Sales and Marketing for Coaches

What are the things that you are making sure to do on your consultations? You're getting the client's exact words, getting more in depth on the problem they need help with, what they've tried before, why it hasn't worked.  What is the connection? The first stage is rapport and pleasantries, the second stage is problem management and the third stage is exposing the bigger issues behind the presenting problem.  Your goal should be to get that third stage in your calls. That's where the deeper connection and trust is earned. Selling without deeper connection is costing you sales because you didn't earn the trust that allows you to ask the harder questions.Connecting is not just about understanding their point of view but it's about gaining trust as an authority, too.  It's worth the investment of time it takes to focus on their presenting problem and finding out what related issues it might be causing. People won't be able to treat your time like a free coaching session if what you are providing goes beyond helping them with an immediate superficial issue.If there's a feeling that you have a big gap from connecting to “making the pitch”, then you will want to work more on the connection so that the offer feels like a natural next step rather than a hesitant offer.Unless you create a strong connection, you will not be able to ask the hard questions to understand the root problem. People are hooked by a singular presenting issue but buy to solve the root cause. You can't get to the root cause without trust and connection.That's why coaches tend to default to coaching on a symptom. They want to help the client feel better and then be liked and have them purchase based on likeability. This can cost you and the client because you are helping them on the presenting symptom rather than exposing the total issue. You want to value trust over like. It is much more of a service to help them see the entire issue and what it is costing them rather than try to help put out a little fire. This requires trust and connection, otherwise you sound like an opportunistWhen you are coaching them to solve a specific problem, you may not have enough context or time to get that resolve. No one feels better. But if you tell them that you can't solve a problem on a single call and help them understand their problem better, that is something they can use better than an unsettled issue. It makes sense to want to coach on a call because that is what you do, but don't coach to solve it, coach to expose it so that they can get the help they really need. How do you get to that third stage of connection? Everyone has a different way to describe their issues and even if they are very similar, make sure you listen for the nuances. It's the details you want to pick up on. Be very clear on how your service takes care of the problem that your client believes is getting in their way. You can help them get better clarity on the depth and breadth of their issue. Expose the problem so that they see the whole thing, not just the tip of the iceberg. This is why you want to ask more questions than you want to spend time talking and coaching. You coach to help them understand the problem better rather than help them to solve the problem itself. It's the difference of saying “What if you already know everything you need to know to lose weight, what would you do?” versus “what if you already knew that you could learn the process to lose weight?”. Ask them what problems the problem is causing. For example, if I have a problem with weight loss, then the problems that it's causing is that I don't have self-confidence that I can do it, I won't be able to look and feel better because I am an emotional eater, and I will believe that there's nothing I can do about changing my body and I am stuck for the rest of my life. If you can address the process that takes care of the problems that the problems create, then I believe that the weight loss will take care of itself. If you help me see how your process helps me create the self confidence that I can do it, that I can look and feel better by shifting my emotions, and that your program will help me change the way I address my body so that I am not stuck for the rest of my life, then I am more likely to believe that my happy ending is possible. Then I can understand the value of your program and how it helps solve the problems that block me from what I truly desire.Think about how to be more of yourself on a call. Think about the ways in which you create connection and trust. It's because you are not just interested in a sale but in a person. How do you help people feel like they've been invited to an experience? You can be the coach that sets yourself apart by prioritizing connection and relationship. When you seek to understand your clients point of view, help them to feel heard and establish common ground, you gain their trust and earn the right to ask the hard questions.

Link to schedule a coaching call: https://calendly.com/catherine-vanwert-coaching/freesessionWebsite: www.catherinevanwert.comHello friend! Let's talk about taking action when you don't feel ready. When it comes to your business, if you find yourself not taking action on something you said you'd do because you don't feel ready, you are probably feeling frustrated and stuck. Not feeling ready to take action is one of the biggest hold-ups to your success if you let it stop you. Let's talk about this today and get you moving forward because waiting until you feel ready before you take action is not an option if you want to experience desired results. Taking action, even when you don't feel ready, is one of the most important skills that will help make your success inevitable. Without action, you are stuck in the intention stage.Good intentions are all around us. My husband and I take a walk every day and this past spring, we saw the usual neighborhood activity. People were prepping their beautifully landscaped yards and bringing them back to life with planting new shrubs and flowers, pruning and mulching. The Boy Scouts were in the middle of their mulch campaign and you could see either mulch dumped into people's driveways or stacks of bags in the yard. For sale signs up popping up around us. This past spring, there was one house on our walking route that we noticed that had mulch bags out for days. But then the days became weeks and the weeks became months. By the middle of summer, the plastic on the bags had become tattered and we started calling the bags “intention mulch”. They bought it and intended to use it, but since they didn't take action, it was all intention. We would pass by it everyday and wonder together why it was taking them so long to take action on opening the bag and spreading it out. We joked that we would surprise them by secretly mulching their flower beds for them. We imagined they would be really happy and freaked out to see their intention mulch spread out. I don't know why my neighbor didn't do their mulch when they got it, but I do know that they didn't get the results they wanted for a long time. My thought on it was that the work it actually took was probably only 2 hours. If I was to coach them, I would have asked what if they just opened one bag and spread a quarter of it? You know what would have happened, more than likely? Belief that it wasn't that big of a deal after all. Momentum. They would think why stop now and continue until they got the results they wanted. The thoughts they would generate would go from “I don't feel like it”  to “this isn't so bad” to “I am already halfway done, I may as well finish”, and finally “I am so glad I finally did it!”.  Taking action when you don't feel like it allows your brain to create different thoughts that get you unstuck and away from frustration. You may have set an intention for something you want to do in your business and for whatever reason, you are experiencing a hard time with the follow through. Here's what you need to know: taking action when you don't feel ready isn't just the problem. Taking action when you don't feel ready is also the solution. That's because it's a skill in and of itself to take action when you aren't ready. Imagine what you could accomplish if you took action on the great idea you have right now, even if you don't feel ready.  You would get results based on your actions and those results could lead to more actions and opportunities that you haven't even imagined are possible. You may be having thoughts like “it's not going to work” or “people aren't going to be interested”. Those are deterrents for sure, but if you believe that developing the skill of taking action no matter what is more important and make that mean that you are winning, then the outcome of your action isn't the most important thing. This is a good thing because we can't always control the outcome. We control what we are willing to do and being willing to take action when you don't feel ready gives you the best return on your investment in yourself. You create belief in your ability to show up. You give yourself permission to do things imperfectly because you know that it is more valuable to create action than to be stuck in fear caused by perfectionism or imposter syndrome, to name a few. The belief that taking action while not feeling ready is a necessary skill is how you change the narrative that enables you to go for it. Think about the natural consequences when you aren't taking action: every day that you let pass by is another day that you aren't creating as many opportunities for growth and expansion as you could have. You will miss out on attracting your ideal clients and those clients still need help. So what ends up happening is that they end up with other coaches or in other programs when you might have been the best fit for them. And worse, even if you might have been the best fit for those clients, they end up with another coach that is less qualified to help just because that person took the actions that might have put you ahead. I am not trying to stoke competition necessarily, but if you have an ideal client out there, and you do, and they can't find you, then they are in a position to have to get help from someone else who may not be as ideal for them.  