How to Get More Clients -- Where you’re focusing your time and energy is actually costing you clients
Before you read this, I want you to consider what you focus on a daily basis when working on your business.
The number one question I hear -- whether you are multipassionate and running multiple businesses or just one -- is where do I need to focus my time and energy to get results?
First of all, if you are a business owner of any industry, this is the question you will need to constantly assess in order to continue to grow, scale, and move forward. More importantly, our minds often misjudge what we should be focused on, leaving us spinning our wheels feeling like we’re getting nowhere.
COVID-19 or not, you may be guilty of making this mistake that’s costing you clients.
Is Your Greatest Strength Also Your Greatest Hindrance?
I’m guilty of this too.
I have always enjoyed learning as long as I can remember. Whether it was in a classroom, on the soccer field, or in the many books I couldn’t seem to put down, learning became my safe space. It was also the drive in me that decided to start college less than a month after graduation and continue straight through to graduate with my Master’s degree in 2016.
However, what I learned was that my greatest strength also became my biggest hindrance.
It seemed harmless… in fact, it seemed more beneficial than anything. If I continued to learn more and more, I would be able to continue to build my business with all the tools and strategies I was learning. I felt like I would be ahead of the curve even!
Instead, I found myself burnt out, frustrated, and desperately wondering why I still wasn’t able to sign a paying client.
When in doubt, I sought learning to help me find the answer. I enrolled in courses, downloaded PDFs, read books, listened to podcasts, hired coaches… I just wanted to figure out what I was doing wrong so I could fix it.
Even after I learned, I found myself Googling again. Maybe another certification would help me feel more confident? Maybe I need to learn more.
Time and time again, I repeated this pattern.
Time and time again, I found myself not moving forward in my business.
It wasn’t about the learning. I didn’t need more strategies or ideas to implement -- to be honest, I wasn’t implementing the ones I already had. I didn’t need another certification. But I felt that maybe another certification would finally help me feel good enough.
Until I got really honest with myself, I didn’t realize how learning was actually causing me to hold myself back from the one thing I wanted and thought I was working toward — Clients.
I wasn’t focused on the tasks that were actually going to move my business forward.
I was keeping myself busy...
Assessing Your Greatest Hindrance
The truth about this, and one of the reasons why working with a coach is so beneficial, is that your greatest hindrance often shows up in your blind spots. Something you see as a strength or benefit, things you do on a daily basis, habits that have become second nature, they are often something you usually can’t see on your own, leaving you feeling stuck and frustrated why you can’t seem to move forward.
Believe me when I say that you are not alone in this. Your feelings and frustrations are valid. But you can do the work to identify and change it.
To help you start assessing what it could be, here is a list of how I often see it show up with my clients.
How Hindrances Show Up:
Filling up your to do list of everything you can think -- because you don’t feel like you know what you’re doing and hoping something will stick.
Rethinking through your ideal client over and over again -- because you’re afraid you won’t be able to help them effectively.
Constantly changing your mind instead of deciding -- because what if you make the wrong decision.
Redoing your website copy over and over again -- because you don’t feel ready to launch it yet.
Always researching what your competition is doing -- because you’re worried your idea has already been done or if it’s even good enough to compete.
Jumping from idea to idea -- because if you followed through, you worry maybe you would fail.
Not actually selling or asking for the sale -- because you’re afraid of rejection.
The Conundrum
While you’re stressing about finding your next client and working your ass off to make it happen, you’re actually costing yourself clients by keeping yourself busy on things that are not actually moving the needle forward.
Good, now go back and read that again until it sinks in.
So first and foremost, call yourself out what you’re doing that’s actually holding you back.
Where to Focus Your Time & Energy
Regardless of the industry you’re in, there are hundreds of thousands of different strategies, tools, platforms, and ways to market your business.
YOU DON’T NEED THEM ALL.
When you’re working to get your first client or even your next client, it’s easy to look at what you’re trying and say it’s not working, wanting to try something different and figure out which will finally work.
I promise you, it gets to be simple.
Try This:
1) Go back to your business foundation...
What do you do?
Who do you help?
2) Figure out where you find that person…
Talk to them.
The truth is that your potential clients still may not even know what you do or that you can help them solve their problem. They may not even know you exist.
How can you simply structure a process that allows you to connect deeper to your potential clients, talk with them, build a relationship with them, and show them how you can help them?
Stop doing ALL the things.
Refocus on the individual.
Talk to them.
Build the relationship.
Keep. It. Simple.
Unlock What’s Keeping You Stuck
All of these thoughts and worries will come up. Imposter syndrome happens to everyone. We all have doubts, fears, worries, and thought patterns that hold us back.
They disguise themselves as learning, researching, preparing, and working -- but on the wrong things. They keep us busy.
They hold us back.
So instead of diving back into your regular daily routine, identify where you’re holding yourself back and decide to simply move forward.
If you want help identifying what’s keeping you stuck, download my Free Workbook:
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If you know someone who needs to hear this, it would mean the world to me if you would share it with them!
