Aligning my harmony
A self-reflection story of taking my own medicine and aligning my values, beliefs, and skills in harmony in order to help YOU experience the same epiphany and achieve the high-level results you’ve been craving.
March 15, 2020 was the beginning, not the end, looking back now.
Ever find yourself scratching your head asking yourself, “Why the hell am I doing this?”. I think I asked myself this question more times than I care to admit in the past three months. I’ve realized it’s time for me to “take my own medicine”: reach into MY WHY and align it with my action plan.
In the beginning, operating a boutique marketing agency was fun. It’s what I know. I was full of &^%$ and vinegar, ready to give it my all. And I have. Over, and over, and over again. So many hours of blood, sweat, and sometimes tears poured into this business.
I can’t give up. I won’t give up.
Am I the expert I believe myself to be? Am I articulate enough? Am I smart enough? Am I connected enough? Do people like me? Do they trust me? Do they see me as someone who can help them? It is such a roller coaster ride.
In March, the pandemic hit. In Nova Scotia, a tragedy hit. The economy is taking a hit. The Black Lives Matter movement is happening. It’s a lot. Even though I feel I’ve been glued to my computer screen with Zoom meetings and on social media reading about the divides in the world, I find myself with time to self-reflect.
Relationships in my circle have become tighter. A trusted group of professional women have become a wonderful, safe place for exploring feelings, desires, and goals.
Mixed signals
In a conversation with one of my trusted advisors, she shared these two words with me: mixed signals. Are my own business messages sending mixed signals? What do I do? What do I offer? How do I help people? Am I practising a case of offering too many things to too many people?
“Time to take my own medicine” I thought to myself. Time to pivot; take the leap.
Looking back at everything I believe in, my blogs and what I see now, there is indeed a common denominator. I truly dislike witnessing and experiencing people “pitching” their business. Companies whose main concern is selling their widget of the month and achieving a quota of that widget. It’s not how I do business.
What do my clients need? What are they telling me? I started listening for the hidden messages and cues when having real conversations with prospects and clients. “They will only tell you the truth if they trust you. Your solution will never work at its full potential if your solution is not solving their true problem” is something I thought a lot about.
You may have noticed, I have a history of talking about how marketing and sales need to be aligned. My “sales hat” keeps showing up on my head and in conversations all around me. There’s a reason I have an emotional drive to send this message out. It’s personal, not just professional.
Understanding WHY your clients will buy from you and continue to buy from you is BEYOND just your features and benefits. You make them feel a certain way. You connect with an emotional trigger at the right time, which is leading them to doing business with you.
Selling is communicating. Selling is presenting. The art of selling is about building relationships. How you communicate that message makes a HUGE difference between having a few clients versus having a sustainable business.
And that is what I’m working on myself.