So that's the natural consequence of not taking action. Now, when you tie in not taking action with you not feeling ready, it becomes personal. When you say you are not ready, you might really mean that you aren't feeling fully confident or certain. If this is the case and you don't take action anyway, you will reinforce the feeling that you are not enough, even when you are. Chances are excellent that you are more than enough and that you know everything you need to know to take that action. That's the truth. But the limiting belief of “I am not ready” will stop you from realizing your full business and coaching potential because you will feel stuck and frustrated from this limiting belief about yourself. Your brain will continue to offer you fearful or limiting thoughts regularly, no matter what stage of business you are in or how much you have grown. That is another reason why taking action when you don't feel ready is invaluable and necessary. You will need it at every level of success you experience because this feeling doesn't go away. You can't regulate the automatic thoughts that pop up, but you can create different beliefs when this happens and take action anyway. When you take action before you feel ready, you show yourself how strong you truly are. You bust through the self-imposed myth that you aren't ready. You have a choice, You can be the coach that waits to feel ready to take action or the coach that takes action no matter what. The potential for taking action no matter what far outweighs the waiting for your emotions to catch up. Which sounds more powerful? Remember, the person that succeeds in business isn't always the one who is the smartest or most capable. It's the person who is willing to take the most action. You can be both. If you are willing to take action without having to feel ready, you automatically create more consistency. If you only run your business when you are feeling positive and ready, it will take you so much longer and momentum will be really hard to create. A consistent business  is not run on positive emotional energy but on positive identity. The identity of an action taker.When you started your coaching business, you had a dream to coach and help people. You had a dream to own your own business and create a living for yourself through helping others. This is your why. Supporting and advocating for your why is the reason you want to take action when you don't feel ready. Focusing on what you want to create for yourself and your client and being willing to do it messy and imperfectly means that you are ready to take that action that you are sitting on right now. What is that action? Does taking that action when you don't feel ready feel like a leap of faith, an act of bravery? You bet it does because it is. Doing this means you are casting a vote for yourself to be an action taker. You have ways in which you are uniquely qualified to help your ideal client, and they need to know who you are, how you help, what you do, and that you are taking clients now. The health of your business depends on your ability to identify as being an action-driven coach. Learning to take action when you don't feel ready is a natural element of growth. Stepping into the next level quite often means taking action when you don't feel ready because feeling ready usually plays catch-up; it doesn't always take the lead. Would could you accomplish if you didn't wait to feel ready to take action? When you stop depending on feeling ready, you develop an unstoppable mindset because there is literally nothing that you can't do. We often stop ourselves and our greatest obstacles are within our own thoughts.But if your actions are fueled by your emotional ups and downs, your business's success will not be based on your intellectual, CEO mindset and decisions but a reflection of the whims of your emotional life. Emotions are not bad, they are meant to fluctuate but taking action on good decisions are meant to be consistent. You will not be able to realize your business's full potential to create income and impact lives without consistent action. The skill of taking action when you don't feel ready cannot be negotiated. It's a must have. Even thoughts like,  “I can't believe I did it!”, “that wasn't as bad as I thought”, “at least I took some action instead of nothing at all.” creates a better mindset and more action.You will create the feeling of being ready because taking action allows you to create new thoughts and beliefs about your willingness to show up. If you know you are a person that takes action as many times as you need to, then you create security. You shift from being worried about the potential results of your action to feeling confident that you are willing to take all actions until you get the results you want. It all sounds good, I know, but it can be frustrating to feel that split energy of wanting to take action but also hearing that inner voice that says you aren't ready. That voice can sound like the louder voice more often than you want it to. So let me offer you a simple three step plan to help you take action even when you don't feel ready.  The Plan:Break down your desired action into smaller steps You want to take this action because you think it will get you a desirable result. Think about the end result that you want and break down the action you want to take into smaller steps you need to take to get there. Mapping out a plan with a step by step process will give you more clarity and less overwhelm.  Reframe your thoughts to overcome resistance As you move through the step by step process, you want to protect your momentum and excitement by reframing your thoughts as obstacles come up. There is a natural tendency to get overwhelmed or feel doubtful when you don't feel ready to take action and that's where you want to spend some time reframing the thoughts that come up. Refer back to the plan that you created by breaking down your desired action into smaller action steps and let that serve as your anchor. You've created a do-able plan and when you focus on the parts that feel do-able, you can more easily reframe thoughts or redirect your brain.  Take the first step (prove yourself right and repeat)Now that you've taken steps one and two, you've decided on what the smaller steps are and you've decided how you will reframe the thoughts that make you feel like you aren't ready, you are ready for the last step. The last step is to take that small first action of your step by step plan. You may still feel some doubt or uncertainty but it is not going to be a deal breaker because you are taking a small action that creates traction. Taking smaller steps is helpful because it reduces overwhelm and it transforms you into being a person who takes action whether they feel ready or not. Remember, that IS the desired skill. Taking the smaller action helps you naturally generate thoughts of self-belief and confidence, which leads to the next action. As you anchor into your step by step plan of action, you will grow your identity as an action taker and you will get results.  CTA: This sounds good in theory, but where are you stuck? Can you see how you could apply this very simple three step process? One of the things I work with my clients on is creating an email series to promote a freebie. One of their challenging thoughts is believing that they don't know what to say. As a result, they are not communicating with the people that opted in to their freebie. Let's say this is an issue that you are having. What is the big action you want to take? Email the list that opted into your freebie. A typical email series will have 3 emails to follow up. For this person, create a 3 email follow up series is too large of a task. They are thinking that what they say won't matter and other limiting thoughts. So let's take this through the 3 step process: If we break this down, we need to determine the goal for each email. The first email is the one that welcomes the subscriber and sends them the freebie. The second email is the one that asks how it went and if they've tried it yet. It includes a link to the freebie as well. The third email is the one that asks if they would like help with the problem that the freebie was helping solve. Each email will have a CTA that will compel the reader to take an action, whether it's to download the freebie, schedule a call, or follow them on social media. After the subscriber has received all three emails, they will put the subscriber into the general email list. The client will have the thought that they can always do this later when they have more subscribers or that it doesn't really make a difference if they do it because no one is going to schedule a call with them. The underlying belief is that it won't make a difference for them but of course we know that email marketing DOES make a difference. It's the best way to sell to an audience because there is a connection. We reframe their thoughts around this so that they can see that even if the reader does not take them up on their immediate offer, it does not mean that they won't eventually. My client comes to understand it's just one layer of communication and that the efforts matter collectively. They get creative freedom to express whatever they think is relevant to their reader. We brainstorm the specific content they could include. The third step is to take that first small step. In this case, my client writes the initial email and sends it to me. We go over any edits and suggestions that I make and they can see that their message is more clear. They feel good about this email, and it reinforces the thought that they can and do take action even when they don't feel ready. They feel more ready and go on to create the second and third. They become the person that writes emails to their clients and takes action to get things done.  If you are feeling stuck, figure out how you can take action today. It doesn't matter how big or small, it just matters that you take action even when you don't feel ready. Ask yourself what is a small action you are willing to do today that will move you forward? You could even reach out to schedule a call with me as a first step. Foreshadow: When you can take action even when you don't feel ready, you are developing a mentality of getting things done no matter what. You will come to realize that feeling ready isn't as important as being willing to do the things that you know will move your business forward. You open a world of possibility available only to those who are action takers. Imagine being able to execute on all the things that you feel inspired to do. What would this mean for you? For your business? If you take daily actions that feel challenging, where could you be in a month? 6 months? A year? The possibilities are pretty incredible. Controlling idea: Taking action, even when you don't feel ready, is one of the most important skills that will help make your success inevitable. Even if you don't get the result you want. Doesn't matter. What matters is you become the person who is willing to take action and with enough action, you will land at your desired results. Call to Action: If you're feeling stuck, consider there are two angles you can use in order to take action when you don't feel ready. You can change your thoughts or you can change your actions. If you have been overthinking, you will find it beneficial to take action and let the thoughts follow up. Think about that thing that you want to do again. What is that first small action you can take toward getting it done? Decide what you are willing to do today. You are capable of doing anything, truly. That is never up for debate. I hope you hear me on that. You are 100% capable of taking any action you can dream of. The question is what are you willing to do today? Make a commitment this week to take that action on that thing you've been hesitating on. You are 100% capable and you are way more ready than you think. Take action today. It doesn't matter how big or small, it just matters that you take action even when you don't feel ready. Ask yourself what is a small action you are willing to do today that will move you forward? Taking action, even when you don't feel ready, is one of the most important skills that will help make your success inevitable. Ok….you're still here. Are you not feeling ready? Maybe the first step is to reach out and get help. This is what it looks like to step outside of your comfort zone and take action. I invite you to set up a call with me. Let's get you some coaching on where you are stuck and create a plan. If you are thinking, yeah but I know what to do, I just need to do it, then you really should grab a spot because you are the most coachable and likely to succeed with some help. That's what I do. Sign up for a free session with me at my website, www.catherinevanwert.com or just go to the show notes and get the link to schedule. You are going to love it and more than likely, it's going to give you an awesome kick-start to take action and create amazing beliefs. That's it for today. You know what to do! 

