Making Marketing Work for You

The key to making marketing work for you is to enjoy creating and executing your marketing as much as is possible.

marketing you enjoy

Tumisu / Pixabay

Ever wonder why you enjoy delivering your actual service so much more than you enjoy marketing it? Why do you think that is? For further insight, let’s take a look at the differences between marketing your service and delivering it.

While delivering your service you’re hands on and deeply involved in the client’s situation so you can see the benefits first hand.

When marketing you invest and hope that your message is reaching targeted clientele but you’re often uncertain as to how it’s received and if it’s really working.

You are the expert when delivering your service and your expertise breeds confidence.

When marketing you must rely on the expertise of others which is often a difficult thing to do because trust hasn’t yet developed.

You have one main service that you’ve honed over time so you know what approach will work best for certain client problems.

When marketing you have dozens of different tactics to choose from and it’s challenging to choose the one that will work best for you.

So how can you make marketing work for you?

Tips that will help you to feel better about the marketing you’re choosing.

  1. Use marketing tactics that fit your environment and situation. For example, online tactics like SEO (search engine optimization) will work well for you if you are running a virtual service with little in-person, prospect contact. But if you’re meeting the public at a trade show you’ll do better using promotional giveaways that will help them remember your logo and service after the show.
  2. Choose marketing tactics that you are naturally eager to master. If you’re eager to learn the best ways to leverage a tactic then you will stick with it long enough to understand how to make it work for you. For example, some of you are far more eager to write marketing content than you are to speak to a room of strangers. Honoring your natural eagerness will keep you from jumping from one new tactic to the next without mastering any.
  3. Use tactics where results can be tested, tracked and improved upon over time. Stand alone opportunities like programs and event sponsorship may make you feel good to see your company name in print but if there is no way of tracking results then there is no way of improving your results.
  4. Choose only the top 3-5 marketing tactics that you sincerely want to master. By limiting your use to 3-5 you’re marketing will improve over time as you master the necessary skills. You also won’t be tempted to jump at the next new tactic because you’ll have decided which ones are within your strategy.

By following the above tips you’ll naturally start to enjoy marketing because you’ll see the improvements and look forward to creating even better results with each campaign.

Can a true calling change?

Yes, a true calling can change and you can have many callings throughout your life.

true calling

alles / Pixabay

You are a spectacularly unique individual and you were meant to enjoy and be rewarded for your distinctiveness.

My experience as a true calling coach has shown me that if your business is not aligned with your calling at some point you’ll begin to resist it.  Resistance is a terrible growth strategy.A true calling based business is a business aligned with and built on a foundation of who you are as an individual founder and what you are able to imagine creating.

A true calling based business is a business aligned with and built on a foundation of who you are as an individual founder and what you are able to imagine creating.

Elements describing who you are: core values, strengths, environments, personality traits and inner wisdom.

Elements influencing what you can imagine: vision, transition requirements, desires, and fears.

A true calling based business is one that is ideally aligned with each of these elements but the most powerful of all is your core values.

One way to know if your true calling is really true

Looking at the alignment between your business and your individual core values is the single most accurate way to determine if you are truly working a calling.

I’m not referring to what is normally called a value.  Core values are not moral or social values like integrity and respect. These are more accurately standards that we want to hold dear.

Core values are also not what drives us or motivate us.  Core values are not desires like freedom.

I believe that Thomas Leonard’s definition is the most accurate.

Values are activities, preferences, or behaviors that you are naturally drawn to. Values are you. If there is a natural and uncomplicated pull, it’s probably a value.

Just make sure that you don’t confuse wants or needs with values.  Leonard further explains.

Needs are resources, people, feelings, situations or environments that you must have in order to be your best. There’s a sense of urgency with needs. Wants are what you enjoy having. Values fulfill you; wants provide gratification.

You can’t choose the wrong business if it’s clearly aligned with each of your four values.  For example, these are mine: to Pioneer, to Inspire, to Encourage and to Rally.

Can you see how supportive these values are for my calling as a professional coach?

Are you curious about discovering your four core values?

If so and you’d like an opportunity to reveal them respond to this post and tell me why.

Narrow Your Niche to Reap Five Big Benefits

When you choose to narrow niche you reap numerous, naturally occurring benefits that are not available to you as a generalist. But if you don’t narrow your niche you won’t get these benefits because you’ll be lost in a sea of sameness. Narrow your niche

  1. By deepening your connection with your ideal clients you’ll create greater fulfillment for you and greater transformation for them.
  2. By lessening doubt and building confidence your attraction to your ideal clients increases.
  3. By repeatedly solving the same expensive problems your actual expertise grows and that makes you more valuable.
  4. By narrowly focusing your marketing on you always know what to do and who to direct it to.
  5. By setting yourself apart from others you decrease comparison while increasing your perceived value in the marketplace.

