SPEAKER_00 0:35

So many solo business owners struggle with this scenario. They create a website, they invest in courses, but at the end of the day, they find they still don't have any clients. Well, perhaps it's not a strategy issue, perhaps it's more of a limiting belief. That's exactly what we're going to talk about in this week's podcast episode. Stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

From burnout to breakthrough.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Hello, hello, and welcome to the Amplify Your Authority Podcast. I'm your host, Marissa Shadrick, and today we're going to talk about a topic that happens in the space of coaches, consultants, and service providers, but it's often not talked about. No one wants to admit this, but they're struggling to get clients. Now I've had seasons like this as well. During COVID, that was probably the worst drop in client acquisition ever. Fortunately, I was able to climb out of that. And then with the AI explosion that's happened, everything started changing and I saw a dip again. These things happen from time to time. However, if you've been a coach for a while and you're finding that this is more a consistent pattern for you, here's the part that can get so confusing. They often think it's a marketing issue. So they're looking for the latest hack or the latest tool or the latest process. And they're investing money in courses, a lot of money, thinking that that'll be the silver bullet, the solution. But oftentimes it's something internal that's happening that's showing up in your marketing. Now, this isn't meant to be a criticism because I struggled with many fears when I first started out. In fact, it took me five years to overcome some major fears. One was public speaking, one was having people read what I write, and I'm a copywriter. I had so many different fears, imposter syndrome, like who am I to create a business, all of the things that you would typically think, I had that. And I had to overcome it little by little and chip away until I was able to very clearly see the value that I would bring my clients. Now, from time to time, I run across people that are in that same space and it's a perpetual thing. It seems like they they can't quite get out of that cycle. And they keep looking for tools, they keep looking for courses, they keep looking at different marketing techniques, thinking that will be the answer. And it's simply prolonging the inevitable. And that's basically facing the fear and moving past it. And it could be very difficult and very hard to do. It's a painful thing to do. But in order to be able to grow a business, there are some skill sets that you need. There's a mindset that you need to be able to push you forward because you're going to be doing things you've never done before. You're going to be putting yourself out there like you've never had before. And so there is a level of confidence that's needed. And you can have that confidence if you look deep enough, it's there. So all you have to do is let that surface and carry you. And if you don't believe me, there's been a lot of studies and surveys that have been done that confirm this. People just struggle with imposter syndrome. It doesn't matter how many credentials they have, how many certifications they have, what kind of past experience they have. It's across the board. It's not unique to a certain demographic or a certain age group. It is just plain human nature. We tend to want to protect ourselves. And oftentimes we let fear get in the way and hold us back because we do not want to be rejected. We do not want to be criticized. And so we hold back. And it's important to realize that you're not going to please everyone, first of all. Not every person on the internet is going to be your audience. Even when you decide on your niche who they are, some people will resonate with you and others won't. It's just the way it is. And it happens to everyone. So we're all in the same boat. And you've experienced that too. Maybe you're looking for something online and you find five providers. Which is the one that you pick and why? How did they make you feel? What was it about them that resonated with you? Maybe they were just a few steps ahead of you and you figured, well, this person isn't going to talk over my head. I'm going to understand what they're saying. Or maybe they have a similar background. You never know what it is that connects a person. So the best rule of thumb is you be you. You be you, you share your stories, you share your perspectives boldly, and those people will be attracted to you. But there's a lot of little hurdles along the way, and that's what we're going to break down today. But before we get started, I would love to remind you, if you're watching this on YouTube, please subscribe and leave a comment. And if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, please leave a rating and review. That would mean so much to me. So let's get started. Let's look at marketing at a glance. So you know what these are, right? There's just nothing new under the sun. No matter whether you have a membership or you have a course or you have a workshop or you're selling a book, all of these fundamentals apply. So basically, in a nutshell, you've got four parts when you're trying to market and sell. You've got the message, you've got the visibility component, you have the trust component, and you have conversion. So let me break each one down and then I'm going to show you how a limiting belief can sabotage this marketing you're trying to implement. So let's take the first one, your message. So your message is why you're showing up on the internet in the first place. Oftentimes for solo business owners, it's something that they have overcome, or it's something related to a past skill or experience that they have, or it's something that they're very passionate about. And they've already gone through the process to validate the offer, find the competitors. They've done all that work and they're ready to put their message out. You know what you want to say, but you're not quite sure how you want to say it. You don't want to make these big claims like everybody else does and sounds salesy, but at the same time, you have something to offer. You have a value to provide. And somewhere in the messaging, it's not clear. It's not clear on your website, it's not clear on your lead magnet. You kind of downplay your expertise and you may not even know you're doing this, right? You might think, well, I don't want