We go into sales calls with the high hopes that the person we are going to have a conversation with will say yes to our offer at the end. Of course we have high hopes- that's the way it should be. We want all the positive energy going into the conversation. In fact, in the best circumstance, we hope that they come to the call already sold so that we don't have to feel apprehension about getting them to a yes and instead, we can just experience the bliss of connection and excitement of moving forward.If they come to the call already sold or if we are able to bring them to a yes, then that also means we don't have to experience the negative feelings associated with getting no for an answer.But, let's take a pause before we get all caught up in the importance of having positive emotions because getting the answer no is very much a reality. It is part of the sales process when you ask a yes or no question. It's a valid answer. So when you ask your potential client “Would you like to start coaching? Or Would you like to work with me? Sometimes people have the audacity to say the wrong answer! Come on, people, get with it, right?But seriously, it will pay off big time to take a closer look to see where you can find your empowerment even when you get the answer no. That is an option, my friend. Being empowered no matter what.The first step to being empowered no matter what is to normalize getting no as an answer. That's my goal for our time together today. Here's why: There are so many sales experts out there that talk about how to increase your conversions and how to get more sales. They talk about how to overcome objections. I've talked about it. And maybe all the focus on getting sales is why you think it's a failure when you don't get a yes. You make it mean that you aren't good at sales or overcoming objections.Real quick, I do want to say that yes, of course, there are specific skills you can learn that will increase the rate at which you get more sales and get better at turning a no into a yes. In fact, that is exactly what I offer on my free sales training calls. It's a 1:1 Zoom call, that I do a few times every month for coaches like you that are ready to answer the question “I wonder if there's anything I can do to make my sales calls better?” If you've thought that, take action. Find out. If you are ready to figure out what you can do differently than what you are doing now to close more clients, you need to book a call. Did I mention it's free? Yeah, call me crazy, but it is. I love meeting coaches like you and some non-coaches. I've helped people in different industries up their sales game. Real estate agents, mergers and acquisitions investors, and of course, coaches in all kinds of specialties. It's first come, first serve so sign up today. After you click on the link in my shownotes and sign up, I will send you the meeting information. In the sales training, I am going to thoroughly evaluate your current sales process and show you at least three areas that you can improve immediately. We are talking about improvement that gets you clients on your very next sales call. I have seen that happen over and over and it's pretty cool. If you are ready to get on a call with a stranger (hi, it's me. I'm stranger) and learn some amazing tips then grab your spot today. Show up for your business. Grab a spot. The link is in my shownotes and you can also go to my website www.catherinevanwert.com.So, as I was saying, you can get better on your sales calls outcomes but still feel bad when you get the no or not now answers. You won't feel better until you can fully embrace feeling rejection first. If you don't process this you will always carry a sense of impending panic and fear into your calls, even when you convert at a higher rate. You will still feel disempowered when you get the answer no. So if you want to process this so that you aren't being held captive to the actions of another person, you will want to pay special attention to what I am telling you today. You can't skip steps and the first step is to get good with no. You can get “no's” all the time and not be good at getting no. So get good at it because when you are, you can create expansion and not contraction. You can step out more fully rather than shrink back with your offer. I am going to talk more about what this means, but first...You need to know that getting no is a normal answer even for the best of salespeople. What makes them go from good to great is being willing and able to allow the no's to be no's and not make it mean anything about their own skills or value and then, from that place, moving things along. Keep in mind, skills and value are subjective because they are tied with your personal style. You aren't for everyone so the skills and value that you possess are not ideally used to convince clients who are not the best fit for you, but to skillfully articulate and show your best potential clients how your services can help them get what they want. You can decide that your client will get value no matter what, whether they are a yes or a no, and use that as the fuel for your offers.I was in PV recently with my family. We stayed at this amazing resort by the beach and it was so beautiful. We also wanted to check out areas outside the resort so we went to downtown PV. They have a boardwalk that runs all along the ocean and there are so many vendors and cool places to check out. One of the things that my husband was on the lookout for was tacos el pastor. It's a taco that is made with marinated meat that is roasted on a spit. They cut it off, serve it on fresh tortillas with mango or pineapple. Oh my gosh, my mouth is watering. Anyway, we got to try some foods like mangos covered in tahin, and Mexican street corn served in a tortilla chip bag with all kinds of toppings. But no tacos al pastor. We walked by a restaurant that had a greeter outside, who was trying to convince people to give the restaurant a try. My husband asked if they had the tacos, and he said no. He could have stopped there, but he didn't. He heard what we wanted and he wanted to help us get a solution. He told us the two best places to get this specialty and directed us to the one that was in the direction we were going. He was so kind and friendly. He reiterated what they had in their restaurant and encouraged us to come back another time and give them a try while we were in PV. He provided so much value and helped make our experience so much better. He made an offer, got a no and still provided value. I am sure that he is able to get the ideal clients in the door and hearing no does not stop him from continuing to engage with people and make offers. Oh- and the tacos were amazing. So cool to have something off the beaten path.In my opinion, what you don't hear enough about from sales experts is how to process the answer “no” so that you can actually feel empowered and take action despite the initial disappointment. Getting a yes makes you feel like a winner, but getting a no doesn't mean you have to feel like you are losing.When you can master how you think about No and how to take action from rejection, you will feel much better about sales and being willing to make powerful offers because hearing “no” isn't a problem anymore. So no more putting off mentioning your coaching program until the last 5 or 10 minutes of the sales call and rushing through your spiel. Does that sound good? What if you didn't feel rushed or panicked when you go into your pitch but you felt confident and curious? Imagine how that would feel. So good.Chances are excellent, like 99.9%, that when you hear no or not yet, there is a well-worn groove in your brain that makes you think a negative thought about yourself. I'll share a few of what my clients have told me it means when they first started coaching and I am willing to bet you've had the same or similar thoughts at one point. Have you said to yourself that it means you aren't showing enough value or urgency? That one is a booger bear! We do a lot of coaching around value, the idea of value, expressing value, showing value and giving value. I just talked to one of my clients about creating value around a free call today, as a matter of fact. We also talk about urgency. The thing about urgency is that you want to prompt action but you don't want to manipulate it. The desire to create urgency can get slimy if you are not thinking of how this urgency benefits the client. If you believe that you aren't creating enough urgency but the ideas you come up with of how to do it feels repelling, you are in a no-win situation.Another thought you might have come up with is that failing to convert a client into a yes means that no one wants to buy what you have to offer. The funny thing is that even some of my clients that have clients still pick up and play with the thought that no one wants what they have to offer. It's like that thought is just a bad habit and it's not based on facts or even concrete evidence. You know what's more true? Saying “There are some people who want what I have to offer and are willing to pay for it”. It's just a matter of making an offer to the ideal client. This means you need to be willing to be fully invested in the sales call process so that you learn to enjoy it and increase your ability to meet the people who will say yes.So what other thoughts are you having around getting no as an answer? Are they based on real evidence? Are they useful? If you are using rejection as evidence that there is something wrong with you or your offer, you are allowing the circumstances and not you, to determine your worth. Let's go so far as to say that someone specifically and personally rejected you, guess what? You still get to choose how you think about their actions and what you make it mean. That's why I asked you to determine if your thoughts are useful. Our actions are a reflection of who we are and what we think and their actions are a reflection of who they are and what they think. Give them permission to think whatever they want because otherwise, you are going to carry around