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The roadblocks to consistency

The roadblocks to consistency

by | Apr 14, 2026 | Business foundations, Business Growth, Client Creation

The roadblocks to consistency

I want to talk about consistency.

It’s easy to argue the point that consistent revenue and clients come from consistent business growth effort and from continuing to show up, share your work and stay in relationship with the people you serve but in truth, we’re often thinking about consistency all wrong.

How many times have you thought to yourself that if you could just show up more consistently in your business, sharing your ideas, writing, reaching out and connecting with people, things would start to move more easily but then reality lets you down? Same. I used to beat myself up often for not being more consistent, more disciplined, more productive. I would create an annual business plan that on paper seemed flawless but then when it came to execution, I repeatedly found I just couldn’t deliver on what was required of me to achieve the goals I had set for myself.

Something always happens that I haven’t planned for. Getting sick or my menstrual cycle or perimenopause symptoms kicking my butt. My kids getting sick and being off school. Needing to travel to be there for a loved one who is having surgery which has happened twice in the last two years. Sometimes it’s the inevitable heartbreak and despair over world events or extreme weather cutting the internet for whole days and closing down school.

And sometimes, I am just tired or low energy and simply don’t have it in me to follow the plan. I need to take more breaks, sleep in instead of getting up early to exercise, meditate and plan my day.

The difference between how I now handle these situations and how I used to handle them is night and day. Before I would allow these setbacks to completely derail me and when there wasn’t an obvious cause of my inaction, I would take it as evidence of my failings. I would feel bad about myself and sink into a rut, taking even longer to get back on track.

These days, I not only accept that life interruptions and lows happen but I expect them. I make my plans in light of their inevitability and I pay attention to what tends to interrupt my rhythm of showing up in my work.

I have even created a whole framework around them.

That framework is something we use inside The Clearing during our monthly Focus + Priorities reflection, especially when we notice that something we intended to move forward, share or follow through on simply didn’t happen. I also wanted to share it lightly with you here in case it’s useful.

Usually when we plan to do something and it doesn’t get done, there is a specific reason that goes beyond laziness or lack of motivation. I refer to these reasons as roadblocks and I’ve identified seven of them.

#1 Capacity and health
This relates to illness, chronic health conditions, burnout and energy levels. 

#2 Time + Competing Priorities
This happens when we have too many demands on our time, when we have set unrealistic timelines or when other responsibilities take over.

#3 Mindset + Inner Dialogue
This looks like perfectionism, self-doubt, fear of being judged or a feeling of inner resistance.

#4 Clarity Gaps
This is where the next step is unclear. Perhaps the task is too big or vague or we are missing information or support.

#5 Emotional landscape
This might look like overwhelm, anxiety or tenderness resulting in low motivation.

#6 Environment + Systems
This could relate to your workspace or a lack of reminders, structure or systems that support the work.

#7 Alignment
This comes up when we perhaps planned the task out of a “should” or when we realise on reflection that it isn’t actually a true priority.

I’ve found that something quite profound happens when I’ve used this framework for myself and with clients as a lens to look at stalled tasks. More often than not, it becomes immediately clear that the issue does not represent a lack of commitment. It is that a very real and tangible roadblock was present, something that interrupted the rhythm of showing up or moving the work forward. And once we can see that clearly, there is almost always something that can be done to get back on track.

When I do this, sometimes it’s a really simple fix. For example, I failed to carve out time for the task and then my schedule got booked up with calls. The fix? Block out time to work on the task, perhaps the time to write, reach out to someone or share something I have been meaning to publish.

And sometimes it’s trickier. If for example I’m dealing with a hormone issues like fatigue, the fix isn’t always so obvious. But acknowledging what’s going on brings about more self empathy and compassion which in turn helps me to think of small things I can do to feel better, such as getting more sleep or reducing my expectations slightly so that I can still make small progress.

That is very different from simply feeling defeated because tasks went unfinished and not really being sure why.

When we look at unfinished tasks or a lack of obvious progress through the lens of possible roadblocks it allows us to get proactive about support rather than simply applying more pressure on ourselves to just get things done.

