Kat Millar

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5 Keys To Writing Compelling Content

Writing compelling content is so important for growing your business.

Too many business owners don’t nail their content wording, which ultimately impacts their sales.

Having engaging content that speaks directly to your ideal client is more important than having lavish design.

80% of the time when your content isn’t engaging and attracting new leads, it’s because of the wording.

Content is anywhere you post online – such as blog posts, Facebook live videos, social media posts and articles.

There are 3 things you need to make sure your content is effective.

* The Market

Before you dive into creating content, it’s important that you know your market, that you know exactly who you want to attract and that’s all about nailing your niche, which is a separate topic.

It’s really important to make sure that you know exactly who you’re creating content for.

I always survey people before I offer anything because I want to make sure that what I’m offering is matching and meeting their pain-point.

* The Method

If your method of delivery doesn’t hit the mark – for example if you’re writing a blog and people want to see you on video, or if you have an in-person workshop and people want something online, then you are not providing what your ideal client needs or wants.

Or if you are running a six-month program and people want an intense six-week program, it’s not going to work.

* The Message

If you have the wrong message, meaning you’re the things you’re saying aren’t landing with people, or you’re saying the right things to the wrong people, your message is not going to match the market.

Imagine these 3 things like the legs on a stool – you need all 3 for it to stand up and be solid.

Writing compelling content is so important, especially because we’ve got such low attention spans these days.

If we don’t grab people fast, people will scroll past. We need to be able to not only capture attention but engage, connect with and help inspire people to want to take action.

Here are 5 keys to writing compelling content…

1 – Be Emotive

Being emotive means that we evoke emotion in the person who’s reading our writing. And so that means we need to be evoking curiosity. We need our readers to be thinking they want more.

Another thing to do is to open loops inside your readers’ minds. You know when you’re watching a program and there are ads that come on and they announce what’s coming up next? These are teasers and we’ve got to be doing this with our writing.

Next time you write a piece of content whether it’s a blog post, social media posts or an article think about if you’re opening up curiosity and bringing sizzle. We want to make sure people feel moved. And the way that we move someone is enabling them to imagine something.

Making people use big picture descriptions and these are abstract and hard for people to grasp. Asking people if they want to reach their potential or have success in their lives can be hard for people to visualise.

We need to use what I call visual verbs. Visual verbs help you actually picture something in your mind. An example is, if you’re a coach who helps people to find their purpose, get on track and change their career, don’t say, ‘Do you want to fulfil your purpose?’ or ‘Do you want to find your passion?’

A visual way of wording this, is to say, ‘Do you want to wake up in the morning eager to set your feet on the floor, because you know there are people waiting for you to make a significant difference to their family and community?’

People want things to be simple. They want things to be fun and don’t always want things to be formal. Make sure the words you use are emotional and are also everyday language. Formality is not always helpful.

2 – Speak Your Ideal Client’s Language

Speaking your ideal client’s language means using their key words when you describe their problems. How do they describe their problem? How do they describe the result and benefit that they want?

Your ideal client may word things differently to you. What is their industry language? Learn your ideal client’s language. How do they describe their problems? Speak to them how they will hear and connect with it.

If you’re getting stuck for content ideas, something that can be really helpful is to write down five of the most common questions you get asked about your topic.

I always get asked how I run a webinar, how to set up Facebook ads, how to get more engagement on my social media.  I write the questions down and then start creating resources for them.

I’ve got hundreds of resources now, but they’re all based on having real-life conversations with my clients, and with potential clients. These conversations form my content.

I remember a client years ago saying to me they wanted a resource that was like a social media plan and map so they could see the types of posts they should be doing. I created one for them that I now use with other clients.

Think about the questions people ask you socially about what you do. Create a resource out of the answers to the questions. Then put that on your social media and blog and link to the resource on your website. This way you are also building your email list.

3 – Use the word ‘You’ 

This one is simple, but I look back on my early blogs from 2007 when I was a personal trainer and my content was terrible.  I didn’t know what I was doing. It’s taken me years to hone the skill of copywriting.

Copywriting is basically writing to influence in any kind of sales or marketing content. You don’t want to write content for content sake. You want your content to influence people to take action.

Make sure that in your content, you use the word ‘you’ as much as possible especially at the start. Write ‘Do you feel like this?’ Would you like this?’ ‘Would you like to feel…?’ Use ‘you’ instead of saying, ‘I’ve created this freebie’, or ‘I’ve discovered…’

A good thing to do is to go through all of your content with a fine-tooth comb before you post. It does not have to be perfect, but take out the word ‘I’ and flip it to ‘you’. Insert the word ‘you’ as much as you can. People will never get sick of hearing the word of you, I promise you!

