Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Write from the headlines: Rude people

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Last week, Toronto’s public transit system started cracking down on rude riders. That got me thinking about the many ways that coaches can help us in our encounters with rude people.

  • Career coaches: Are you the victim of workplace bullying?
  • Life coaches: Five important lessons that rude people are here to teach you
  • Parenting coaches: How to deal with the rude behavior of other people’s children
  • Business coaches: Are rude customers still always right?
  • Spiritual coaches: How to lovingly detach from the rudeness of others

Writing prompt: Use one of these article titles as a springboard to a topic that is custom-made for your own audience. I’d love to hear your take on it – you can post a link to your article as a comment below. Please, and thank you.

Write from the headlines: Surprise them with a song

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Wow – check out our Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, playing the piano and singing. He looks almost animated (almost), and he can actually carry a tune quite nicely. It helps that it's a Beatles tune – turns out we're both big fans.

Watching this video got me thinking about how immediately engaged I was because of the surprise element of this story. How could a well-timed surprise help your readers and coaching clients?

  • Career coaches: 5 ways to get noticed in the workplace
  • Life coaches: Could you pull off a "George Costanza"?
  • Money coaches: How to prepare for these top 5 most predictable expenses that always surprise you
  • Parenting coaches: Surprise your children with one of these fun, free day trip ideas
  • Business coaches: Surprise your staff by catching them doing something well
  • Marketing coaches: How to surprise your readers without losing trust

Writing prompt: Use one of these topics for your next article, or think of a surprise of your own!

Write from the headlines: Do incentives work in coaching?

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Governments around the world have implemented incentive programs to stimulate the economy and protect the environment.  I'm proud that my own City of Toronto took a stand for the environment this Spring with a by-law that forces us to think twice before we use plastic bags.

When I saw CAA magazine's Fall 2009 cover story, "Renovation Nation" about Canada's home renovation credit, it got me thinking about how incentives work to motivate people – or do they? Here are some topic ideas to explore this question with your own coaching niche:

  • Career coaches: Top 5 reasons to move on from a job that is not working
  • Life coaches: Top 10 healthy rewards for accomplishing a goal
  • Money coaches: How government incentives can help you to save money and improve your life
  • Parenting coaches: Positive reinforcement strategies for peaceful parenting
  • Business coaches: How incentive-based payment is a win-win for everyone on your team
  • Marketing coaches: Top 5 ways to use bonuses and time-limited offers as incentives for sales

Writing prompt: Whether you want to get your readers thinking about how to create or implement incentive programs, or you want to motivate them to take action with an incentive program of your own, how will you write about this topic in your newsletter or blog? Please comment below and let me know!

Write from the headlines: Flash your feathers

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In honour of Caribana weekend here in Toronto, the theme for today’s writing prompts is “flash your feathers.”

  • Career coaches: 5 ways to broadcast your accomplishments without bragging
  • Life coaches: 5 ways to celebrate your strengths
  • Money coaches: The 5 things you should never scrimp on
  • Parenting coaches: 5 ways to build up your child’s self-esteem
  • Business coaches: 5 missed opportunities to reinforce your brand
  • Marketing coaches: 5 tasteful ways to use client testimonials

Writing prompt: Use one of these titles as a jumping off point for an article or blog post, or simply type the phrase “Flash your feathers!” at the top of a page and see where it takes you.

Write from the headlines: War, conflict, anger and fear

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I was thinking the other day about how conflict and anger can so often be boiled down to simple fear. One person or a lot of people who are afraid they will lose something they cherish or not get something they covet.

We see it in the house, in the workplace, in the car (!), around the corner and around the world (sadly, just take your pick of stories in the International news).

Writing prompt: Here are some ideas for how you can explore the connection between anger and fear in a coaching article:

  • Career coaches: 5 ways to respond calmly to an emotionally-charged conversation at work
  • Life coaches: 5 ways to get re-centered instead of lashing out
  • Money coaches: The 5 tricks that collection agents use to trigger your emotions and how to rise above them
  • Relationship coaches: 5 questions to ask yourself before you confront your spouse in anger
  • Parenting coaches: 5 ways to address the real reason for your child's tantrum
  • Business coaches: 5 ways to keep business from getting personal
  • Marketing coaches: The ethical approach to using scarcity as a marketing strategy
  • Spiritual coaches: 10 ways to cultivate faith when you're facing fear