Transform Short-Term Clients into Lifelong Ones through Mastering This

Earlier this week, I had the distinct pleasure of joining a book club as their guest of honor to commemorate the final meeting of their club where they discussed their takeaways from reading my book and inquired about my process and journey in writing Belonging.

It was such a powerful reminder to me of the impact we can have on others when we truly own our voice and express ourselves fully and vulnerably.

They wrote a review of the book, and I’ve included an excerpt of it below:

In Belonging, each chapter presents a landmark, so to speak, on the road to belonging such as discernment, healing, anger, compassion, vulnerability, and perfectionism. Each chapter elegantly weaves years of practice as a professional coach, lively stories from throughout her life, and evidence-based research. At the end of each chapter, there is one, carefully curated and clearly described, practical exercise. Readers are invited to take action on the principle described in the chapter. Then, they are invited to take a step further by reflecting on the experience of taking the suggested action. One of the advantages of reading this book with a group is that you can further reflect on the practices with others and gain further insight from your companions’ experiences on their personal journey to belonging. Belonging takes you on an amazing journey of introspection and is full of foundational tools that will help you reshape the way you look at your life. You can’t help but to walk away from this literature with a new level of self love and dedication to your own well being.

This month, I have been sharing about the mindsets I believe are foundational for any entrepreneur to master in order to truly become the CEO of their business and life. This experience was a perfect example of the third one that I will cover in today’s post. It is the art of taking full ownership in business.

Ownership stands out for me in a couple different ways in business.

This example above highlights a version of ownership which I think is often harder to perceive because it has to do with owning the positive impact we have. In my experience, when we think about taking ownership, our minds often default to you did something wrong, now take ownership for it!

But truly, the entrepreneurs who have the capacity to accept a compliment or speak authentically and unapologetically about their value add is something we would all benefit from having a little more of, myself included, as I was reminded of on that book club call this past week.

The entrepreneurs who have the capacity and wherewithal to fully own their mistakes, delays in business deliverables with clients, and who know how to apologize for their oversights without throwing themselves under the bus or devaluing themselves are the ones who stand out in the marketplace and create lifelong clients and business partnerships.

If there’s one mindset that has taken me years to fully embrace, it’s the knowing that no one is perfect, not ourselves nor the people we hire to support us in business.

Yet, the difference between those of us who are willing to own our errors, acknowledge them, apologize, and let us know what we can expect moving forward is literally night and day from those who watch their own deadlines come and go without a peep or a communication of any kind.

Many of us struggle with taking full responsibility or ownership because we have a collapsed relationship with it representing blame, guilt or shame.

It takes some mindset work and shifting of belief systems to be able to take full responsibility without devaluing ourselves in the process.

Mastering this mindset will likely result in the difference of sustaining lifelong business partnerships or customers and having clients fire you.

Next time, you have a human moment and miss a deadline or deliverable for a client, practice taking responsibility for the error. It may sound something like this:

Hey Jane, I need to acknowledge that I’m going to miss the deadline I set you with for tomorrow’s milestone. I know that you’re really excited to see our work and I apologize for the delay. We’ve had a couple of delays and snags with the process. I’m confident we’ll have the product to you by next Tuesday. Is there anything else you need from me in the meantime or any way I can leave you better until then?

Versus… 

Yup, literally nothing.

Business is about relationships. When we own our side of the relationship and how we show up in it, we are building trust and honoring the impact on the other side of the relationship.

Taking full ownership is a sign of business mastery.

My sense of those business owners who have mastered this skill set is that there is rarely an error, mistake or calamity that can’t be rectified or course corrected.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen with clients who are unwilling to grow beyond their inner critics and learn how to take full ownership without attributing blame, shame or guilt with it is that they will continually create the same dynamics in client relationships and continually be searching for new clients and relationships versus nurturing existing ones that could become lifelong relationships.

Taking full ownership in business is a mindset that will have exponential results on your bottom line, and it’s also one that is a subtle art and is not frequently understood by business owners.

We understand profit margins, client cycles, business budgets.

We don’t frequently understand as clearly the art of mastering a CEO mindset which includes this topic of ownership, as well as the topics we’ve discussed in the two previous blogs on boundaries in business and the importance of accepting what is before we can create what’s next.

Taking full ownership for your impact and the contribution you have made is something that I was forced to practice on that book club call. Taking full ownership for the mistakes and errors in judgment has become a lifelong practice that I hope you will join me on.

ARE YOU READY TO TRULY CREATE YOUR BUSINESS AND LIFE ON YOUR OWN TERMS IN 2021?

The 2021 UNBOUNDED Mastermind and Group Coaching Signature Program is now open for registration.  UNBOUNDED 2.0 will begin in January 2021. 

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.

Here’s where you will find out more about the UNBOUNDED Mastermind and hear what past participants have to say.

With love,

Catherine

P.S. Check out this testimonial video of Martha Cristina Garza and watch what she has to say about her experience in the UNBOUNDED Mastermind.