to appear hypey or I don't want to promise too much because what if they don't get the transformation I said they could get? Then I look like a liar. Well, each person is an individual. Each person will apply a piece of content differently. Think of the courses that you've bought. Have you finished them all? Did you get the transformation you were hoping for? All you can do is be responsible for your part of the equation. Everything that you put out. Did you do the best that you can? Was it something that's going to help your audience or your reader? Is it something that you know has worked for yourself or for other people? You do the best you can. And then the recipient, it's up to them whether they're going to implement the strategies that you're offering or the tips that you're giving them. That's up to them. But your part is to provide the content as best as you can. So in the messaging, you want to make sure that you're not falling into the comparison trap where you think, well, if I talk about this one topic, oh, I don't know, somebody else does it and they do it better and they have a bigger audience. But there's got to be a clear message. There's got to be the what's in it for them. Otherwise, they won't be interested in it. So you can see how insecurities or imposter syndrome can creep in and even affect your messaging and how you present what it is that you do. Besides comparison, oftentimes we're afraid of being judged, right, by our peers or by other people. And so we don't want to put ourselves out there. And again, we're questioning who are we to talk on this topic. And this is what research calls identity friction when your internal identity hasn't caught up to where you want to go or who you want to be. And so there's this friction, there's tension there. Everybody starts somewhere, right? Nobody starts like an immediate expert. You start, you grow, you put things out, you evaluate, you check your stats, you tweak, you adjust. You're constantly refining. So even if you're at a point of testing something, being vague may feel safe, but it's not clear. And that will hurt you in the long run. Your message won't land with your audience. People won't feel seen because maybe you're trying to go too broad and not narrow enough because you're afraid that you're not going to have enough people to talk to. Well, let me tell you, the internet is huge and there's a lot of people in a lot of niches. So don't worry about that of narrowing it down. The more you narrow, the clearer the message is going to be. And here's what I've discovered. When you finally figure out what your message is going to be and where you're going to land and what your niche is and who your audience is, that takes courage because you are committing to something. Now, it may evolve after a year, two years, five years. It could evolve, but you got to start somewhere and you have to commit to that and not let imposter syndrome or comparison, any type of limiting beliefs hold you back from good, clear branding. Now, as I mentioned, I went through a lot of fears. And even starting at ground zero with branding, it took me so long to figure out what it was that I was going to do. Because fear would just creep up and say, who are you to be talking about this? Right. Even though I was ahead of other people in a certain topic, I still struggled with those until I realized this. And I'm going to share this. I've shared this in other podcast episodes, but I'm going to share it again because this is what finally helped me get past that initial fear was that fear just robbed me of free will. And fear loves to reinforce those false beliefs. And fear will rob you of choice. You have no choice once you succumb to fear. The choice is made. Fear has made that choice for you. Fear erodes our potential. If we don't face fear head on, it will rob us of our potential. I would have never become an award-winning speaker. I would have never published articles in international magazines. I would have never become a certified copywriter. It wanted to erode my potential. Fear uses lies like a weapon. So you don't want to bow down to fear and let fear be your master. And here's the kicker. Here's the one that really armed me to face and fight fear. And it's this fear needs permission to exist. I was giving fear permission every single time, every single day, every single hour, every time I wanted to step out, I let fear make that choice for me. And I gave it permission to do that. And once I realized that, I said, no more. No more. At the very least, I'm going to do this just so that I win and fear doesn't win. I don't care what happens and what the outcome is going to be, but I am going to fight this fear and I'm going to do all the things that I'm afraid to do just to do it and show that fear is not going to win. I'm a little bit stubborn. So that helped too. But some people call it perseverance. I like perseverance better. So moving on to the next piece of marketing. Now we were talking about messaging. So there was a lot there because that's very foundational. The next piece is visibility. Okay, so once you know what it is that you're going to create as far as a business and who you're going to serve and what your niche is and what you're going to coach on or teach on or the service you're going to provide, then you need to be visible. And guess what? The fear wants to creep back in again. Because when you make yourself visible, you're no longer hiding behind a computer screen. Now people are going to see you, they're going to hear you, they're going to read about you. And so fear wants to rear its ugly head once again during the visibility component. You need to show up, but something stops you. You need to create a video, but you don't like how you look on camera. You need to write a post, but then you've got to give your point of view and you're afraid somebody will disagree. It goes on and on and on. And this is where many coaches can get stuck because we need to be visible. We need to speak from virtual platforms. We need to speak from stages. We need to take advantage of opportunities, be guests on podcasts. But if fear wants to rear its head up, guess what? Visibility is going to drop. So what do we do instead? We stay busy. And I know this because I used to do this myself. You stay very busy throughout your whole week working on the same project or going through a new course or planning what you're going to do as far as something that you're going to launch six months from now, and you've got