the mental baggage of personalizing rejection.When you go into a call thinking that no one wants to pay what you are asking, that downward energy will show up in how you offer your coaching. Your mannerisms, your verbiage, your enthusiasm, are all affected by those emotions created with that thought. Your mental and emotional well-being are way too important to allow these unhelpful thoughts to take hold. It is unhelpful and toxic not just for your ability to convert clients, but your ability to believe in yourself and create resiliency. Your identity is everything. How you see yourself is what defines how capable you feel. You get to decide how capable you are and you are right no matter what you decide because you will rise to that level. When you signed up to be a coach, you also signed up to be a business owner and I bet you love owning a business. Part of this means that you will face rejection, so embrace this part of your business.Otherwise, if you really go wild with these thoughts, you will question the viability of your business. You will question if you are good enough or have what it takes to make your business work. There's only one outcome for a person who stays uncertain and is unable to fully put themselves out there, and that is stagnation. Your growth is at stake. The saying “You're either growing or dying. Stagnation does not exist in the universe.” is so true.If you spend time wondering things like why you aren't good at selling or why people don't want what you are offering, it will seem like it's an impossible goal. You will not feel fondly about sales and you will want to shortcut the sales process. What this looks like is spending time wondering if the client you are about to talk to is actually ready to commit to coaching and pay for coaching. What does this create for you? Uncertainty. Doubt. Maybe even anxiety. This is not useful energy for you to have when you are talking to potential clients because it blocks high vibe emotions like certainty and confidence. Calm. It's not hard to guess which will allow you to be more present for your sales call.If you want to feel more empowered about calls, being ok with getting a No is critical. Remember that I said it's expansive when you are open to hearing rejection? I've talked about the Ted Talk 100 Days of Rejection with Jia Jiang. A quick refresher- he did an experiment of making some pretty uncommon requests from strangers for 100 days. He said on Day 1, he asked a security guard if he could borrow $100. The security guard said no, but he also asked “why?” and Jia Jiang ran off without answering. He had all this on video, so when he looked at the video, he realized that the security guard didn't just say no, but had asked him why. He decided that the next day, he would not run away from whomever he made a request. The second day, he ate at a burger place and when he was done, he asked for a “burger refill”. They rejected him but when they asked what that meant, he stuck around and explained what it meant and even followed up with if they gave him another burger as a refill, he would really love that place even more. They declined, but he felt more empowered because he was able to have a conversation with them. On the third day, he went to a donut place and asked them to customize his donuts into the Olympic rings and they did it. He learned that when he wasn't afraid of the answer “no”, he could have better conversations, that people were curious, he could learn more about them and in turn, he could negotiate better. He could sometimes turn the initial answer of no into a yes once he understood the person he was talking to better.I love that so much. What a great illustration of what can happen when you take the sting out of rejection. It's how you think about it that gives you freedom.Let me share some thoughts you can have about getting a no.If you believe there is no personal attachment to getting no, you could think:Getting no's are a natural and expected part of any offer.If a person says no, they are not a good fit right now and that's ok.I only want to work with people who are a hell yes.I want to let the no's be an opportunity for me to get curious and understand my audience even better through meaningful conversations.My ability to accept no as an answer and quickly move on creates resiliency.With thoughts like those, you will feel more empowered. Practice them and feel them. You will move from a place of feeling discouraged to not allowing the actions of others define how you feel about your offer or your business or yourself as a coach.Being unattached to the outcome decreases how much you get in your head about every word you are saying during the call. It gives you freedom from needing validation. While getting sales is a form of validation, I want to distinguish that there is a difference between personal validation and market validation. Personal validation is your worth, your identity, and your ability as a coach and business owner. Market validation is about compelling offers, enticing messaging, and copy that creates buy-in. If you mix the two up and you are using rejection against your personal validation, you will be stuck. You can't begin to decode or strategize what you need to shift in order to gain market validation because you will just think that you suck.Offers that you make that get rejected do not equal a lack of personal validation. Rejected offers are actually neutral and your thoughts about it are what can give you traction or hold you back. Can you see how offers that get rejected are actually a neutral circumstance? It is as neutral as offering a cookie. However, attaching to the outcome and believing it is about you is a formula for self-sabotage. You will get much further with creating a perspective that allows for rejection to be neutral. What you want is to get comfortable with hearing “no” so that you can move onto the next iteration of how you show up and how you market.When you are ok with getting no for an answer, you shift into comfort. You relax into the process. Now you can tap into other emotions instead.Curiosity. You are open to learning more about what makes people say no. When you learn that, you can then understand what makes people say yes and you can create more opportunities for a yes based on what they say.When you don't shut down after hearing no as an answer, you get to use it as an opportunity to connect again. For example, I had a sales call with a client that went really well. She said that she was all in to start coaching by the end of the conversation. I sent her the information over email and I got an email back a few days later stating that she was having second thoughts on starting right away because she thought about it over the weekend and realized she had a big tax bill that was coming due. She said she wanted to hold off and revisit working together later.I didn't make this mean that my offer wasn't powerful enough. I didn't make it mean that I did not show enough value. I emailed her back and reiterated what we went over during our conversation, showing her her thoughts and her desires. I let her know that what she wanted was still very much possible and I alleviated the fears she brought up by offering a different perspective. I made it clear that none of what I said was to get her to a yes, but to expand on the results she really wanted and the pathway to get there.She paid the invoice immediately and we got started with coaching. It could have gone either way, but the point is that when you are unattached, you can fully advocate for the client and freely share your thoughts as a person who wants them to get what they want. Sometimes that means a yes and sometimes that means a no, but most importantly, it means that you are not making it mean that you are lacking something. You get to really step up and serve people in a way that feels amazing because you are not operating from fear of rejection. Getting no as an answer is normal so don't allow it to be the reason for not showing up fully.Do you see the value of intentionally choosing to let no be a valid answer that doesn't reflect on your value or abilities? Choose to show up to calls with clean energy, ready to rock your side of the conversation. You can value our own offer, be sold on your own offer and feel excited that there are people that want what you have to offer.There is so much emotional freedom and resilience in allowing “no” as an answer. Don't use it as a tool to sabotage yourself, use it as a tool to sharpen your messaging and offer.Guess what will happen for you? You will start to love and value the sales process because you will treat it like any other conversation. You will see it as a way to connect and serve unconditionally. You will create a deeper understanding of who your ideal client is, what he or she feels, what their fears are, what hold them back, and what moves them forward. You feel empowered to connect, gain permission to get the objection behind the objection, and give the client clarity. That is a beautiful and valuable way to spend time getting to know your people.Remember, getting no as an answer is totally ok. It's normal. It doesn't mean you failed. And when you truly own that, you will open up your whole self on sales calls and you WILL find your ideal clients. When you aren't afraid of getting no, you have freedom to be the coach you were meant to be. You are an amazing human being with a big heart who wants to serve clients and make the world a better place.Have a wonderful day and I will see you next week. If you got some value from todays episode, please leave a rating and review today. The last one that is on there is one that I left myself because I wanted to say hello. Help me out? Thanks!One last thing- if you want to take your sales call skills to the next level and chat with me on Zoom, grab your spot today. Imagine, in a week or two, we could be chatting about some specific actionable things you can do to get more sales. Only apply if you like having fun while planning for success. It will be fun, I promise.

