You gotta love the power of coaching.  Particularly if you are working with a coach who GETS you.  A coach who stands with you in creating your dreams – and love and accepts you right where you are.

That was my experience with a coach a couple of years ago.  At them time I was smack dab, right in the middle of some reinvention.  Meaning….’doing the work’ to break through the old patterns, beliefs, untruths, etc.  Why?  Because I wanted to play at a new level, and the old strategies don’t work when you are breaking free of the old.  It requires transformation to make the quantum changes. Is it worth it?  Absolutely!  Is it easy?  Nope.

Looking at years of old stuff and ways of being takes courage – but then, so does being an entrepreneur.  I think on some level, we are all warriors of sorts…and I love that.

So my coach gave me the most unusual assignment I’ve ever been given.  To check in with myself every morning, and if I didn’t feel like I was at least a “7” on the feeling “filled-up-and-loved “scale, I was to go get me some!

What?

Most of us start our days with coffee, the paper, or even a task list.  But starting with getting your cup filled with love?  Madness!

But I want you to think about what would be different if you approached each task feeling full.  Feeling that you belong right where you are and that your presence makes a difference in those lives around you.  Imaging the ease and peace and gratitude you’d feel if your ‘love tank’ was full.  And don’t you think your clients would notice it as well?

I’ll give you the same challenge that my coach gave me.  Get filled up.  There is no shame in reaching out to grab some love, just as there is no shame in the fact that you have to stop for fuel in your car to reach your destination.

Now why as an entrepreneur are you invited to do this?  Because you ARE your business.  You are the heart and soul of your business.  There is no coaching the business without coaching the business owners, as they are one.  The more you are content, happy, nourished, and feeling like you are contributing at a high level, the more your business becomes a reflection of that.  Isn’t that worth it?  It sure is for me, as I know that the more I do the inner work, the more people notice the difference in who I’m being and what I’m offering.

Your task now is to begin to fill your life with those folks who can be like petrol for your soul.

Gotta say…sometimes this entrepreneurship is rough stuff! There are so many skills to learn, so many balls to keep in the air, and so much to pay attention to that at times….things can break down.

In the last newsletter we covered the inner game places, and now I’m going to share the more outer game areas where you could get ‘bit in the butt’ if you don’t handle this stuff.

It’s not rocket science, but it does take a decision to do things that may be out of your comfort zone a bit, and really think like a business owner!

The two places that you will lose money, lose energy, and lose time are in the areas of marketing, and planning.

Let’s start with marketing. What does that word mean to you? Sending a flyer occasionally? Doing a networking gig from time to time? Yes, while these may be part of it, your business breakdowns can really show up here.

What’s marketing? In my mind it’s the repeated, continual getting in front of your peeps with good content. Becoming a trusted resource to your audience as someone who can solve their problems, and creating relationships with them.

BUT – most biz owners get murky with marketing. (Not like “coo coo for Cocoa Puffs!) They make the mistake of putting marketing last on their list and have at times a weird love/hate thing with it. So what you have to get if you want to have a profitable business is that your #1 job is to market yourself!

And that may mean overcoming some big mindset blocks about not wanting to be intrusive, bothering people, fearing the dreaded unsubscribe, etc. (Funny, as much as I try to keep this article on the ‘outer game’ pieces, I just can’t NOT talk a bit about mindset because….it’s ALL in the mindset.)

When I recently launched my How to Sell Your Services Without Feeling Like Your Are Selling Your Soul, I was faced with the fact that if I wanted to fill this puppy….I HAD TO MARKET in a way I had never had the courage or been willing to do before. And guess what?  80% of the sales came from the follow up marketing messages and education I was sending out. Did folks leave my list when I stepped up the emails? Of course. But do I have a group of people in the program who are getting amazing results and breakthroughs because I pushed through my own discomfort? Absolutely! Actually, it feels like breaking through my own ‘stuff’ around this has really elevated my business to the next level.

It was a huge lesson and so I want to share it. You have to be in front of your people on a consistent basis. I’m always astounded when I work with new clients and check this piece out. When I say, “So how often do you communicate with your list” there is often a guilty/squirmy reaction because they aren’t and know better. But they can’t because either their mindset is holding them hostage, or they don’t have the strategy in place to do it right. Usually both of those.

So the first biz breakdown (and actually the easiest to fix in some ways) is in creating regular messages to send out. Period. To quote Nike = JUST DO IT.  ☺

The next place the breakdowns happen is in a lack of planning. If you do marketing inconsistently, there is no flow, no foundation, and nothing that builds on the pieces you are putting out. I had a mentor who used to call this the “Spray-and-Pray” method. You just throw a bunch of stuff out there and pray that it gets results, LOL.

And we know how ineffective that is, right?

Now if you’d been watching my stuff for awhile you may have figured out that I’m not a ‘plan your work, work your plan’ kinda gal. Details bury me, and too much structure makes my head hurt.  ☺

BUT – I have discovered that there is an order in planning at least the marketing activities. There is an understanding of what’s coming next, what’s needed to build, and where my creative energy must go. Since bringing on a marketing manager all my marketing has been far more consistent. Why? Because someone is helping me lay it out, plan it, and brainstorm how all the pieces go together.

This piece is critical. And let me help you in this phase by giving you some strategic questions you could answer if you are doing a marketing piece.

Why this and why now? What results are you hoping for? (There are different drivers. Example – if you are doing something just to grow your list, it will be different than if you are having a promotion to only attract high paying clients in the door.)

What problems are you addressing and what is your marketing saying to themselves about those problems? (You need to be using the language THEY use.)

Where is the natural point of entry for them in this process, or are their multiple points they could come in? (Think where your clients are in their growth and where they need to be taken.)

What’s the next thing you will offer? (Think upsell!  If they buy this, then what will you offer next. You should never do one thing without knowing the next offering so you can begin to plan, prepare, and seed for that.)

Having a strategy in place is key. So after you shift your mindset and really own that you will make the commitment to regular marketing, take it to the next level by planning for it. That could mean looking at how often you send newsletters or tips out. What themes or education will you bring to your audience, and what will you offer them that they could purchase from you.

If you think of it as cultivating relationships and serving the people who entrust you to read your stuff, it’s way easier and will help you get over the “but what if I’m bothering them” thinking!

Leave a comment on the blog here and tell me if you have a love/hate thing going on with marketing and what you do to make it work for ya.

Peace!