And contrary to popular belief you can still work with clients outside of your niche when you want to. So your revenue most likely will increase by developing true expertise.

 

Schedule a Focused Friday, complimentary session to discover the narrow niche you are best equipped to serve. 

Five Ways Why You Are Your Ideal Client

ideal client keyAs a professional service provider understanding, yourself is essential to understanding and attracting your ideal client. Ideal means quintessential – a perfect embodiment and essential essence of something.

In the personal service arena fit is everything.  The best way to be aligned is to actually and authentically share the same aspirations, values and struggles.

When you are aligned with your ideal client in every essential way these five qualities naturally create a sense of shared experience.

1 Affinity

Clients enjoy doing meaningful work with others in shared experiences. When you are energetically playing in the same arena and inspired by similar calls, working together is lighter and more expansive than having to suck it up and use discipline.

2 Empathy

Clients need to know that you care. You’ll naturally care more for those who hurt like you’ve hurt and feel the same things you’ve felt and continue to feel.

3 Connection

Clients need to know that you’re real and trustworthy.  By developing the habit of being vulnerably open your connection will deepen without pretense and limitations.

4 Relevance

Clients need to know that you really get them and deeply understand what they’re going through.  Relevance creates value in the hearts of your ideal clients.  Buying is an emotional decision.  When you can demonstrate that you’ve shared the same struggles and thoughts as your ideal client then they know you understand.  A special intuitive sync and synergy develop that adds value sooner because doubt and confusion are considerably lessened.

5 Desires

Clients need to know that they can get what they want.  When you can prove that you’ve gotten yourself to where they want to be then they know that they can trust you to guide them to the same.

You can best add value for your ideal client by leveraging your knowledge of the exact situation in which they find themselves stuck.

Since you are a couple of steps ahead of them on the same journey you can share how you got there.  If you want to take a deeper dive into validating and attracting your ideal client this training is superb.

Your ideal client statement can be as clear as mine.

I guide optimistic, spiritual, pioneering solo, service providers to build richly rewarding businesses that honor their individuality.  Tom Volkar

These are two ideal client situations where my expertise is most valuable:

  1. You want to start or grow an ideal business but you fear failure, success or the opinions of others.
  2. You want to build a richly rewarding business but you struggle to choose and follow-through the optimum path to get you there.

You can have the same clarity about the situation your clients will find most valuable.

 

 

Overcoming Fear

overcoming fearsOvercoming fear, so you can do what you really want to do, is much easier once you sort out the fears that aren’t even yours.

Take these three steps.

  1. Think about something that you’ve wanted to do for many years but just haven’t done it. On a sheet of paper write the completion to this sentence.   For years I’ve wanted to ……
  2. Now write this question. What are all the reasons I haven’t done that yet?
  3. Look at the reasons. How many of those excuses, justifications and rationalizations aren’t even your own? Highlight all of those that may not even be your own and see how few remain.

What if you knew for certain that most of your fears aren’t really your own?  Since they are false fears they won’t even come into play. If that were so would you make your move then?

When you put a higher value on what others may think of your actions than your own inner guidance you are doomed to failure. Even worse, you’re doomed to live a dull, waiting life that never becomes what it might have been.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt was resolutely himself, consistently and without apology.

What does that look like for you?

You were created with a special flare and style and when your special light shines its brilliance that brilliance is like no other. It’s your gift. You possess the potency and capacity to change the world simply by being you.

The best way to stand in a space of overcoming fear is to first let go off all the fears that really aren’t yours.

Do you have an original idea but delay starting because you fear failing?

If so, there is a very good chance that what you fear isn’t originally your thought.

Quit living your life running from someone else’s fear.

Your original idea is yours – your fears are others. Fearless living can be yours.

Answer the questions I gave you at the beginning of this post and you’ll begin to feel lighter and even fearless.

Fear of looking like a fool keeps you from getting what you want. Egbert Sukop

Let go of what others may think and say by following your own inner guidance.

Answer these questions and follow-through.

  1. What small action could I take today knowing that false fears won’t stop me?
  2. What is it (about my idea) that matters most to me that is also most valuable to others?
  3. What might be possible if I only chose me all of the time?

Overcoming fear that’s not originally your own will allow your special light to shine so you can come into your own. That’s all you need to end delay so you can do what you came here to do.

