Lessons from Launching

Often on Fridays, I’ll spend some time reading through newsletters I subscribe to in my other account that I don’t pay much attention to throughout the week.

And I don’t know about you, but as I was perusing this morning, it hit me that I’m exhausted by feeling sold to…

…From this program that will solve all your business problems;

…To this journal that will finally help you overcome your resistance to penning your thoughts to paper;

…And this course that will finally teach you all about the big secret to scaling.

I was even sold to last month on the massage table! My masseuse started jabbering away about their monthly membership program that would be great for me.

Little did she know that she’d lost my trust and future business before she even started (literally)!

When did growing a business become all about hard selling to people left and right?

Listen, I get it.

For some of us, talking about your business offerings frequently and offering them may be a breakthrough in it of itself. I certainly would have fallen in this camp years ago!

But the truth of the matter is, that when you feel the need to hard sell your business offerings (all the time), it’s likely because you don’t have enough of it (and people will be repelled by your neediness and scarcity), or your motivations are completely out of whack. And if you’re reading this newsletter, then I know you are a purpose-driven spender who would yourself never buy from someone like this.

Furthermore, I notice I feel some fear about the futurability of how small businesses grow, because modeling what other “successful” business owners do is one of the three most common learning styles. And this sh** just isn’t working anymore on heart-centered and mission driven consumers, like you and me!

So, here’s my plea – stop making your ideal client feel like they’re broken and need your solution (especially when you’re the one who’s in actual need).

Now, you may be wondering what’s a different approach?

Most marketing and sales professionals have likely told you that you need to identify your client’s pain points and then sell to their emotions and feelings…

While compassionate selling works, most business owners don’t know how to apply it in a way that feels aligned to them and to their ideal clients. Likely because they haven’t done their own inner work.

Having just sold out our launch for our signature UNBOUNDED Mastermind and Group Coaching program, this topic is front of mind for me. In today’s blog, I want to share a different approach.

Now, please know I don’t presume to know everything about sales. I’m not a sales expert, have never taken a sales course/program/training, or anything!

But I understand people.

And I will say that I have never experienced selling-out a program with as much ease, fun, alignment, and zero hustling mentality as this one. And this is my great hope for you, because we all have gifts to share and creations just waiting to be expressed.

Here are my top two reflections to practice:

Be in Love with your Offerings:

This is my number one takeaway from my launch! As I have been in conversations with women over the past couple of months about my program, I have oozed with excitement and pride as I talk about what the program entails. I was really present to the impact of my program, which came across in my speaking. When you love what you create, you can authentically speak about your business offerings with zero feeling of selling, convincing or pleading. In this way, you will literally discover who you are meant to work with and refer out those who you are not. It also helps release the pressure and deepen trust that those who are meant to say yes now, will.

Now, if you’re newer to business – you may be wondering how to be in love with your offerings when you lack confidence or your inner critic is loud. Here are my thoughts – get reconnected with the difference your work makes for your clients. Call up a couple of your past/current clients and just be honest with them. Ask them for a testimonial or ask them to share the difference working with you made for them. Another thought is get creative, what creative touch can you add to your offering/program/service that makes you more in love with it. Receiving gifts is one of my love languages and I’ve always envisioned sending care packages and gifts to clients. It was fun to get creative with this program and have it feel more like me! Similarly, I love clean and sophisticated branding. I had a lot of fun updating tools and some of the handouts for the program.

Allow Launching to Be Easy

Do you ever wake up to work and feel like the story of your life is “Everyday, I’m hustlin’ hustlin’? And you’re right, you probably are! Many of us are addicted to the hustle. Many more feel like that’s the modus operandi of being an entrepreneur. I’m here to tell you that your word creates your world! If that’s the song that is constantly running in the background of your life, then of course, you will leave yourself with no other option than to hustle. But you get to choose, and therein lies the crux of the matter.

Many of us are not willing for success to be easy. You may not believe me, that’s OK. You don’t have to, the proof is in the pudding. Take a solid like at your business practices, pull up under the rug corners of your business, and start identifying where you operate from a subconscious belief that your success needs to be a struggle in order for you to feel deserving of it.

I operated this way for many years in my business. I acted from a belief that I needed to do it all on my own and it had to be hard to feel like I did my job. I acted from a belief that my efforting and hustling is what would result in my success, and was required in order for me to feel deserving of whatever I produced.

And it’s simply not true. Our inner world creates our outer world. What difference would it make for you if you started walking around with your theme song singing “Girls run the world” in the background? If you started reprogramming that story that you need to suffer to be successful? That you finally chose to understand that th hours you put in do not need to be directly correlated with your take home?

For me, in this launch, allowing it to be easy looked like genuinely asking myself who I wanted in the program, reaching out and letting them know.

Allowing this launch to be easy looked like asking current and past clients who they think would love this program.

Allowing this launch to be easy looked like honoring my morning routine throughout and not sabotaging my work boundaries or schedule to have one more call with a potential.

And allowing this launch to be easy looked like operating from a full belief in not only the value of my offering but in fully trusting that it was going to fill, and it was simply a matter of when and with whom.

ARE YOU READY TO CREATE YOUR BUSINESS & LIFE ON YOUR OWN TERMS?

The UNBOUNDED Mastermind and Group Coaching Signature Program is currently closed for registration, but you can get on the waitlist now to hold your spot for our spring cohort!

All potential registrants are interviewed and spots are filled on a first registered and first paid basis. Maximum of 10 participants per cohort.

UNBOUNDED provides for a rich and transformative Mastermind and Group Coaching experience that has many exclusive benefits to participants. Benefits of the program include an invaluable community with lifelong business relationships and partnership opportunities; mindset growth work required to truly grow and scale your business; and a business systems framework to uplevel your experience of becoming the master of your business versus being mastered by it.

Catherine is a Professional Certified Coach and bestselling author of Belonging: Overcome Your Inner Critic and Reclaim Your Joy.