When you own an online business, it's very important to see the facts versus the story you believe about what's working and what is not working. Having this objective point of view will get you through the times when you feel like nothing is working and you are even entertaining and playing with thoughts about how much easier it would be to quit. There are a lot of reasons that you feel like nothing is working but it usually comes down to not hitting a specific number of clients and dollars and not knowing HOW you will expand.  You may intellectually know that the journey is bumpy and it is supposed to have the ups and downs that you are experiencing but it just didn't seem like it would be to the extent that you are experiencing it.  The place where we feel down is the very same place that we have the opportunity to experience a breakthrough. The moments when you don't know what else you could be doing to get your client or income goals are when you make decisions that are just as impactful as the times when you are planning your next big win and you're riding high on momentum. How you decide is always critical to your success. No matter what current results you have in your business, you want to know how to find your motivation and belief again to achieve your desired goals. Let's dig in.  Gal Gadot of Wonder Woman fame, had reached a point where felt like giving up on acting. She told her husband she did not no how much longer she could take it.  She auditioned for a secret role on a whim, and that role turned out to be for Wonder Woman. She also filmed while pregnant, overcoming what could have been a potential barrier. Think about what she would have missed out on if she hadn't decided to take a chance when when she felt like giving up.  Feeling down about your business is a natural and expected part of the process. You have a relationship with your business. It's like any relationship, it will go through trials and be tested. Expectations won't be met. Disappointment that things did not turn out like you thought they would is bound to happen. That doesn't mean that it wasn't meant to be, it means that it is something different than what you thought it would be when you envisioned starting a business. Think about your business as a relationship. If you are in a relationship with your business, it's your job to see how you want to think about it, value it and nurture it. Think about how you want to problem solve. You have to decide what YOU will do about the circumstance that you are in.  You can decide on how you want to feel about running your online business, which you can do whether or not your business feels easy or hard or is producing the results you want or not. It is an independent exercise.  How you feel about your business doesn't depend on evidence, it depends on your belief about the evidence. Your beliefs come from your values, not from outside influences. Think about what you believe about yourself? Your business? Your potential? Those are far more important than whatever you have or have not created.  Example: you can have great results but not believe it's enough or that it's sustainable. You can have undesired results and decide that it's because people won't pay or that you don't know what you are doing. These thoughts will generate from your core values and beliefs. That's why so many companies establish mission statements and core values.  You will want to decide your core values. Make a list of what you value.  Here are some core values:  commitmentempathyconsistencydependability Decide if your core values are being reflected by how you are thinking now. You will want to identify the incongruent thoughts that are creating your negative outlook. Do you actually have negative default core values? Do you believe yourself to be inconsistent, uninspired, mediocre, afraid, half-committed? We often think of core values as positive but if you are not solely identifying with these core beliefs, there is a core belief that you are believing that is actually a negative core value. This is nothing to shame yourself over but rather use as a way to understand and analyze what you would need to shift in order to create what you REALLY want to create instead. What you believe the most is what you will see the evidence of in your business. Consistency means taking action, and what you are consistent at doing is the biggest predictor of your results. What you believe about your results is the biggest predictor of how you will feel about your business.  The results you have created helps you to see the results of your overall actions and where you have the most consistency is going to be apparent. So if you have been largely consistent and have faltered at times in your belief, you will see the evidence leaning toward your desired result. If you have been largely inconsistent but at times, you did believe and took some actions, you will see evidence leaning away from your desired result. The results are just letting you know if your thoughts and actions are taking you in the direction you want to go.  There are multiple paths to get to a goal and some may depend on your temperament. You may be a go-getter who can temporarily suspend emotions from blocking your desired results and take action from will power. You may be a feeler who can't suspend the emotions and instead you suspend the pressure you are putting on yourself by escaping from the work you really want to do. In the long term, your feelings about the journey will make it sustainable or unbearable. You can take actions and be miserable and yet considered a success by outsiders.  For example, white-knuckling through a diet. You lose the weight and then you are terrified of gaining it back. You gain it back and experience yo yo dieting. Or the one that cannot make it past day one or two of a diet that creates Dept-sabotaging evidence at every opportunity, creating confirmation bias that says “see I knew I couldn't do it!” either way.  Free yourself from the temptation to create a story of your perceived limitations. Don't make your business personal, make it practical. Decide on and create from your core values.  Consider your mental diet and what you are consuming and the thoughts that you have. Are you reading, listening, rehearsing and thinking about the ways in which you can reach your goals or do you spend more time on thinking about why you won't or can't? Break down your process to the steps that are involved. Look at what you've tried and what you haven't tried.  Take steps to create desired evidence and develop awareness of the thoughts that fuel your efforts in the process. These thoughts are the ones that you want to develop as you move forward. These are the thoughts that will keep you away from feeling like nothing is working and that you want to quit.  Remember why this is important to you:  Personal achievementImpact on the clientsImpact on how you see yourselfIncome goalsLifestylePeople you surround yourself with When nothing is working, think about what you want to achieve the most. Then draw a straight line to that and be loosely attached to the path to get there. Decide how you want that journey to feel and what kind of experiences you want to create when your result isn't what you hoped it would be. Let the frustration be part of it rather than suppressing it, but don't let it drive your actions. 

Is it cliche to use the phrase “powerful offer”? I think it can be. When we hear the phrase, it feels a bit mysterious and aspirational. In order to demystify what makes an offer powerful, let's break it down.  An offer is presenting people with the option to say yes or no your solution for solving a specific problem. Many people believe that a powerful offer is one that gets a yes at the end, and while I don't disagree, let's take a pause. That standard can create a lot of pressure. How does it make you feel when you think a powerful offer requires a yes? Getting on a call with that outcome in mind can drive behaviors that goes one of two ways: it can make you feel like you need to be somewhat pushy on the call or since most of us avoid that feeling at all costs, it can make you feel apprehensive and your offer will feel very bland and almost forgettable as a result. In order to remedy this, we have to think of a powerful offer differently in order to create one that doesn't make you feel nervous and freaked out when you are talking to potential clients and allows you to bring the energy you want to the call.  The best way to approach how you think about a powerful offer is to remove the pressure and allow some space in between the offer and the sale. Today I am going to focus on three components involved when you are talking to a potential client: there's the offer itself, there's you, and the potential buyer.  When you are an effective communicator and the buyer is a qualified lead and the benefits of the offer are clear, chances of having the desired results are exponentially higher.  Breaking down the roles of each component helps to put the pieces in its proper place, which means that you can remove the uncertainty of not knowing where to focus or what to change when you want to uplevel your offer.  Today we are going to unpack three components of the powerful offer by focusing on how effectively you communicate, how clear the promise and delivery is of the solution, and how to create and talk to qualified leads. When you improve each of these, the sum total will create a more powerful offer.  Your ability to connect with the client is foundational to the ease of the conversation. This is why we worry about being pushy, but remember, you are operating from self-interest if you are advocating for the client's results. I want to take a minute to talk about the balance between your likeability and your willingness to advocate for their desired result.  Let's start with your likeability. This is an easy one. You are very likeable. You want to help people because you care about the quality of their lives. Of all the sales calls I've reviewed, not a single one involved a coach that wasn't likeable and lovely. Coaches, by nature, want to connect and help others. You want people to trust you and know that you have their back and they should.  However, if you've ever felt that being likeable and trustworthy are the main things you need to win people over, you are putting yourself in a vulnerable and precarious position.  A powerful offer is more than you being your amazing self that people like, trust, and connect with. It is important to connect with this deeply because otherwise, you will make offers mean a deeper level of personalization, which is what can make sales feel so uncomfortable and scary. If getting a “no” feels like a rejection of not just your services, but of you and who you are, you will want to be aware of this so that you can de-personalize it.  The other downside is that the overdesire of being likeable means not asking the tougher, more challenging questions.  Taking the focus away from making this a personal interaction and understanding it's a combination of being your likeable self PLUS a clear offer, a qualified buyer, and effective communication, will ultimately lead to your desired results.  