I’m still ‘high’ from doing a free “Bring Me Your Business Challenges” group coaching call where I had people just call in and get coached. We got to work with 5 business owners, and one of the themes that came from that call inspired these blog posts.

When I asked for volunteers, one woman shared that her coaching request was around getting help in how to visualize working with so many clients. When I pushed for more clarity around this, she really didn’t want to see a huge number of people a week in her service-based business, so it didn’t make sense. It wasn’t until the questioning process lead her to say this statement that it all clicked—

“I don’t want to become what I think it will take to get all those clients in the door.”

Eureka! For this person, her mindset block was that she believed that she needed to become a very driven type-A person in order to attract anyone, and the cost of doing that seemed way too great for her. She’s very sweet and grounded in her energy, so the thought of being anything else caused her to probably sabotage her progress in a very big way.

So how do you confuse your market and lose faith in yourself? By trying to be something you are not! But almost everyone makes this mistake at some time when they are building and marketing what they do.

On one hand it’s exquisitely simple, but on the other hand it’s a very complex idea.
After working with loads of people (and with my own business) I will show you three reasons why we try to be something we are not.  Check back for the next blog post to learn why this can plague entrepreneurs and what we can do about it.

This is an article on how an experience in training my dog taught me a huge lesson in business!

Ok, I’m really, really good at some things. Parenting, coaching, speaking/training. Even pretty good at singing….but when it comes to owning a dog, I have to give myself a “B” or maybe “C+” in this area. Not that I don’t care for my sweet pooch, cuz I adore her, but truthfully, I haven’t put the time in to train her to be quite as socialized as she should be.

Maybe it’s because I’m such a fierce advocate for bold self expression that I don’t stop her from getting on the couch, sleeping in my bed, and wanting to be in everyone’s lap! Or maybe it’s that we got her as a VERY WILD rescue dog the month before my ex moved out and for that first year, let’s just say that I didn’t have the energy to put into getting her trained. Of course that’s now been over four years, but who’s counting? The funny thing? Today I have a great trainer who comes over a few times a month and works with Kailee. (She’s fabulous if you need a referral!) Here’s how it goes….When Susan the trainer works with her, she’s like a show dog. We have discovered that I’m the problem. Since Kailee is so energetic, you can’t just put a leash on her and take her out. Susan has a whole process of steps which serve to show Kailee who is in charge. That’s about 10 minutes in the house, and then ten more minutes zigzagging the cul-de-sac before the walk even begins. AHHHHHHHHHH….This is where my impatient “never-mind-I’ll-just-take-her-for-a-drive” attitude comes in.

A few weeks ago I was walking K-dog with Susan and was feeling really frustrated. She wasn’t getting it, and I was not having fun. No matter what I did, she wasn’t settling down, so I was working harder and harder and getting less than good results. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks….

“This is the feeling that I used to have before I outsourced all the areas of my business that I don’t like and I’m not good at.”

In my next post, I’ll share with you the unexpected paradigm shift I experienced as a result of my experience with Kailee.

Blessings,
Therese