Examples of this include:

  • Reducing the number of priorities you’re setting yourself.
  • Breaking tasks into even smaller steps.
  • Creating better structures or systems in place to support your work.
  • Getting support or accountability.
  • Allowing rest or emotional space so recovery time is shorter.
  • Letting go of something that isn’t aligned and freeing up mental space.

I find that this practice helps us to notice patterns with curiosity and compassion rather than judging ourselves or forcing momentum. And when we understand what tends to interrupt our rhythm, it becomes much easier to return to the work and begin showing up again.

And now a question for you. If you think about something in your business that hasn’t moved forward recently, which of these roadblocks might have been present?

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Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

If you want to receive the Soulful Strategies Weekly, simply share with me your name and email address below and you’ll start recieving emails right away.

 

Where you might be quietly losing clients

Where you might be quietly losing clients

by | Mar 17, 2026 | Client Creation, Selling

Where you might be quietly losing clients

One of the first things I do when I land on a new client’s website isn’t read their About page or their story. I look for how I’m supposed to work with them.

I put myself in the shoes of a prospective client and go in search of a clear next step.

What I’m hoping for is a frictionless journey from curiosity to action. Something simple and obvious like making a payment, completing an application form, or booking a call. The smoother that journey, the less likely we are to lose people along the way.

It’s worth remembering what the average person who lands on your website is up against.

They’re likely already overwhelmed. Bombarded with information about their particular problem. Faced with endless options, conflicting advice, and a lot of noise. Most people aren’t looking for more inspiration or explanation. They’re looking for something that cuts through and tells them, clearly, what to do next.

When you’re newer in business, and you don’t yet have a lot of traffic or the budget for beautiful design or optimised copy, it’s often the small things that make the biggest difference.

Over the years, I’ve seen just about every possible way people lose potential clients in the short window between interest and action.

Sometimes there’s no clear “Work with me”, “Services”, or “Offerings” page at all. When I visit a service provider’s website, that’s where I’m heading first. I want to understand what’s available here that could help me with the problem I’m trying to solve. If I can’t find that quickly, I often won’t keep looking.

Other times there is a services menu, but it’s packed with confusing dropdowns. Even after clicking “Work with me”, I’m left unsure where to go next or which option is actually relevant to me.

I also see a lot of offers described in just a few vague lines, with no page that gives the full picture. No context, no detail, no clear way to understand whether this is right for me without having to reach out first. For many people, that step feels like too much.

And then there are the very practical issues.

Broken or outdated links. Pages that no longer exist. Buttons that promise one thing and deliver another. These might seem minor, but to someone already hesitating, they can quietly bring the whole journey to a stop.

The same principle applies beyond your website.

For many people, your social media bio is the first doorway into your work. If the link there leads to a dead page, a confusing set of options, or something that no longer reflects what you actually offer, you’re creating friction before the relationship has even begun.

I often use an analogy (I first heard from Tad Hargrave) of imagining your business as a house in the forest and it’s always stuck with me.

Given the nature of a forest, there are various potential pathways to your door. What I’ve noticed is that most people spend a lot of time working on the signposts and the paths themselves. The content, the posts, the links that help people find you in the first place.

But sometimes, once people arrive, the doorbell doesn’t work.

They press it once. Then again. They wait. Nothing happens. Eventually, they assume no one’s home and walk away, even though you’re inside, ready and willing to help.

When your website or bio doesn’t make it clear how to take the next step, or when links are broken or confusing, this is often what’s happening. People are finding you, but the signal isn’t getting through.

This isn’t about being perfect or polished.

It’s about recognising that when someone is interested, they’re often already doing a lot of internal work. Weighing up whether to ask for help. Whether to spend money. Whether now is the right time. The least we can do is make the external journey feel clear and supportive.

A gentle place to start is to take a few minutes to metaphorically walk the different paths someone might take to work with you.

Imagine they find you through social media, a referral, or a newsletter someone forwarded. Where do they land first? What do they see? What do they click next? At what point might the doorbell stop working?

You don’t need to redesign your entire website or rewrite everything from scratch.

Often, it’s about noticing and removing small points of friction. Clarifying a menu label. Simplifying a choice. Fixing a link. Adding a sentence that helps someone understand what happens after they click.

