearing the end of my third week as a marketing associate for CoachingOurselves. I am finally learning the ropes and settling into my new job. I have been quite busy the past few weeks familiarizing myself with the industry through articles and blogs, creating the newsletter, editing the website, updating the management resources page, aiding in the organization of a partner conference, updating the CRM system, creating program flowcharts, attending SPB partnership kick-offs, and the list goes on. Throughout all these tasks I have become acquainted with the various systems that help facilitate all of these things, and it never ceases to amaze me. I created a CoachingOurselves LinkedIn group to discuss, debate, and share experiences related to the CoachingOurselves approach; I can then sign onto Google Analytics to directly monitor the website traffic and see how many people are visiting the CoachingOurselves website because of the LinkedIn group. Now that's a way to measure results! I can actually see the direct impact of a particular marketing effort!

I am also in the process of creating a marketing proposal that I will submit to my boss, the Executive Director Phil LeNir, for a few ideas that I have. I have just found a way to link every effort together rather nicely and am looking forward to the end result.

For now, my marketing success story over the past few weeks is definitely LinkedIn.

My First Day

Monday May 4, 2009 was my first day working as a marketing associate at CoachingOurselves. One of the founders, Phil LeNir, sat down with me to tell me what I had on my plate for the next four months. There was a great deal of information to take in as I tried to comprehend the amount of work that was in front of me. This process lasted for the entire day and continued into Tuesday morning.

On Monday evening, I attended the SPB and CoachingOurselves Partnership Kick-Off Cocktail with Professor Henry Mintzberg and Phil LeNir. The room was filled with excitement and chatter as numerous HR professionals filled La Cave at the Intercontinental Hotel to hear about this new partnership. The night began with some light refreshments & hors d’oeuvres and proceeded with a talk from Professor Henry Mintzberg, a presentation from Phil LeNir, and a concluding statement from Pierre Gauthier, President of SPB.

The expertise that our partners at SPB bring will allow the approach and content of CoachingOurselves to lead to positive changes in the organization. As a result, CoachingOurselves can develop managers in three ways: as individuals, the group as a team, and then together the team can undertake initiatives that will positively change their organization.

There was a great deal of information to take in on Monday, and no doubt it was a long day, but it was great because so many new and exciting things are happening at CoachingOurselves. The SPB Kick-Off cocktail was a great way for me to finish off my first day!

My New Job

I am working as a marketing associate at CoachingOurselves. My new job entails creating brand awareness for learning & development managers and HR professionals across the Canadian, U.S, and U.K market. I will be utilizing a large variety of marketing tactics, in which I will share my experiences and insight.

CoachingOurselves has a really cool approach to management and leadership development, which was started by Professor Henry Mintzberg and Phil LeNir. Their sessions use informal learning techniques through self-directed peer learning groups in order to develop managers on an individual level and as a team, which can then lead to initiatives to change the organization as a whole. You can check them out at http://www.coachingourselves.com/ for more information.