Tag: intuitive marketing

Categories
Success Attitude

Allowing Your Expertise to Shine Through: Common Reasons That Keep Entrepreneurs from Moving Forward

Article Contributed by Lisa Cherney

In today’s fast paced world we have access to more information than ever before, be it books, media or opportunities for education. And while it’s great to have all this information and learning at our fingertips, it can sometimes be a detriment to us. In fact, for some people, it can be an excuse for them not to move forward in their business.

Two reasons like this I’ve heard recently include: “I’m just not sure I can be successful. I know I help people, but I need more experience.” And “I need to get another certification [take another seminar/get another degree] before I can be an expert and really put myself out there.”

My friend and client Michele PW was held back by these specific reasons. Michele is an example of someone with great expertise – she is one of the hottest marketing strategists around, writes copy and creates campaigns for very well known people that get results (www.MichelePW.com).

Michele started out as a freelancer, selling services. She got into infomarketing and had some really big successes, but she always had trouble doing it for herself. She came up with a couple of products, but none of them sold as well as what she did for her clients. Her belief was that the real money would be in copywriting, not her expertise.

“I knew people could make a lot of money selling products. I knew that in my head, but I didn’t believe it for myself. I guess when you’re doing copy for people, even though you’re out there in the spotlight, you feel like you’re still the support and behind the scenes,” Michele says.

“The problem for me was that I was the expert who always needed to read one more book before I could call myself an expert,” she explains. “I was so stuck on that and I think that’s why I really didn’t value selling my knowledge. I had people pushing me to do some sort of copywriting product and all I could say was, ‘There are plenty of good products out there, what am I going to add to the mix?’ Working with Lisa pulled me out of that and now I’ve had some very successful products. Now I see that I didn’t value my knowledge. Then I wouldn’t have said that was the reason, but looking back I see that now. A big part of working with Lisa was her support and being able to call her in my moments of weakness and angst about change. If you don’t push through and have a number of people who support you, you’ll just start spinning your wheels and never get out of it.”

There will always be another book or blog to read or another degree or certification to be earned. There will always be another seminar to take or conference to attend. But at some point you need to realize that you ARE an expert in your field and you are holding yourself back – and not helping people you could be helping – by not allowing your expertise to shine through.

Entrepreneurs fail. It’s as simple as that. Every single entrepreneur out there, no matter how successful they look on the outside, has failed. Yes, they are very successful, but for all those successes, they also have failures. There were things they tried that didn’t go anywhere. But if you don’t own your expertise and take risks, you’re never going to have the big successes. Granted, you’ll never have failures, but you’ll never have success either.

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney is a Marketing Intuitive and President & Founder of Conscious Marketing™.  Lisa has helped thousands of business owners tap into their intuition and market their businesses from the ‘Inside Out’. For 15 years she worked at Fortune 500 companies and top advertising agencies.

Lisa tells her story in her co-authored book “Inspiration to Realization,” available at www.ConsciousMarketing.com. Conscious Marketing also offers workshops and coaching. Visit her website for more details or call 887-771-0156.

Categories
Work Life

Design Your Business to Fit Your Lifestyle

Article Contributed by Lisa Cherney

Four and a half years ago I became a mother to a beautiful and sweet girl named Bella. I knew I wanted to be a “mom” but also continue to expand my business. I committed to a three day a week work schedule so I could be mom on Mondays and Fridays and be Lisa Cherney, CEO of Conscious Marketing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

I took many steps to expand my business in 2009 and ultimately triple my income, and one of these steps was affirming this three days a week work lifestyle.
Think about your life and your business. Affirm and explore and decide on what lifestyle you want to have while balancing everything there is to balance. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs who were like me many years ago, working six days a week, up late at night, not taking vacations. A lot of us are in business for ourselves because we didn’t want a boss. But we find that we’ve traded one boss for a worse boss – ourselves!
One of the things I really needed to do was to affirm what kind of lifestyle I wanted to have. So I did some soul searching and asked, is this three days a week work schedule for me? Maybe I should be working more – maybe that’s what’s going to help me increase my income.
I realized that working more was not the answer. The answer was that I needed to be smarter. This included questioning the way I was doing things and running my business. It led me to get some needed help for those tasks all businesses must deal with. It led me to think smarter about my approach and how I was selling (and charging for) it and completely overhaul many aspects of what I was doing. Because I need – and want – to stick with my three days a week schedule.
So affirm the kind of lifestyle you want to have and take the steps to make sure you can have it by designing your business to fit your lifestyle. For me it wasn’t trading hours for dollars anymore.