Making it easy to work with you isn’t about being pushy or salesy.

It’s an act of care.

It says: if you’re here, if you’re curious, if you’re considering this, I’ve made space for you to take the next step in a way that feels clear and contained.

And that, quietly, can make all the difference.

SIGN UP FOR MY SOULFUL STRATEGIES WEEKLY 

Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

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Where My Clients Come From

Where My Clients Come From

by | Aug 21, 2024 | Client Creation

“All things being equal, people will do business with — and refer business to — those people they know, like and trust.”
~ Bob Burg

I want to share with you where my coaching clients come from in the hope that it gives you some insight on where to focus your attention to get more clients into your business.

It goes without saying that the number one question I get asked by my clients is how can I get more clients? Much of what I teach and the strategies I share are designed precisely to help conscious business to answer just that.

Lately, as I’ve been pondering this age old question, I’ve been thinking a lot about my business and the steady flow of new clients I enjoy and asking myself where do my clients come from? When I consider the various ways in which people come to me, I’m able to see the fruits of my earlier business building efforts.

My hope is that in sharing these details with you, you’ll get a sense of the work you need to do now, so that you too can have a steady source of new clients coming into your business, down the road.

How I know where my clients come from

It’s important to note that I’m able to make this analysis because I ask anyone who enquires about my coaching services how they found me. If you don’t currently do this, I highly recommend you find a way to do that. I ask the question in my 1:1 coaching application form but you could just as easily ask it in your client intake form.

My referral source categories

Before we dive into the numbers I want to share with you some details about the categories of my referral sources. My recording of this data goes back to late 2021 when I switched from using gift sessions to an application form as the CTA on my coaching sales page. My analysis covers 74 applications where a referral source was indicated. These roughly break down into the following categories.

Social media — this is pretty self-explanatory. For the record I’m on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter although I’m most active on Facebook.

Google — this is where someone either googled a term like “Conscious Business Coach” and found my website or searched a topic like “Discovery calls alternative” and found one of my blog posts.

Client referral — this is where a current or former client has directly recommended me to someone.

Word of mouth — this is where someone has shared a piece of my content or talked about me in a group or shared a post about me — often I don’t know who this was or had no sight of the recommendation because I’m not in that group or I don’t know the person in question.

Colleague referral — this is where one of my colleagues has personally recommended me to someone.

Hubs — these are places that I share my teaching, knowledge or content where my ideal clients already hang out (like Tad Hargrave’s Marketing for Hippies Membership or The Focalizing Institute). There is some crossover between hubs and colleagues because for example a colleague like Tad Hargrave might personally recommend me to someone (which I count as a colleague referral) and then other people might discover me from the classes I’ve taught inside his membership program (which I would count as a hub). In essence both leads have come via Tad but for slightly different reasons, which I felt it was important to parse out.

Personal connection — This is when someone I know personally decided to hire me.

Before we dive into the numbers, I’d love you to consider which of these you think sends me the most leads and which send me the fewest. I’ll admit, I was surprised by the results the first time I did this analysis.

See below for an pie chart overview of the breakdown.

What the numbers tell me

So to present the information another way, let me list out my referral sources from top to bottom:

Colleagues send me 32.8% of all my coaching client applications.
Hubs account for 17.2% of my 1:1 applications.
Client referrals and word of mouth both account for 15.6% percent of referrals each. 31.2% in total.
Google searches accounts for 14.1% of applications.
Social Media accounts for 3.1%
And personal connections account for 1.6% (this was actually only 1 person overall).

What these numbers tell me.

People matter more than content

If I add up colleagues, client and other word of mouth referrals, this accounts for 64% of the applications I’ve had in over the few years. That means that the majority of people who decided to apply to work with me, did so because someone they trusted recommended me.

Given how much time I spend on content, that surprised me. I also wouldn’t have guessed that the majority of my client applications actually come from colleagues, some of whom do very similar work but no longer do 1:1 the way I do.

I don’t employ any particular strategies to bring this about but there are some things I do and have done, which might explain this number.