Schedule your complimentary strategy session today and together we’ll sort out the fears that really aren’t yours.

Six Reasons Why You Hesitate to Start Your Own Business

You hesitate to start your own business because your imagined scenarios seem far worse than staying where you are.

why you hesitate to start a busienssBut what’s really going on when you want to start a business and don’t? Look at these six most likely reasons to determine which of them is more of a block for you.

It could be that:

  1. You’re afraid of how your life would change if you succeeded.
  2. You’re afraid of failing and how the lack of money or security could change your life.
  3. You’re afraid to hear the judgment of others who think you’re needlessly taking a foolish risk.
  4. You’ve chosen a business that is not a good fit for who you are.
  5. You’re thinking way too hard about how to get started.
  6. Or you want the freedom of being your own boss but don’t know which business to start.

Good News

  • You’re creation has meaning and that means that you have the capacity to create something extraordinary.
  • You’re life experience has not been accidental; every experience has forged your core capacities to create in a way that’s unique to you.
  • Yes, your individuality can be leveraged in a way that gives you a clear marketplace advantage.

Not so Good News

All present results are an expression of a certain way of thinking. I have learned that changing results requires new ways of thought and new action until we find the new result. Albert Einstein

You hesitate to start your own business because the majority of your thoughts up until now feed that hesitation.  What can you do about that?

The easiest and most effective way to take Einstein’s advice is to set aside your over-analysis which causes you to come to limiting conclusions. Your new way of thinking needs to be open-ended so new possibilities can come to your awareness.

Thinking too hard about how to start has kept you stuck in doubt and delay. Taking any of the actions in the startup checklist will get you moving.

You can’t see everything in advance of acting. Some moves require that you make a choice and act first. Then only after acting will your optimum path will be revealed.

A New Way of Thinking

Increase your awareness by asking these questions for one week three times a day to feel the inspiration of fresh possibilities.

Please do not rush to answer.  The function of these questions is not to find answers, but to create expanded awareness.  By asking and allowing them some space, your consciousness is enhanced.  Living with these questions will bring you new possibilities.

What choices, questions and consciousness would make my new business startup easy and effortless?   

What if discovering and developing my ideal business is far easier than I can now imagine?

What possibilities and actions am I capable of that I can’t quite see?

If feeling stuck or resistant ask … what’s right about this that I’m not quite getting?

If you’re mind comes to a conclusion immediately ask … What else is possible?

More Good News

You have an optimum path to a successful business launch but to do so you need greater clarity and confidence than you now have.

Becoming aware of inspiring scenarios will build that confidence. Acting on those possibilities will bring even greater clarity to the process.

You are capable of succeeding in your own business. When you choose a business that’s an ideal match to your individuality you’ll no longer hesitate to start your own business.

Free New Business Startup Resources

Choose Your Ideal Business EBook

Business Startup Ideas & Answers

Confidently Make the Leap Strategy Session

Coming Into Your Own Individuality

Coming into your own individuality is to accept your divine gift and be the one core thing that only you can be.  This is my spiritual theory of self-actualization. coming into your own

You have been blessed with unique talents so that you can express them and create a contribution to humanity that could not happen without you in it. If you decide to stop short of coming into your own, you are telling God, “no thank you” and returning the gift that was meant only for you.

Do Not Limit God’s Gifts

Rigid and defining conclusions on God and God’s capability leads to further limiting conclusions on what God can and cannot do for you. These beliefs actually limit how you can receive Divine Grace and Divine Intelligence even though they may be what you call your religion.

Infinite intelligence is undefinable beyond all description and comparison including definitions set forth by all religions. These religious restrictions on what’s possible were created by others to make sense of the Divine.

I use the term Universe to describe my personal experience of God because I can imagine myself working in partnership with God more readily if I refer to infinite intelligence as the Universe.  Actualization will come easier to you if you also use the name for God that feels and sounds most infinite and personal to you.

The Universe actually has your back and looks to support you unconditionally. Yet you must make an effort to express yourself as a powerful individual who knows and engages your one core thing in a distinctively unique way.

God doesn’t make dummies or copies. Be all of who you are to reconnect your essence to the infinite being you can be.

Ask Big Questions to Create a Big Life

Open-ended inquiry expands consciousness so that you become aware of possibilities other than those that can be seen. Asking an uplifting question is actually asking the Universe to rearrange molecular possibilities on your behalf.

Without daily inquiry you are limiting yourself to what has been and what can already be seen.

This contextual reality only defines limitations set down by the collective opinions of others that you have adopted as your own. Since the non-contextual reality is infinite, the contextual reality (what can be seen) comprises only a small portion of what’s actually possible.