This may require steps that can feel like taking big risks, including:
1.    Saying “no” to low-end, smaller clients or projects that take a lot of time with little financial reward.

2.    Hiring help (virtual assistant, bookkeeper, cleaning service, etc.) even if it appears you can’t afford it right now.

3.    Raising your prices and/or creating a leveraged group program (or a high-end exclusive program). HINT: This is only limited by your ability to own and communicate the value of your expertise.
4.    Hiring a mentor that has achieved the goal you have (even it appears you can’t afford it right now).
5.    Slowing down and/or taking a break from the day-to-day of your business in order to steer the ship in a new direction
For most of us out there, we didn’t go into business for ourselves so we could work 100 weeks and never take a day off. We’re doing it to have a certain kind of lifestyle. Are you living the lifestyle you want?

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney is a Marketing Intuitive and President & Founder of Conscious Marketing™.  Lisa has helped thousands of business owners tap into their intuition and market their businesses from the ‘Inside Out’. For 15 years she worked at Fortune 500 companies and top advertising agencies.

Lisa tells her story in her co-authored book “Inspiration to Realization,” available at www.ConsciousMarketing.com. Conscious Marketing also offers workshops and coaching. Visit her website for more details or call 887-771-0156.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Owning Your Value: How Saying “NO” Will Attract Your Ideal Clients

Article Contributed by Lisa Cherney

As most of you know, I made a quantum leap in 2009, going from eight years of just below my six-figure goal, to making that leap above six figures. I came to a place where I was willing to raise my price on my own unique marketing system. And I assessed and changed my pricing structure and what I was offering, versus trying to attract X number more clients. I claimed my own value, and I started to say “no” to a bunch of clients.

For example, I remember it being the end of December 2008 and the holiday slow down. Someone referred me a client who needed more traffic to his website. This would be online marketing, social networking, pay per click and all that stuff that’s not my passion or expertise. He didn’t want to stand out and find his authentic marketing voice and articulate his passion. He just wanted to get the clicks. And it was scary, but I referred him to somebody else.

In January 2009 I made the decision that I only wanted to work with clients who were really serious about making a change and upgrading their business. I was just ready to work with a different level of client. I wanted to work with people who were willing to invest in their themselves and their mission. They didn’t say, “I’m struggling to reach my 6-figure goal, but I don’t have money for marketing.” This business owner is NOT my ideal client and now I let them go.

I also realized that my ideal clients make decisions and take action. So when they are given an opportunity and they think they can really transform their business, they jump on it. Those are my people. You know why? Because they have the biggest success. And I also want to work with people who have decided they want to do whatever it takes to attract their ideal clients.

Saying “no” to clients may sound very illogical to some people. But take a hard look at who you are attracting – are they really right for you and does having them as a client make you excited or drain your energy? Once you are truly clear about who your ideal clients are and you say “yes” to them, it will have an amazing impact on the growth of your business. By claiming my value, charging more for my unique services, and only working with my ideal clients, I tripled my monthly income in 2009 – reaching nearly a quarter million dollars – in what is supposed to be the most challenging economic time. And because of those choices I am on track to double that in 2010 to a half million.

What do you do with the client you say ‘no’ to? I’ve created some really great relationships with colleagues who are doing things that I no longer want to do. They are thrilled for the work and I get a referral bonus. And that in turn gives me more energy to focus on my business and my ideal clients. Start saying ‘no’ today!

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney is a Marketing Intuitive and President & Founder of Conscious Marketing™.  Lisa has helped thousands of business owners tap into their intuition and market their businesses from the ‘Inside Out’. For 15 years she worked at Fortune 500 companies and top advertising agencies.

Lisa tells her story in her co-authored book “Inspiration to Realization,” available at www.ConsciousMarketing.com. Conscious Marketing also offers workshops and coaching. Visit her website for more details or call 887-771-0156.