everything mind mapped and you got the calendar all figured out and you've got everything sorted through and you spend days, maybe even weeks with that, but you never really hit publish when it comes to that article, or you never hit record when it comes to that video. You just kind of stay behind the desktop. I'm saying this in love because I've gone through it and I know many of you want to be able to have that flexibility and freedom and work from home. And sometimes it's not even about the money. Sometimes it's because you have a burning message that you want to get out there. Maybe it's a cause of some sort. Well, fear is trying to keep you silent, and it's time for you to embrace your voice and share your voice with others. So here's something that sometimes we don't realize is that there's something neurological that's happening, right? There's these defaults of the way we think, and the brain treats visibility like a threat. And so our brain is trying to protect us, our brain is trying to keep us safe. And so when we perceive something like recording a video as a threat, we find every reason not to do it. Now, here is where this negative belief can hurt us when it comes to visibility. People can't find us because we're not online. Our confidence never builds up because we need to practice these skills. And if every time we're going to do something, we decide, no, I think it's better if I just do something else instead. You're not practicing that skill. And it's not going to get easier if you don't practice it. And let me tell you something, when you see people online, maybe on video, that isn't necessarily an indication of confidence. They are actually building confidence by being on video. I still find it very uncomfortable to be on video. I don't like it, I don't care for it, but I know people need to see me, especially as a coach, as a service provider. They need to hear my heart. And when you're just writing and using text, people can't really see that or hear that. They see the words on their screen, but they don't really get a real sense of your personality. So so far we've talked about two of the four pieces that you need to market and sell. And the first one is the branding, which was a big piece. The second one was the visibility. The third one is a sneaky one. It's trust. How do you build trust? And this is important because people will buy from people they know, like, and trust. I'm sure you've heard that before. People work a lot on email subject lines, and I'm a copywriter. I believe you should write really good subject lines. But here's a little secret. When I get an email, I look at the sender more than the subject line. If it's somebody that I know and I trust, I will open it without even looking at the subject line. So trust is really important to get people to even open your emails because they're getting bombarded with tons of emails. Even if they're on your email list, your email is not the only email they get. So trust is a big piece. How do you get people to sign up on a webinar or a workshop? Trust because they know you, they've heard you, they've seen visibility online, and now they trust you. And so that's an important piece. So here's how limiting beliefs can get in the way of building trust. One is you could be posting on social media, but you never really start conversations. You never really DM anyone. You hesitate to comment or reach out or connect, maybe because you're afraid they won't respond or they won't accept. Again, that fear of rejection. You wait for people to come to you. This is a big one. We think if we build it, they will come. If I put enough out there, if I put my links on my profile, they'll click it, they'll download it. No, they won't. Or let me put it this way: it's very unlikely that they will. But you need to take the initiative to reach out and build those relationships and those connections and build trust. Now, when we take that extra step to start a connection or start a relationship, sure, it's going to feel awkward. It's almost like saying, Hey, do you want to be my friend? And waiting for them to say no, you know, they're not literally saying that, but you're waiting to see if they're going to accept or if they're going to respond because we have this fear of rejection. So I can see how reaching out to someone to start building a relationship and trust can be really scary because we don't know how they're going to respond. But we need to get in the practice, and again, the more you do it, the easier it gets to reach out to people. So if you reach out to 10, maybe two will respond back. That's a simple 80-20 rule. That's simple math. Not 100% of people you reach out to will respond. So just forget about fear of rejection because a lot of them are not going to respond and just know that they're not. And if you do connect with someone and you decide to get on a Zoom call, don't worry about feeling awkward because they're probably feeling awkward too. You know, when you first meet someone and it's just you and them on a Zoom call, just make it easy for them to interact with you and just say, hey, I thought during this time that we have, this 15 minute, maybe we can say a little bit about what we do in our business and just give them kind of like bullets of what the expectation is for the call. So they can just go, oh, okay, that sounds good. And then you feel good, they feel good, and you can get on with the conversation. So why is this important? Because trust is built through interaction, not just content. And if we just focus on content alone and never reach out, never build relationships, never DM, never try to have a conversation with someone, that's going to limit the relationships that we're trying to build. No relationship, no trust, no trust, no clients. And even if they're not a direct client, they may be a peer that you can collaborate with in the future. They may be someone that has a podcast that you can appear on their podcast. You never know. You don't go into it with the intent, what can I get out of this? You go with the intent of serving, being helpful, being very servant-minded. And that goes a long, long way. And people begin to put their barriers down. And if it comes up in conversation, people can say, Oh, yeah, I had a really great conversation with this person. If you get an opportunity to talk to them, you should do it because I came out with so much value. You want to be that person, right? And the other thing to remember is people are people. People are people. They're just