Your infinite, non-contextual reality is stimulated by fresh realizations, new choices, uplifting questions and ever-increasing awareness.  It’s necessary to ask big questions beyond your current understanding to inspire the process of coming into your own individuality.

The essence of you, your core being is far greater than you think it to be.  Ask this question and feel the spiritual uplift of coming into your own.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could create and enjoy my unique magnificence daily?

When you ask a question, make a new choice or observe a fresh insight you are asking the universe to show you something greater than you are now experiencing. When you allow what you perceive without judgment you are essentially signaling the Universe to show you more of the same.

Allowing What Is Increases Your Power

Allowance without judgement, good or bad, is the key to self-actualization.  Self-actualization is the ultimate in coming into your own individuality.

When you allow what is with heartfelt gratitude you are setting in motion a causative energy that brings you greater and keener insights into what works especially well for you.

Allowance is not agreement. It is your ability to observe and not resist what is happening because you’re wise enough to know that life doesn’t happen to you. Life happens through you and for you.

Thank you God and thank you Universe what else is possible that I have yet to imagine?

Magnificence Is Your Choice

The only thing you must do is be true to you. Originality beats mimicry. Individuality is your most valuable selling point.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s significant yet.  If it’s yours, you can make it so.  If it’s not yours, you’ll never succeed at it anyway. ― Al Ries

You can only provide significant value for others when your one core thing is absolutely true for you.

This quote urges you to persist in developing what only you can in the way that only you can.

It matters not how many times you’ve fallen short before. The only thing that matters is that you will rise again with an idea so beautiful that it could only have come from someone as special as you.

I salute you and the remarkably innovative concept that you are capable of bringing to humanity.

Determination and persistence become supercharged when you connect to your purest vein of actualized originality.

It’s up to you to ride your individuality all the way up.

If you’d like to get started by discovering the one core thing that only you can deliver, you can begin by listening to this teleseminar. The write me for a complimentary exploratory session. 

 

 

 

What is your one thing?

discover your one thingIdentifying and expressing your one thing makes everything in your life feel more fitting because it leads to self-actualization.

Your one thing is …. man’s tendency  to actualize himself, to become his potentialities… to express and activate all the capacities of the organism. — Carl Rogers

When you express your one thing marketing your services becomes much simpler. By consistently offering that one thing in a way that others need and want to buy it, your marketing becomes more effective as well.

We all have many valued capabilities but do you know which one that is most valued by others?

Of all the things you can do, which can you do remarkably better than anyone else?

It’s the same thing that you have mastered beyond all the other things that you could do?

Join me for this revolutionary group coaching experience, Discover Your One Core Thing.

It’s the sharpest distinction that you can make from other practitioners in your field.

Scarcity is valued more than any other distinction. If you are the only one who can provide a special service because of who you are and that service is highly effective, then it’s only a matter of time until you are rewarded as the number one expert.

Your one thing is your divergent edge.

Your one thing totally honors and is aligned with your core individuality.

It’s a match for your signature energy and while doing it you are highly enthused and deeply inspired.

It’s found at the intersection of what makes you different and the outcome of your ideal client’s greatest desire.

It’s the thing that you could be the best in the world at.  It’s not the thing that you want to be the best in the world at. For a deeper dive into what this could be for you read this free eBook Choosing Your Ideal Niche. 

Your one thing is the answer to this big question. Why should I choose to do business with you rather than every other option including doing nothing?

Identifying this special service takes focus, determination and a strong conviction that you have such a skill.

That requires a deep exploration within a special environment. I’ve created this unconditionally supportive environment for you to succeed in knowing that one thing that will differentiate you above all others.

Join us now to expand your awareness beyond anything you now think is possible and to Discover Your One Core Thing. 

Five Small Steps to Quit Your Job and Start a Business

quit your job and start a businessIf you’re considering how to quit your job and start a business taking these steps will build your confidence.

What really causes you to delay making the decision you know you need to make?

I’ve worked with hundreds of would be solo entrepreneurs and every one of them was once right where you are now. Here’s why they waited and here’s why you’ve waited so long to make your move.

The options you see don’t look better than staying where you are.
It’s clear what you need to do to make your move. You need to expand your options and I’m going to tell you how.

But first here’s a truth that will make you feel good.

If you weren’t capable of succeeding in your new business the original idea would never have even come to you in the first place. That’s how awareness works. If you get a strong intuitive hit on a desire – you have the capacity to pull it off.

