This is where I get *real* about the three things you need to focus on in order to (finally) grow your business…
As part of my forever-ongoing professional growth, I’m trying to listen to one audiobook a month. This month’s title is “The Prosperous Coach” by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler. This is turning out to be one of those books, much like “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port, that I need to sit and focus with a notebook in front of me rather than listen to in the car running errands.
Besides being a great book for professional coaches (the business and life kind, not the sports kind), it has prompted a few thoughts related to business in general. What struck me is a part in the book about coaches not believing in the power of coaching themselves. The authors go on to talk about coaches that don’t invest in their own skills by using a coach (and paying for those services) to improve their own business.
This really got me thinking about a lot of the business genres that my own customers and audiences are in.
- Are you in a direct sales businesses and don’t buy products from the companies that you sell for, but instead purchase (possibly) inferior and cheaper products?
- Do you sell an info product and then complain about paying someone else to access their highly valuable information?
- Are you a professional speaker that doesn’t attend (read: pay for) training workshops for speakers?
- Do you own a family-owned business and then “looks down” on working with other family-owned businesses?
- Are you a media producer (blogger, vlogger and the like) that refuses to pay for other people’s content?
- Do you own an advertising or marketing agencies and don’t apply the same tactics to themselves as they do your clients?
- Are you a coach that doesn’t invest in coaching for themselves?
I see you.
Good news. I’m here to call y’all out on the carpet.
Are you willing to pay for the very things you are asking others to pay you for? If not, why? If it is because you can make that widget better/cheaper/easier yourself that is one thing, but what if you don’t believe in what you do enough to pay someone else for it? Did you love your product, service, or industry enough to pay for “it” from someone else? Do you trust what you do or sell? Do you believe in what you do or sell?
What it comes down to, in my opinion, is that if you are not willing to invest in the very same things you sell yourself because you don’t believe in them… how on Earth do you think other people are going to believe in you enough to give you money for the same thing?
Let’s talk about what’s holding you back.
Trust. Exposure. Results.
It’s simple to write those words but much harder to follow through on what they mean. Work with me to break it down…
Trust
Do you trust the industry you are in? If you sell information products but feel that ‘everyone else’ that sells them are just selling dreams (and not results), then you may not really trust what YOU are selling. If you are selling the best essential oils or leggings around, do you use them yourself? That shaky believe comes through to your clients and in your product.
Exposure
Depending on your background and industry, you may not yet have been exposed to peers that are doing it right. I’ll open my kimono here… I still have a hard time with information products, email lists, and training workshops. (2022 edit: I’m so on board with all of this… and it’s changed my business and LIFE.)
I have a good number of friends that sell these products and services for a living, but yet I’m hesitant to make my own products in this arena. I’m very glad to say that my view on this is changing – mostly due to being exposed to people that are “doing it right.” If you can’t name the top companies and producers in your industry that you genuinely can look up to, start looking around. You need someone successful and positive to emulate or you will never EVER believe in your own business.
Results
It isn’t enough to see results from other people, it’s necessary to experience those results yourself. This doesn’t mean you personally need to have the results. Not every plastic surgeon has had a nose job (maybe!?), but they should have at least seen the before/after themselves. If you don’t use what you sell how can you advocate for it? The cliche here applies: eat your own dog food. You need to find faith in what you do or sell. Without it, how can you expect your clients to?
So what needs to change for you to believe in what you do or sell so so strongly that you would pay someone else your hard-earned money to get it? That answer is different for everyone but NEEDS to be found. Get working!!