One thing that I’ve always done is to share generously about my colleague’s offers, even when they might compete with my own offerings. I do this because I want people to get access to the right resources for them, even if that means they spend their money elsewhere. I also only share products and services I truly believe in and many of my colleagues are doing amazing things in the world.

I also don’t subscribe to a scarcity mindset, I truly believe that there is enough clients for everyone and that my right-fit people will choose me because what I offer is the best fit for their needs, not because I was the only coach they knew about!

Something else I try to do is thank those colleagues and clients personally when they send people my way. If it’s a colleague who sends people regularly, I might send the occasional note to let them know that the person they recommended me to did in fact start working with me and that things are going great. If it’s a former client, I’ll reach out to say thanks and maybe even offer them a gift session as a way to say thank you and to be of support to them.

Another thing that I have done for as long as I can remember is create relationships through outreach and just simply being out in the world building and nurturing relationships. Several of the colleagues who send people my way, came as a result of a connection we made online or inside a program we were in together.

The big takeaway here is that I have invested heavily in BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS, not to gain anything, more often to be of service to others.

Content does matter

Even though personal recommendations are by far the most important source of clients for me, content does still matter, with Google searches, social media and teaching in hubs accounting for 34% of the applications that come in, my content still plays a huge part.

If we take google searches, I can tell you that around 3 or 4 articles are bringing in the majority of google leads. One in particular, has me ranking on the 1st page for the search term “discovery call alternative”, which is a piece I wrote about gift sessions way back when I had no idea about SEO or the fact that many, many coaches are looking for a more ethical approach to sales calls.

I also invested in an SEO program last year to make the most of all the content I have written but haven’t yet had the time to implement much of what I learned, so the success I’m having on Google is not coming from lots of SEO work but just my general commitment to creating content that serves my target audience and answers their most pressing questions.

Teaching in hubs has definitely been a great way for me to find new clients and a way that I really enjoy. Not only do I get to present my “content” to someone else’s audience, but they get also get to experience me in real time, which I’m sure has an impact.

Social media is having the least impact. Who knew!?! Well I did. I’ve known for sometime that people rarely say that they found me on social but I must admit, I do still find it a bit surprising that so FEW people do. Whilst I will continue to be active on social media, it does give me some comfort that my livelihood is not at the mercy of the algorithm and means that I can prioritise more enjoyable marketing activities than posting on social!

I should also note here that several people who gave a name of someone they heard about me from, also stated that they then joined my list and read my content for some time before reaching out to work with me.

So even though those personal referrals are so important, I’m confident that my content does a great job of helping people to get to know me better. I also believe that my content is one of the ways I’ve built trust with colleagues, who see what content I’m creating and come to understand my point of view and therefore feel better able to refer me.

The key takeaway here is to CREATE CONTENT THAT SERVES. Stop trying to create content that sells and instead create content that expresses your point of view and really answers the questions your potential clients are already googling.

Another takeaway here is the importance of DEMONSTRATING EXPERTISE. I think my content does a good job of this but when I teach in someone else’s group program or mastermind, I inevitably get more subscribers, sales and client applications.

I think this is because I’m giving people a really good insight into how I work, what I stand for and the approach I take when it comes to business growth. Lots of people also give me the feedback that they like my down to earth nature, which I love hearing too!

A note on personal connections

You might be wondering why so few clients are coming from personal connections — well that’s because I live in a small town in Catalunya, Spain, where I barely speak the language and where a large proportion of the population are over 70.

That’s why all of my relationship building activities are happening online but if you live in a place where your ideal clients also live, don’t forget that building relationships via hubs and colleagues could work really well in your locality.

I’m curious to know what you make of these figures. Is there anything in here that surprises you? Is there anything you might do differently in your business as a result of reading about where my clients come from? Or do you have any questions for me? If you said yes to any of these questions, please let me know in the comments.

SIGN UP FOR MY SOULFUL STRATEGIES WEEKLY

 

Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

If you want to receive the Soulful Strategies Weekly, simply share with me your name and email address below and you’ll start recieving emails right away.