like you. So don't worry about trying to impress someone or don't worry if the other person has more credentials than you. Connection only starts when someone goes first. Have you noticed that? You're at a conference, nothing happens. Everybody's sitting there staring at to the front stage until something happens. And it's not until someone turns around and extends their hand and says, Hi, my name is Marissa. Where are you from? And that's when conversation starts. Somebody has to start the conversation. And one of the things I did that was so small but helped me so much to start conversations. Was every time I went out shopping, whether it was at the grocery store or at a regular store and I'm standing in line, I would start a conversation with either the person in front of me or the person behind me just to practice starting conversations. It really takes practice. The more you do it, the more comfortable you become. And now my husband teases me because we went to a concert to see Andre Bacelli about a month ago. And while we were waiting in line, I had found out that this couple were there because they received a Christmas gift from their kids to go see Bacelli. They were parking the car and they were joining them, and she loved Bacelli. She had never seen him before. And I got a whole story out of it. And my husband just looks at me like, I don't understand you because it's interesting and it makes it a little bit more fun. And I had forgotten how freezing cold it was outside while we were waiting to go inside. And you meet some interesting people along the way. All right, let's move on to the fourth component of marketing and sales. We talked about the message, we talked about the visibility, we talked about the trust. Now let's talk about conversion because this one is a big one. And this is where everything breaks down. I wrote a few little notes here. You hesitate to share your offer. And oftentimes what people say is I don't want to peer sales-y. Okay, I'm gonna address that in a second. You procrastinate to launch a webinar, you avoid sales conversations like the plague. You don't follow up. You figure one time was enough. Okay, they didn't respond. I'm moving on to somebody else. You did not follow up. And a lot of times it's true, the fortune is in the follow-up. You underprice. This is huge. You underprice. And sometimes when we underprice, people think that there's not enough value because it's so low, and you're not really charging for the transformation of the value that you bring. So here's what's happening underneath. Once again, there's that fear of rejection, there's a fear of asking for money, there's doubt that you are bringing value. And believe me, the other person on the other side is going to hear it. You're going to be able to tell if you're confident about what you're offering or if you're not confident. I think this is where an unhealthy mindset shows up more than anywhere else. The internal doubt becomes external hesitation. And it hurts you in the long run because this is your opportunity. If you've gotten to the point where you can share your offer, you've done a lot to get to that point. This is your opportunity to diagnose what it is that's broken that they need help with, and how your solution is the medicine to make them healthy again. It's as simple as that. I've heard it say that selling is service, but I think selling is just simply an invitation, an invitation to be able to move forward and be able to resolve whatever it is that is holding them back. So it's just an invitation and then they get to accept or reject it. It's okay if they reject it. It might not have been a good fit, but at least you did your part to explain what the invitation was. And an invitation is not pressure. It's not pressure. Once they become a client, then it becomes service. Then you serve them and you serve them well. Now, next I want to show you how you can use AI to self-diagnose to see if there's any limiting beliefs that's holding you back. All right, so how can you use AI to self-diagnose to see if you have some limiting beliefs? Now, AI is great at recognizing patterns, which it makes it the best tool to be able to see patterns in your copy on your website, whatever the content is, so it can begin to identify some things. So here's what you can do: you can upload some content, and I'll give you a list of things that you can upload. But let me just say this it's not going to do the work for you. It's simply going to identify some things that can be a little stronger, look at it as a mirror, and then you have to figure out during some quiet time how you can change your mindset or look at things a little differently so that you share content a little bit more confidently. So you can upload content that you produce weekly, you can upload a sales page to a product that you have, you can upload a transcript to a sales conversation, you can upload the transcript to a webinar that you did. You can upload content where AI can look at patterns and begin to spot some things like a mirror so that you can improve it and realize maybe what you had never realized before, that maybe you're underselling yourself. So once you upload the content, just give it a simple prompt and let it know what you're trying to do. Tell it that you're trying to uncover some limiting beliefs and that you want it to analyze the content and see where I might have some fear issues in the way I present. And then you can say, you know, something like, is the message unclear? Where am I holding back? Do I sound confident or do I sound a little bit hesitant? Ask it that. But the best thing to do is just frame it with what you're trying to discover, and then AI can take it from there. It'll look for patterns and it'll give you some feedback of where you can improve for future content. So let's recap all of this. If you're not getting consistent clients, it may not be a marketing or a strategy issue. It could be a limiting belief. And that belief can be shaping your behavior in each of the four areas of marketing and sales, which was the messaging, the visibility, the trust, and the conversion. I know this isn't easy, but once you realize where the challenge really is, freedom is sweet. It is. Freedom is sweet. And I want you today to leap and courage knowing that it won't get any worse than today. It can only get better. So don't stop serving, don't stop creating, don't stop believing, don't stop dreaming, and don't stop doing the next right thing. Until next time, take care.