Inspiring Ongoing Connections and a Hobbit-sized LOTR Reference

Some people will quickly want to talk to you about hiring you as their coach. Most will take time, especially if they don’t know you. And that’s why it’s vital to keep an ongoing conversation with people.

But you can’t just plop on the Web and say, “Hey, I’m a coach. Come check me out. Follow me.” People just won’t follow you because you exist. You’ve got to be worthwhile. You’ve got to inspire or otherwise motivate them to “join your tribe” – so to speak.

Here are three website keys to help you get visitors to sit around your virtual campfire.

1. Having a big benefit that people want.

It’s nice to be a person full of insights, cool ideas, and thoughts that can really help people succeed. But without some vision of what “success” is to your visitors, they won’t know WHY they need to stick around.

You need some big benefits, some great goals, and a better future for people to get to. You’ll need to make that clear. And you’ll need to highlight that on your site.

2. Aligning your interactions to support.

Ok. If you’ve got #1 under control. Great! You’ll get passersby to want to get on your list, connect with you on LinkedIn or follow you on Twitter.

But to keep them engaged and regularly paying attention to what you’re up to (and eventually buying from you), you’ll need to support them on their journey toward the big benefits.

Your interactions (e.g., newsletter articles, blogs, tweets, discussion posts) need to do any of these: educate them, inspire them, motivate them, or in any way help them along.

Writing an article about accountability is great. Many coaches do that. But you need to go further than just teaching about accountability in your articles.

Take it further. Tie that article into practical steps, add success stories, give examples in practice, and point out the bigger end benefits related to accountability. of accountability (again, tie back into #1), then you’ll be doing much more to support them – and they’ll stick around.

By the way, an ebook that they pay for (or any paid items) is part of your offers to support. They just happen to be paid for. Your free stuff is important to have, too.

3. Any easy way to stay in touch – mechanically/technically.

It’s great if you’re leading your people to better places – like hobbits and dwarves through perilous terrain to defeat evil and save the races – but you’ll need horses, maps, and gigantic eagles to make the trip doable.

You need to make this physical action ultra easy and smooth. If you’re doing a newsletter or email list strategy, grab AWeber (Here’s a quick way to get that going). as they give you easy forms to use on your site. If your primary mode to stay in touch is via blogging, make your invitation to get on your blog very prominent and even state often, “Get on my blog for articles to help you get benefit X”.

Maybe you’re running a LinkedIn Group, and that’s your clan’s modus de connectus. Make the link and invitation to join your group clear. Tell them the steps to take to join.

Make it easy!

In summary: Inspire people to connect with you!

Be sure to point out big benefits of staying connected to you. Be sure to continually support your group with content (articles, videos, discussions, tips, etc). And make the steps on how to stay connected clear, easy, and prominent.

Now, some questions for you!

To further fertilize the idea of inspiring people to connect with you, let me ask: Are you leading a tribe at all? Are the bigger reasons to stay with you clear on your website (are you splattering the word “coaching” everywhere?)? Is it easy to get on your list or otherwise follow you? How can you improve this?

I’d love to hear. Comment below!