The Most Effective Way I Know To Connect With Your Ideal Client

The Most Effective Way I Know To Connect With Your Ideal Client

by | Jul 6, 2022 | Client Creation

“Until you understand your customers — deeply and genuinely — you cannot truly serve them.”
~ Rasheed Ogunlaru

In this blog, I tell you about the best way I know to connect with your ideal client and the business benefits of doing so. That way is audience research and I’ll be sharing not only my approach but 4 important benefits you can enjoy when you employ it.

In my experience, doing market or audience research is one of the most overlooked activities in the online business world.

So many business owners sit behind a screen trying to figure out the answers to questions like:

Who is my ideal client?
What is my ideal client struggling with?
What products and services should I create to best support them in that?
How much should I charge?
What language should I be using on my website to appeal to my ideal client?
What should I be sharing about in my content and marketing?

I’m going to let you into a secret. You won’t get these answers from client avatar exercises and/or pondering branding questions.

Our audience (or if we don’t yet have one, our market) knows the answers to all of these questions and more. Those answers are available to us, if only we take the time to ask.

My approach

The approach I teach my clients is to run what I call, 30/30 research call campaigns.

This is where you put out an invitation to your audience, via your newsletter and social media. Or if you don’t yet have an audience, in places your people already hang out such as Facebook or LinkedIn groups.

In the invitation, describe who your ideal client is and a few bullets on what they might be struggling with and then offer 10 x 60 minute conversations.

Share in your invitation that the first 30 minutes will be dedicated to market research (this is where you’ll ask a number of research questions — see list above for inspiration) and the second 30 minutes is where you’ll support them with their greatest struggle, this might be through coaching, healing, teaching or whatever modality you specialise in.

There is so much to be gained from running a campaign like this but here are 4 of the biggest business benefits.

1. Clarity on your niche

I’m a firm believer that your niche evolves over time and with experience. I don’t believe niche is something you can figure out intellectually or through doing branding exercises and answering journal prompts. For me, clarity around niche comes from being out in the field talking with people and testing various niches out through working with people or when you don’t yet have enough clients through research calls and/or offering gift sessions.

Often when business owners come to me, there are several types of people they could help and several things they could help them with. I often work with people who have a range of skills and work with more than one modality. They also tend to do the kind of work that would be beneficial to everybody and so niching can feel particularly tricky.

The problem is that when you offer services to everybody, nobody really sees that service as relevant to them or their specific issue.

In these situations, I recommend conducting market research calls with a specific group of people who might be struggling with a specific set of problems. This way, you get to test out niches and talk to people in those groups to see if it’s a problem you really want to work with.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are a life coach who can help people with a wide range of issues such as relationships, facing fears, achieving goals, breaking bad habits and so on. Instead of putting out a generic post that talks about general life coaching and helping people to “live their best life”, hone in on one of these. For example…”I’d like to have conversations with 10 people who have a clear and specific goal that they want to achieve but are finding it hard to get started. Perhaps you struggle with procrastination, self-doubt or a lack of ideas on what action to take, but at the same time you feel 100% committed to doing what it takes to achieve your goal.”

Can you see how much clearer this is? After talking to 10 people about this specific problem, you’ll soon know if this is something you want to cover in your niche or not!

2. Language and topics for your content and copy

How many times have you heard the advice to use your ideal clients own language in your web and sales copy? And how easy have you found that to be so far?

When we get into conversation with our ideal clients and ask them specifically about what it is that they are struggling with, they tell us! This means that they give us the exact language they themselves use to describe the issues they are looking for support with.

When we can describe what we do in terms that our ideal clients would themselves use, we create a deeper connection that makes sales far more likely.

It’s for this reason that I recommend recording research calls so that you can go back over the recording and jot down the exact wording used.

These conversations are also a rich source of content ideas. If you are talking to the very people you’d love to work with and they are telling you what they need help and support with, you can then go write posts and articles on these very topics, meaning that your content is also going to land much better than it otherwise would.

3. Input, ideas and suggestions for your products and services

Similar to the content point I just made, research calls can provide us with ideas and inspiration for our products and services but more than that we can ask direct questions about what people truly want and need.