Now that we've set the stage, let's break down the three components for crafting your powerful offer.   A clear promise and delivery  You want to be very clear on the promise and delivery of your solution. It starts with your own clarity on what you do, why you do it and how it's a benefit to your client. The most important thing when talking to a potential client is that you want to be sold on your own service. Know exactly what makes you and your service different and why it's the best option for your ideal client. I want to assure you that you DO have unique value to offer. If you think there's nothing that special about you or that “All I have is coaching tools”, you are selling yourself short on a personal level. It's not about your experience, it's about what you want to create for the client.  Think about what it is that makes you unique and different from other coaches and packages. Some of the differentiators can include your approach, your beliefs, how you use coaching tools, your values, the way you connect, the way you teach, just for starters. If you need to get clarity on this, please don't just think these things in your head. Write it down. I am such a believer in taking it to pen and paper. So much easier to open up and create a flow of words when you have a pen in hand.  If you aren't sold on your service, at the price point that you are offering, you will have a hard time selling. I probably don't have to tell you that because you have very likely felt this way as you are figuring out what you want to offer. The reason you have a hard time will not be because your services aren't worth it but because it won't feel aligned with how you currently think about your services. The answer isn't to low ball your offer either. What it means is that you can elevate the value of your offer by asking yourself what it would require for you to pay the amount you really want to charge. That doesn't necessarily mean more features, either. Look at coaching programs that you think are high in value and study them. See what they offer and why you think it's valuable. You can create whatever you want. You aren't limited and you take direction from the things that inspire you.  This makes your business so exciting because you don't need permission.    The next component is qualifying the client.  It's not always about how well you can sell, but it's also about if the person you are selling to is ready to buy. This is why you want to qualify the buyer before you make any offers. You have to find out where they are at on their journey to a solution. They may be curious right now or feeling a situation out. They may be grasping for straws, not really believing that they can change their situation but seeing if you can inspire them to believe differently. No matter how good you are at what you do, if you are making an offer to someone who isn't actively looking to do what it takes to implement a solution, it will be an uphill battle. You have to find out some basic information: How motivated are they? What is the transformation that they are seeking? What do they believe they need? Until they reach a point where they feel compelled to make a decision, they may not feel moved to make a choice. Now, they feel motivated enough that they are on a call so you don't have to approach the call with any doubt. You want to approach the call with curiosity. You can and should help them revisit their situation and rethink what is happening now and get clarity on what they really want, what's blocking them, and show them how it's totally possible to remove those blocks to get to the other side. THAT can impact their sense of urgency and motivation, for sure, but the bottom line is if they aren't truly motivated to want the change internally, they are not your best client. You cannot take responsibility for their emotions or make it mean anything about you or your likeability regardless of whether they say yes or no.  Let's say you have a clear offer and you are communicating effectively. Qualifying the lead means you are learning how ready or open they are to accepting what you have to offer. Either way is fine, so don't hesitate to find out what's going on for them.  Think of it like you are offering food. If the person you are talking to isn't hungry, then it doesn't matter how delicious your food is, how hard you worked on it or how much time you invested in making it delicious, and the client can even agree that it looks very delicious but if they do not have an appetite, they will not be motivated to get it. You want to assess whether the buyer is not ready to take action on changing their circumstance and that alone is a big benefit to both you and the client. You are helping them gain clarity on their own brain. Therefore, your job on a consult call is to ask enough probing questions to understand where they are right now so that you can identify whether or not you can help them. This should happen before you even consider making an offer because it will not be powerful without a qualified lead. If the prospect of asking probing questions creates resistance, I want to help you reframe what this means. Let's use that food analogy again because I think it's easier to see how you might already practice probing questions without thinking of it as pushy. Instead, you may think of it as helpful.  So, let's say you offer a friend some food and they say they aren't hungry. You could go the path of least resistance and say “oh, ok. Cool. Let me know if you get hungry!” and then it's the end. That's how a lot of offers go, right? “Oh, you're not ready right now?” “You want to talk to your husband first?” “Ok, well nice talking to you!” and it's the end.  But let's say you are super excited about how awesome your food is and you don't want to miss out. There are other options than the path of least resistance. You could ask them when they last ate, when they think they might be ready to eat again, if they like the dish that you made, if they might want to have a dessert instead for now. You could ask them if they would be interested in the food when they are hungry again. In the sales world, this would look like you asking if they feel ready to make a buying decision, what would need to happen for them to want to solve the problem sooner rather than later, their thoughts about the solution you are offering as a potential fit, what they would need in order to feel comfortable with investing in coaching, what blocks they have that are stopping them, what it would take to make them feel like they are making a good decision, what reward would make it worth the risk, why they think it's a risk, who else would need to be on board in order to make a decision, what that person would need to know in order to feel comfortable.  Can you see how these are probing questions that don't push for a yes but push for clarity? That's a service you can provide on the call. An ideal client is ready, willing and able to invest. It's not someone who has the issues you coach on, it's someone who wants the help. So when you have a call and they say no, don't beat yourself up by telling yourself “they are exactly who I help! They were my ideal client and I couldn't get a yes”. No. They are not ideal if they aren't motivated to solve their problem. The ideal client will be someone who has budgeted or is willing to budget for the solution. You don't want to have to convince someone but you do want them to be able to convince themselves by showing them what they COULD as a result of coaching with you.  Since you want to spend as much time with your ideal clients it's worth making sure you attract them before the call. This means that you are clear in your messaging on who you help, describing their current thoughts or situation, and describing their current thoughts of where they want to be instead as a result of solving the problem. Without a clearly defined problem, there is no clear solution and people will not pay for ambiguity.  When you are accurate and clear in your messaging, ideal clients can self-identify.  Part of the vetting process is knowing where your ideal client is on their journey so that you can let them know they are who you help. This is when you see coaches say things like “You are in the right place if, you are a good fit if…” then you are exactly who I help.  When you ask them probing questions, you can help them see what is holding them back and try to remedy those concerns. You have the opportunity on the call to help them with potential challenges and fears, like they won't stick to it or they won't get the results that they want. Show them how your program is different and how you address those very concerns. If they can feel enough certainty, they are moving closer toward a decision.  You are providing a result and you needn't be afraid to figure out if the person on the other end of the call is someone that you can help. The desire to want to help everyone and not draw a line in the sand on making your offer definitive is going to cost you your own sense of security. Trying to pitch to anyone who will accept your service turns this into a personal thing. Don't do that. Connect with people, build rapport and then own the situation. They are there investing their time with you but make no mistake, YOU are investing your time in them and what their issues are so that you can see if there is a solution for them and if so, offer it. It's theirs to lose. Their objections are just their own self-limitations coming out and you don't have to take it personally. Not at all. When you hear self-imposed limitations, don't be afraid to find out why they are considering a solution at this time. Remind them that this isn't the first time they've noticed this problem, so why is now different. Show them the ROI mentally and emotionally by understanding what is important to them. Effective Communication:Know your main bullet point items and think from the perspective of the client. How can you communicate so that they are clear on what their result will be after they work with you? How do you describe the benefits you provide? What are the things that you do to deliver on your promise and what is the transformation as a result of those things? Effective communication is being clear in how you convey your offer and the ability to accurately respond to whatever the client says.  I like to distill an offer down to a simple sentence. First I will ask you, from the clients POV, the desired result, the benefit, and the thing they are trying to avoid. Take those answers and fill in the following statement:  I help you get (desired result) so that you can (have this benefit) without ever having to worry (the thing they are trying to avoid).  I help you get good at the sales process so that you can get more clients to a yes without ever having to worry about feeling pushy.  That's your basic promise. You go into the conversation knowing what you are bringing to the table. All other tools that you have are pointed toward this one end result that you offer and that the client wants.  