If you believe in your own individuality you’re already ahead of the game. Having the faith to invest time and resources into your own inspiration gives you an edge in this world where mimicry is so often embraced. Here’s another reason to feel good.

78%* of the new business startup solo service professionals I’ve coach ultimately end up starting one of the businesses they have always wanted to start.
That tells me that deep within they already knew what they were being called to do. You already know your ideal business as well. They just needed to build their confidence up to the point of making the leap.

You can incrementally build confidence as you follow these five small steps.

1. Trust your gut

Your life has been trying to guide you for years now. Your enlightened future self knows how the lack of vocational freedom is killing your spirit. Instead of asking others for advice take this baby step by asking and trusting your higher self. Get calm and take a few deep breaths. Then ask your higher wiser self this powerful question. What do I need to acknowledge that I already know?
Contact me for a complete set of higher-self dialogue instructions and questions.

2. Consider the upside

The news media and our risk adverse culture like to scare the hell out of you by broadcasting all sorts of business failure statistics. What they seldom recommend is to consider the considerable upside. You need to balance the fear by looking at all the things that could go right for you once you quit your job and start a business. Make a list of them right now by responding to this question. What are all the really wonderful possible outcomes that could come my way when I start my business?

3. Assess your energy

You can feel the drudgery of repeatedly being told what to do when you start yet another uninspiring on-the-job project, right? What you’re feeling is the heavy energy of obligation. If entrepreneurship is right for you when you imagine the freedom of self-employment you’ll feel light and expansive. That’s your signal to say yes and proceed. You can read your energy easily. Just ask how does this possibility make me feel?

4. Expand Possibilities

Decision-making is far easier than we think it is. The only reason why you haven’t already made the decision to quit your job and start a business is because the options you’re considering aren’t as attractive as remaining where you are.
It’s obvious that you need to do is to expand your possibilities until you can see one or multiple options that are clearly better than staying in the slavery of employment. What follows are nine provocative open-ended questions. These questions are not designed to be answered. Instead ask them and live with them then you’ll feel the lift of expanding awareness. In a few days completely new possibilities will begin to surface. Write the options down that are clearly better than remaining enslaved.

Select the questions or write your own, that feel expansive to you and ask them frequently.

  1. What if discovering and developing my ideal business is far easier than I can now imagine?
  2. What if my business becomes a huge success because of a big demand for my unique services?
  3. What choice could I make that would help me see what I don’t yet see?
  4. What if everything that I think is wrong with me, is actually a greatness I have not yet received?
  5. Where can I put my energy now that will create greater clarity today and in the future?
  6. What is required that would expand my awareness far beyond what I now think is possible?
  7. What business possibilities would be fun for me now and in the future?
  8. What if just by asking questions I could see the ideal business for me?
  9. What choices, questions and consciousness would make this transition easy and effortless?

5. Choose the option that lights you up

Look at all of the new business options you’ve written and imagine operating each business. Which would you be proud to tell others about? Which one would you be eager to market? When you imagine operating each business which one lights you up with delight? Choose that one and get started.

Successful business startup decision–making is an inside job. As long as your fear is clearer than the business option you’re stepping into, you’ll stick with the fear. Yet if you take these five small steps you’ll feel the energy of aliveness rush in to guide you. Hesitate no more. Humanity awaits your special gift and you are the only one you can give it.

If you really want to get moving without delay then schedule a complimentary  Confidently Make the Leap strategy session.

*(The other 22% confirmed their ideal business but decided that the timing wasn’t ideal to get started.)

The Minimalist’s Guide to Leveraging Less Is More

Using a less is more strategy leads to simpler living and more rewarding business.
less is more

If you boiled your business down to its most essential nature what might it look like?

What results might you produce if you removed every unnecessary step?

Make the complex simple to make the impossible possible. Lisa Murray

Is less really more? Hell yes it is! Prove it to yourself.

Consciously engage these 8 less is more principles on your next project.

  1. Less pressure equals greater ease.
  2. Less distraction equals greater focus.
  3. Less unnecessary activities equal more essential completions.
  4. Less hesitation equals more boldness.
  5. Less complexity equals greater simplicity.
  6. Less verbosity equals greater brevity.
  7. Less meandering equals more direct to the heart of the matter.
  8. Less nice to have or do equals greater clarity on essential requirements.

By using the above to condense your efforts you’ll see how less is more creates greater results.

 less is more with an ideal niche     Leverage these same principles by only serving your deep and narrow niche      by getting this free EBook: Choosing Your Ideal Niche. 

     Schedule your complimentary business growth breakthrough strategy session here