I like to do research calls when I’m considering a new product and service so that I can be sure that there is a true need for what I’m thinking of creating. All too often, I see well-intentioned business owners pouring their heart and soul into making something fabulous for their people only to be met with zero or very few sales. Why? Because for whatever reason, it wasn’t what their people really wanted or needed.

You see as practitioners, who in all likelihood have already overcome the struggle our would-be clients are facing, we’re not always in the best position to know exactly what our people are looking for. I see lots of business owners putting forward the solution to the problem in their product and service when their people don’t yet know that’s what they need. If you don’t know you need something, then you’re unlikely to buy it.

4. Clients

Yes, you read that right! Conducting research calls can and does bring in new clients — I see it all the time with my approach. Why? Because first of all, you’ve hopefully described your ideal client well in your invitation, which has the people who respond feel seen and heard, and it also signals to them that you are someone who helps people just like them, with their specific struggle.

Secondly, when you use the second half of the call to deeply serve the person and demonstrate your expertise in your field, people get a real and tangible sense of what it would be like to work with you and if that experience is positive, often they will enquire about working with you.

I have had several clients get multiple clients from a single research call campaign. And even if people don’t sign up for your services there and then, in having this conversation, you’ve built a deeper relationship. One that may well result in future sales and/or referrals down the line.

So there you have it, 4 pretty big business benefits of conducting research calls. I’m such a huge fan of these calls and it’s often one of the first things I get new clients to do. Do let me know in the comments if this piece has inspired you to run a research campaign yourself.

SIGN UP FOR MY SOULFUL STRATEGIES WEEKLY

 

Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

If you want to receive the Soulful Strategies Weekly, simply share with me your name and email address below and you’ll start recieving emails right away.

The Best Way To Get Repeat Customers + Referrals

The Best Way To Get Repeat Customers + Referrals

by | Jun 29, 2022 | Client Creation, Uncategorized

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
~ Bill Gates

I want to talk to you about something that many business owners overlook in their business and what you might be missing out on as a result.

In order to maximise your chances of having people buy from you again and again, as well as tell others about you, you’ll need to be creating regular opportunities for your clients and customers to give you feedback so that you can make improvements to your products and services. 

Take a moment now to consider when you last asked your customers or clients for feedback. If you can’t remember or if you never have, then read on, this is for you. 

If you are a business owner, then it follows that you have products and/or services. Not asking for regular feedback as to how those products and services are landing for your customers and clients means you have no idea whether or not they are fit for purpose. Whether or not they are serving your clients needs.

Creating a positive customer/client experience is crucial if you want repeat business and word of mouth referrals. When people buy something from you and it has a positive impact on their life, it follows that they will tell other people about you and/or will be back to buy more from you in the future. If the experience was less than satisfactory, at best they’ll never buy from you again and at worst they’ll share with others their negative experience. 

Now I get it, even though asking for feedback seems straightforward enough – I mean how hard can it be to send out some feedback forms – it’s actually something that a lot of business owners put off. Why? Well my best guess, based on my own experience, is that it feels vulnerable to ask people what they think about what we created for them.

It’s significantly easier to bury our heads and avoid the possibility of hearing from someone that we could do better. Believe me, I know from personal experience just how much it can sting to hear from others that we fell short of their expectations. And….

It’s absolutely crucial to ask for feedback if we are to have any hope of offering the best product or service possible.

Now that I’ve made the case for feedback, allow me to share with you just some of the ways I have created opportunities for feedback in my own business.

My two primary offerings – where I spend most of my time and generate the most income – are my 1:1 coaching subscription and my Conscious Business Mastermind.

With my 1:1 coaching, to overcome the natural resistance to asking for feedback, I’ve created an automated off-boarding system that kicks in when clients finish up with me. What this essentially means is that when someone’s subscription comes to an end, I have a templated email ready to go that shares a few things. A gift coaching session for them to use whenever they feel the need over the next 12 months, a link to a feedback form and an invitation to share a testimonial with me.

In my post-coaching feedback form I ask 9 questions including the following: 

What situation were you in before working with me? What were you struggling with?

What results have you achieved since we started working together? What is different for you now, how would you describe the change that happened?

And 

Is there anything you would have liked to see done differently or any improvements I could make to my coaching service? If so, what?