A few things I want to bring up for you to think about when it comes to conveying your offer clearly. That is to understand and articulate why and how you deliver on your basic promise, but to be able to speak the language of the client in front of you. This means understanding how they think and communicate. Are they quick and to the point? Are they more conversational? You will want to match their cadence and style without changing your message. Use the words they use. That way, you can describe your basic promise to them in their words and it will resonate more deeply and quickly with them.  In practical terms, this means that if your client believes that they don't have what it takes, you want to help them to see that they actually do. Not in a pep-talk way, but in a “let's look at your personal resources and way of thinking” kind of way. Listen closely not to just their words but what they believe it means about them and help them to examine their beliefs about their ability to get the results that they want. Being empathetic to the struggle involved with the challenges they face while not buying into their disempowerment is the sweet spot that makes you an understanding human who champions your clients deepest desires.  Listen carefully to how they think and how they make decisions. When you are skilled at listening, you will know exactly what questions you need to ask to excavate the necessary information and move the conversation along.  It is necessary to ask the right questions to get to the heart of the matter and uncover the level of urgency for a solution. The right questions are more than superficial or general.  Here's the mistake I see most often is when the main purpose of the call is to be conversational and general rather than intentionally driven toward a result. Focusing more on the ease and rapport than whether or not it's a good fit tends to happen when you want to be liked and not think of you as salesy. If your result is often a great conversion but no conversion, you are creating this with your action of avoiding the deeper issues.  You want to ask questions that are conversational but you are also gathering enough information to identify if you can help solve a problem. Be clear that the only reason this conversation is happening is because they have an issue and you have a solution that will work for them. When you are clear on this in your offer to do the 1:1 call, you have every believe to believe they are there because they want to explore how it would work if they got coaching with you. Conversely, if you are not speaking about your offer effectively, even if you are talking to a buyer who would potentially want what you have to offer, then you will likely still not get the result you want, which is the sale. They will not be clear on how your service can benefit them and will not want to do the work to figure it out. That's why this part of the equation is knowing exactly what your offer will do as well as who will benefit the most from it. This is why it is imperative that you are very clear and sold on your own offer. Those are the three components you can work on to craft a more powerful offer. Your communication, a clear offer and qualifying the buyer. Just pick one area to focus on to get started.  I want to leave you with this, as you go out and make powerful offers.  Don't make powerful offers mean that you have to be perfect. Resist the temptation to become so results oriented that you negate paying close attention to the importance of the components we talked about today. Becoming solely results oriented encourages perfectionist tendencies that would have you believe that your efforts don't matter unless you are getting the result you want. It doesn't allow you to credit yourself for your effort and only looks for fault finding. As my coach said, it's like a bad Yelp review- only looks to blame and offers nothing useful. Clear and timely offer + Effective communication + qualified prospect = desired results. Desired results could be advancing the client to a yes or to a follow up.  When you have an offer that creates desired results, it's easy to feel excited about it. You think that's what you need in order to feel good about your offer. But what you need is to feel great about how you help people solve a problem so that you can have an anchor while you work on crafting a powerful offer that gets desired results. The starting point is way back where we aren't sure of the offer or how to get qualified leads. The hard part of creating a powerful offer is structuring your mindset so that you can go from an offer that isn't getting the desired results, which happens earlier in your coaching journey, to the better crafted offer that helps qualified clients to see why your offer is the best option so that they say yes. This transition requires self-evaluation and improvement so in that stage, the prize is the effort, not the result. Too many times we tend to get fixated on the lack of sales and blaming ourselves or believing that no one is willing to pay for what we offer. That perspective creates a world in which we don't think we are good enough and people aren't willing to pay for solutions.  The perfectionistic tendencies include all or nothing thinking, which will thwart what could otherwise could be a natural progression toward your goal. It creates anxiety because you constantly fixate on what you haven't created yet and why you haven't been able to. Instead, you want to be able to create excitement independent of the desired results because you have to create the belief so that others can have permission to believe in you, too. External validation has its place but it should not be in place of the belief that you have in yourself. If you feel lacking, you will want to work on self-belief over validation. You will have to be your own cheerleader and encourager, which means that you do not want to create anxiety about this for yourself. Perfectionistic behaviors literally create clinical levels of anxiety. An article in psypost.com states that “Perfectionism involves a desire to perform to the highest standards without allowing room for failure. People with perfectionist beliefs tend to be overly self-critical and put pressure on themselves to perform flawlessly at all times.” I would say even if you don't expect to get clients every time, you are still bringing that energy if you beat yourself up and tell yourself that you aren't going to make it when you have consults that don't convert.  Make sure you write down everything about your offer that makes it super valuable, your bullet point items that you can bring to the conversation, and work on creating some deeper, more probing questions that help expose the need and urgency better. You are offering more than a likeable and pleasant conversation, you are providing value and insight. 

We set goals as a means to achieve the things that we want. But setting goals goes deeper than that. The psychology behind setting goals is that it is a way of creating and affirming our identity.According to an article in https://positivepsychology.com/goal-setting-psychology studies have shown that when we train our mind to think about what we want in life and work towards reaching it, the brain automatically rewires itself to acquire the ideal self-image and makes it an essential part of our identity. If we achieve the goal, we achieve fulfillment, and if we don't, our brain keeps nudging us until we achieve it.In order for that to become true, it means that you need to protect your mindset as you work on your roadmap to achieve your impossible goal. It makes the difference between wanting to feel nudged to go toward it rather than being discouraged from it.If you think of setting and achieving goals as not only a way to achieve or acquire things, but a process that helps us decide how we see ourselves and the beliefs we create in the process, you will absorb the real meaning of goal setting, which is so that we create fulfillment and a positive self image.The one thing that we live with and always return to is how we feel about ourselves and this impacts our contribution, participation, and sense of belonging. We want to feel like we make a difference and that what we have to say is important and that's not coming from a place of ego but from a place of contribution. That means how we think about ourselves is crucial. How we set and achieving goals creates our personal narrative and that narrative determines the quality of our lives.How do you feel about the term “impossible goals”? Does it excite you? Does it wear you out before you even get started? Does it make you feel empowered or unsure?Think about your impossible goal. Here's my guideline on how you know if you have a workabout  impossible goal: think about what you would want if you believed that you could have whatever it is your mind dreams up and if you were willing to do the work you think it will take to achieve this goal. That doesn't mean that you have the necessary skills right now, but it means you are willing to do the work to have developed them. That's more important than anything. That's how you believe in yourself and believe that you can get the results you want. Why not? Why not you?Finding that sweet spot between what you want and what you are willing to do to get it, these two things will help you get energetically aligned. Only you can determine how much work you are willing to put into it. It's not as if you know the work that it will take right now, but perspective is everything.Now that you've established the goal that you feel challenged and excited about, let's think about the purpose of a goal. Here's what the goal is: it's the way to establish the direction that you want to go and a reference point for the distance between where you are now and where you want to be. It gives you a destination that will be the way that you know you have succeeded in what you set out to do. Once you've set the direction of your goal, it has more teeth when you use the goal to create urgency and focus. It should not create desperation, which comes from scarcity thinking. You can't reach impossible goals effectively with desperation, either. You want to create the kind of urgency that helps you dial in your efforts and focus.Write the steps to your goal: this is the initial roadmap. You will convert your thinking from thinking about the end result to thinking about being process oriented. Understand that since all you are planning is from your thoughts in your current state of pre-experience, you are planning from the perspective of someone who hasn't stepped into the obstacles with an unproven plan. You are coming at this with a pure mind and even if you intellectualize that it's going to be hard and you may feel nervous or sick, you are also creating this from how you are thinking about it as the person on the pre-goal side, not the post-experience side. It might not be as hard as you think, it might not be as terrifying while the plans are in motion, and it might not be as quick as you hope that it will be. There may be bridge steps that need to happen to reach the goal. Plan loosely but hold the goal tightly.Start