As you can see, I’m trying to get a solid picture of the impact our coaching together has had, as well, of course, insight into any improvements I could make to my offering. 

When I used to offer a 3-month coaching package, I also sent clients a mid-program review, which contained questions designed to understand if the program was working as the client hoped it would and to offer an opportunity to course correct if it wasn’t. 

Since moving to the subscription model, I don’t do this, as I never know how long a client will stay with me. Based on my experience with subscriptions, it could be anything from 3 months to 2 years plus but as I write this, I’m contemplating ways to incorporate opportunities for feedback within the subscription itself, rather than just waiting until the end to hear how it went, which is too late to course correct if needed. 

In my yearlong Mastermind offering, I also have an end of year feedback form and an automated mid-year form that gets emailed in June. In terms of how I automate this, I use Dubsado (this is an affiliate link which means you’ll get a discount and I’ll get a credit if you use it), using Dubsado allows me to set up users when they become clients or Mastermind participants and then set up automations as needed.

For the Mastermind, this means that an email with the mid-year feedback form will automatically get sent out in June without me having to remember to do it. A cheaper approach than using a software tool is just to create a reminder in your calendar and use gmail templates for the email.

I should probably mention at this point that I use Google Forms for all of my feedback (and application) form needs. 

Now even though I have my end of year feedback form and my mid-year feedback form, a year is a long time to go with only one check-in. So to deal with this, I’ve also created a Suggestions spreadsheet in our shared google folder and regularly remind the women to add to it if they have any suggestions for improvement. I’ll also check-in on a fairly regular basis inside our private Facebook Group, to see what people are wanting and needing support with, which informs which content I create and teach.

I’ll also hop on calls with any of my existing or former clients and mastermind participants to dive deeper into what they think about how I can improve my offerings. Sometimes a form just doesn’t go deep enough, so when I see something worth digging into deeper, I won’t hesitate to set up a time to talk. 

Another area of my business where I feel feedback is a must is when I’m contemplating creating something new, like a workshop for example. If I don’t know what to create then I’ll conduct audience research (different from feedback) but if I already have a good sense of what my audience needs from me, then I’ll present possible options to my people (on social and in my newsletter) and ask for feedback on those options and or names. In terms of live workshops, I will of course ask for feedback after the event to see how it landed and to identify ways to improve. 

Even though I have all of these things in place, I definitely think I could do more when it comes to creating opportunities for feedback. I genuinely don’t think you can ask for feedback enough.

Now having made the case for asking for feedback, it does come with a warning. It’s important to remember that you can’t please everybody. What one person might love and value highly, another might be completely disappointed by. Your job in analysing feedback then becomes to work out who your ideal clients are and what they are saying about your work.

If someone buys something from you but you don’t feel they are a fit for what you do, then you can to some extent disregard their feedback, but there is still gold to be mined here. Why did a less than ideal client or customer buy from you? Are you failing to hit the mark in your marketing or sales copy? Could you make improvements that will help to prevent wrong-fit people coming your way? There’s so much to learn here. 

So there you have it, why I think asking for feedback is so important and some tangible examples of how I do it in my business. If this is an area you know you need to improve on and would love some guidance on how to implement it, let me know in the comments so we can explore how I might support you with that. 

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How To Start Enjoying The Sales Process

How To Start Enjoying The Sales Process

by | Jul 28, 2021 | Client Creation, Ethical Marketing, Selling

“Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.”

~ Siva Devaki

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by authentic business coach, George Kao. Now if you’ve known me for any length of time, you’ll know that I am a huge fan of George’s work and his approach to business.

George initially invited me to share about my most interesting insights and learnings when it comes to business growth and after spending not too long thinking about it, I decided that what I most wanted to talk about was how we sell. After making just a few notes on the topic, 4 distinctions emerged that I felt called to share. Distinctions that I think can help to reframe the sales process for you, the conscious business owner.

I share these 4 distinctions as an alternative to the mainstream marketing advice you might usually find online about how to sell.

Sales and marketing present the biggest struggle for the majority of people I work with. This is I believe, a result of what they think they need to do in order to get more sales. My hope is that the 4 alternatives I present below, help you to see that sales can, in fact, feel good for you, the business owner and for the people you are selling to.