testing. You are building the roadmap and the way you get one that works isn't because you knew it would work before you started it, but because you built it because you keep what works and you learn from what doesn't so that you can create a different next step. This requires trust, but it's not trusting in a way that suggests blind faith in something “out there”. It requires faith in your resiliency and ability to get the support you need. Trust the process. Trust that you are good enough. Trust that you will future it out. If you don't believe these things, you will experience a concurring crisis of identity as you navigate the challenges of an online business. This will divide your mind, your energy, your emotions, and your focus. Here's how to help cushion yourself against any negative self-talk.Look at what you've already created, already decided. Do not tell yourself there's nothing because there is. There's a decision, a goal, and a desire. Get into an abundance mindset. Look at the results you have created and develop appreciation for who you've been up to this point and what you've accomplished. Rather than continuing to focus on everything you haven't done yet, focus on the things you think it will take to get you there and be kind to yourself.Write down the resources that you already have that will support you in achieving your goal.Realize  you are already creating the moment you make a decision. You are creating ideas that make you feel doubt and frustration or hopeful and self-assured. You are creating your experience with your mind.You will either achieve your goal or you won't. Either is ok. It's either an affirmation or a nudge, right? In order to make sure it's a nudge forward and not a course to get derailed, play close attention to your emotional well-being.DO NOT BEAT yourself up for not making the goal. This is where you are mining for the limitations. You WANT to see what they are so that you can smooth them out and live in the art of becoming. It's like when you go to the gym and  you work out to build muscles. They haven't been flexed before and the next stage is that you've torn all the fibers and now they have to rebuild and what happens? You are sore! But being sore is GOOD. It tells us how hard we worked out and that we DID put ourselves out there. Continuously take the next best action. Abundance versus scarcity. It's about figuring out the actions that work and don't work.If you didn't achieve what you wanted:Break the goal down even further to micro-steps that make it feel attainable. Check in, too: what is repelling you from the steps you need to take? Look at your thoughts and test their merits. Just because something does not come easily, naturally, and faster to you does not mean that it's not possible. It just means it doesn't look the way you thought it would when you didn't know anything about it. Can you see how you are now more qualified because you understand that it will take more work than you originally thought because you learned what doesn't work and you learned that the timeline must be adjusted?You MUST journal and self-coach. You simply must. And when you journal, the goal is NOT to use your thoughts and experiences against yourself, trying to prove why everything is so terrible. There's a difference in journaling raw emotions for honest expression and journaling to stroke and validate unhelpful thoughts. Just check your intentions and you will know the difference. The most effective self coaching and journaling strives to process emotions, see all the areas in which you can take more control and reset intentions. It's not to prosecute yourself, it's to nurture and protect that inner desire that is fragile. It's sitting with disappointment in a compassionate way, not a “I told you so” way. YOU are a work of art in the making and YOU should NOT sabotage your own baby efforts. You are a precious seedling that deserves the moon, sun, and stars.Write down the daily wisdom I get from my future self. Tap into the future you energy daily. Every morning, let your future self bridge the gap from who you are now to who she or he is. This is powerful and it makes you realize that you have access to not just the part of you that wants to be in doubt when things don't work out, but you also have access to the part of you that knows you can be the person that can make it happen.Don't be in a hurry. Being in a rush is going to create emotions that don't create the calm you need.Don't go into how, it will only block you. When you start thinking of how, you get bottlenecked. When you look at the process and think of how, you will create pathways.5. Revisit your impossible goal Does it feel like a good balance of tension between achievable and challenging? That's good. Does it feel like you would have to work disproportionately hard to convince yourself that you can do it? You might want to rethink it because your energy is better spent achieving a smaller goal that baby steps you to the belief than spending your time cheerleading yourself to a belief. Action creates belief and momentum, so you can build on successes. Remember the path to impossible goals is paved with smaller achievable goals that point you in the right direction.6. Now, Assess your emotional response. Does this move you toward or away from what you want? Decide how you want to feel about  it. Think as the person who wants to accomplish this goal and check in for guidance with the version of you that has accomplished the goal. Goals help you to believe in your ability to create and achieve what you want. In the last podcast, I talked about how you need to talk to the future version of you. This is the one that has it figured out. It's actually you in your highest state, using a perspective that isn't clouded with doubt. Put yourself in the feelings state. How do you want to feel as you move toward the goal, as you stumble, and as you make small wins? As you make big wins? I write down quotes from my future self to fuel my present self. Here are some examples:7. Attain the goal. This happens after the roadmap has been created and revised. It is inevitable when you stay focused on the process.

You have goals that you want to accomplish in your business. We often think that it means we need to learn new skills or observe how others have achieved similar goals. This can be part of the process but it's not all. In order to hit the next level of growth, you must grow your identity as well as your skill set. Becoming a person who believes that they are capable of solving problems, getting clients and achieving impossible goals is foundational.Listen to today's episode and uplevel your identity as a coach and business owner. Get full show notes at https://catherinevanwert.com/hitting-the-next-level-of-growth/Got value from this episode? Please share a rate and a review! I appreciate your help so much. Questions and comments? Email me at catherine@catherinevanwert.comApply for your free 1:1 Sales Training?https://calendly.com/catherine-vanwert-coaching/sales-training

Freebies are designed to create interest and intrigue in what you have to offer. It should funnel into your main offer. The purpose of the freebie is to give value and show an aspect of what you have to give to your clients.  Learn how to think about freebies as a system that captures the attention and builds the interest of your ideal clients.  Get full show notes at https://catherinevanwert.com/prime-your-sales-with-a-freebie-lead-magnet-strategy/Got value from this episode and want to share some love? Please leave a review! Questions? Comments? Email me at catherine@catherinevanwert.com​Apply your free 1:1 Sales Training? https://calendly.com/catherine-vanwert-coaching/sales-training

We all strive for certainty because we want to feel confident and harness the power of a singular focus. What happens if the certainty we feel is caused because we believe a painful thought? Catherine talks about how we can use certainty for or against ourselves and the struggle of letting go of a thought that undermines our potential.She also talks about the steps you can take today that will help you dismantle the way in which you create uncertainty so you can show up more powerfully in your business AND your life.

You will learn how Active Listening is your SUPERPOWER on a sales call. You cannot underestimate the importance of the connection in selling. Today you will learn about the top four benefits and you will also learn six easy and practical ways that you can implement active listening principles in your sales (or even coaching) calls. Got value from this episode and want to share some love? Please leave a review! Questions? Comments? Email me at catherine@catherinevanwert.com​Apply your free 1:1 Sales Training?https://calendly.com/catherine-vanwert-coaching/sales-training

Want to stop the mind drama and fear when it comes to doing a sales call? Whether you call it a mini-session, discovery call or sales call, we all the the same thing: more confidence! Listen in and see how you can change your mindset for the better.  Link to the “How to Fix the Mind Drama Around Sales Calls” fillable PDF worksheet: https://catherinevanwert.com/how-to-fix-the-mind-drama-about-sales-calls/Get the full show notes at https://catherinevanwert.com/smc2/Got value from this  episode and want to give me a little high five? I'd love it if you would leave a rating and a review! Thanks in advance, friend. Apply for your FREE 1:1 Sales Training today. Details and link on my website:https://catherinevanwert.com 

In this episode, you will learn the top 20 traits that Catherine has identified within her own coaching community. Identify the traits that you already have and the ones you want to develop. Doing this work will take your coaching business mindset to the next level and allow you to keep growing your clients, revenue and skillset. Get full show notes at https://catherinevanwert.com/smc1/Got value from this episode and want to share some love? Please leave a review! Questions? Comments? Email me at catherine@catherinevanwert.com​Apply your free 1:1 Sales Training? https://calendly.com/catherine-vanwert-coaching/sales-training

Are you ready for a podcast that helps coaches learn how to  sell more effectively without  the high pressure feeling? If you've tried other sales techniques that just didn't feel right for you, join host Catherine Van Wert, Certified Coach, MBA, as she helps you to make this process so much better for you and your prospective client. Her methodology is all about teaching relationship-based selling so that you can take the hustle and stress out without sacrificing your bottom line. You want to create a business and sales process that honors your style and personality. You want to show up strong and authentic. You want people to WANT your services so that you don't have to make it weird. That's what this podcast is all about.  Thinking about working with a sales coach? Catherine is still offering her FREE personalized 1:1 sales training that she mentions in this episode. Grab a spot while they are still being offered.  Book your training at www.catherinevanwert.com  today.