1. Create Vs Attract

I talked about this distinction in some detail in another article. If you didn’t see it then, head here now to get the full low-down. Essentially, what I mean by creating clients versus attracting them is placing a focus on building meaningful relationships with people in your network and audience versus trying to present a polished image to the world so as to attract people to your business. Mainstream advice would have us focus on things like branding, web design, professional photos and persuasive copy as a means to sell but in this alternative approach, none of that is actually essential.

Instead of focusing on how your business “looks”, it’s possible to create clients by showing up for the people you already know and serving them deeply, whether that be through your content, complimentary sessions or any other way of being generous with your expertise. An analogy I share in the video is this:

Imagine you were looking for the love of your life and rather than spend your time going out and having fun meeting people and making meaningful connections, you spent all of your time focused on your appearance, working out in the gym to have the perfect body, spending all your money on the perfect clothes and spending hours each day trying to make your hair and makeup look perfect.

How do you think that would go? Sure you might attract some people but would they be there for the right reasons? Would the connections you make be rooted in what’s important? Most of us know this when it comes to finding a partner but when it comes to our business we fall into the trap of trying to present the perfect image. Today, I’m giving you full permission to let go of that.

2. Demonstrating expertise vs describing it

As part of the mainstream attraction model, we’re often taught that in order to sell our products and services, we must become masters of persuasion. In order to “convert” our audience into buyers, we must becomes experts at describing our services in such a way that the potential client can’t wait to buy. There are many strategies touted online designed to manipulate people into buying from us. Check out the ethical move for a set of tactics we advise you avoid in favour of more ethical alternatives.

In place of trying to convince people to buy your products and services with words, I encourage you to demonstrate your expertise instead. You can do this in a number of ways including, but not limited to, offering complimentary sessions, hosting free workshops, publishing free training videos so people can see your work in action and last but not least, sharing your knowledge in your content. And with this last point, I advise that you don’t hint at what you know to get the sale, instead share generously and in doing so cultivate deeper trust with your audience.

3. Serving vs Selling

This is where our primary objective when connecting with people in our network is to serve rather than to sell. Be that to potential clients, your colleagues and peers as well as mentors and role models. Whenever you find yourself thinking about making an ask of someone, see if you can find a way to serve instead. Here are two examples of what this might look like:

Instead of writing to former clients to ask if they know anyone who might be interested in working with you, write to them to offer a pitch-free, complimentary session to gift to someone in their network. In doing so you give the gift of giving to one of your former clients, the gift of your service to someone new and at the same time, ask for nothing in return. No selling is involved, yet you get an opportunity to demonstrate your experience to someone who may benefit from working with you.

Another place this distinction shows up for me is in your content, how often do we read newsletters and social media posts that go deep into a problem we might have, only to lead us to a solution we then have to buy — which goes something like…do you have this problem? Is it causing you all of these sorts of suffering? Then don’t despair because everything you need is available in my course, e-book, program etc.

When you serve in your content rather than sell, you cultivate trust, demonstrate your expertise and allow people to get value from your work whether they buy or not. Now you might be sat there thinking but I need to sell or I can’t pay my bills. In my experience the less I focus on selling and the more I focus on serving, the more my business grows.

4. Authentic pricing vs Premium pricing

Again this is one I cover in some detail in this article but for the purposes of this post, I’ll share the distinction in a nutshell. Whilst mainstream business advice will nearly always tell you to raise your prices, I’m here to tell you that you can build a profitable business without charging insane amounts of money for your services. In fact, often adopting the premium pricing model for your coaching, mentoring or healing services can have the adverse effect of making less than money than you otherwise might.

Big prices don’t necessarily equate to big income. In fact for many people the opposite happens. The bigger the price, the harder they have to work to get the sale and the less income is being generated overall. I invite you to tune out the noise online about pricing and to tune into what feels right to you as a business owner.

I hope you’ve found those distinctions useful and if you want to hear me and George chat about them, you can watch the video of our conversation here.

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Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

If you want to receive the Soulful Strategies Weekly, simply share with me your name and email address below and you’ll start recieving emails right away.