4 – Use Benefit-Rich Language

Benefit-rich language is always talking about the outcome and not the features of your program. Far too many people talk about their coaching program, their method, their modality or intervention methods.

What’s most important to the person reading is what’s in it for them.

It’s good to start with some credibility initially.

You could say something like…

“Over the last six years over working as an NLP practitioner, I’ve discovered that the patterns formed in your brain in childhood can still affect you as an adult. I help people uncover these patterns, and clean them up so they can move forward. What this means for you is you’re not only improving your relationships, but you can become a master communicator.”

There’s three little one-syllable words that I use all the time in my content. And they are three words that work! Want to know what they are? ‘So you can’.

You want to use the words ‘so you can’ a lot in your copywriting.

An example is,

‘Are you ready to learn the best content creation strategies, so you can attract your ideal clients and get fully booked up as a coach?’

‘So you can’ is like a bridge where you talk about your method, your offer or your topic and you bridge it ‘so you can’ to show what it means for them.

5 –  Focus On One Outcome

You always have to have in the back of your mind the purpose, before you create any piece of content.

I see people get muddled in their posts. They’re giving lots of value, great tips and advice, but they’re talking about too many things.

We want to have one main idea per piece of content.

You might give 3 tips or 5 tips, but it’s all around ONE compelling outcome.

Don’t underestimate the importance of this.

Keep it simple and organised.

My one outcome for you reading this is for you to be able to write more compelling content. I give 5 keys, but there’s one outcome.

The purpose of your content is to get someone to take action, not to just give them more information or to inspire people.

Whenever you write a piece of content, you always want to be thinking about the action that you want someone to take at the end of reading it.

Some people wonder whether they should include more than one call to action in a piece of content.

My recommendation is to focus on one clear call to action per piece of content.

When you have too many outcomes people get confused, so keep your focus on one outcome per piece of content.

Again, keep it simple.

Now you may be wondering, surely it can’t be that simple?

With the amount of information coming at us on a daily basis, keeping it simple is actually one of the most important things to remember in your content.

No one likes feeling overwhelmed when they consume content. They want to be educated, informed and inspired.

If you’re wondering whether you will ever have what it takes to write compelling content, let me encourage you.

No one is born with this skill. It’s developed through consistent practice.

With the use of technology like grammarly and spell check, you can create super compelling and engaging content, no matter how inexperienced a write you feel you are.

So to recap these 5 keys to writing compelling content…

1 – Be Emotive

2 – Speak Your Ideal Client’s Language

3 – Use the word ‘You’

4 – Use Benefit-Rich Language

5 –  Focus On One Outcome

 

Want some help writing compelling content?

Click here to book a 15-minute call to help you make your content pop!

Kat

 

 

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Checklist of Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly Actions to Grow Your Business

Do you ever find that you can wake up in the morning, open your laptop, and not know where to start?

Do you get caught up in consuming things like emails and Facebook, rather than creating and taking more planned, productive actions?

If we don’t have a plan for taking intentional, purposeful action, then we can do a bunch of things and not achieve a lot!

I’m so excited to share with you some really handy action steps that you can take to grow your business.

This is a step-by-step guide of exactly what you need to do to get more clients if you’re a service-based business owner, a coach consultant, a practitioner or any kind of service professional.

I’m going to give you some suggestions of things that you can do daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly, no matter where you’re at in your business.

You can download the checklist with all the actions here

Daily Actions

These are important daily actions that I recommend you do every single day before you do anything else, including emails.

I recommend that you set your intention for the day and then plan your day.

Your intention might be to stay focused. Be proactive and clear about this intention and write it down on a card and stick it to your laptop or on your desk so you can see it!

1. Plan Your Day

I usually take about 10 minutes to plan my day because I do a weekly review and a plan on a Sunday or Monday. I grab my old-school exercise book, then I go to my master To-Do list on my spreadsheet, and choose the most crucial action points for that day.

Always start with being intentional and that way you are not reacting to life. You are in control of your business, your life and you are the one that’s driving your business.

There’s no excuses,  no blame,  just you in control, taking the lead and setting the tone for your day to be really productive. Being intentional helps prevent you from getting caught chasing rabbits down holes!

2. Respond to Social Media Comments, Messages and Analyse Advert Data

The next thing I do is respond to any comments or messages on social media so I’m not getting caught up on social media throughout the day. I set a timer so I don’t get stuck on my socials.

In this time you can check your Facebook ads and analyse the data.  If you are running Facebook ads, you want to be in there analysing the data. You don’t want to be just leaking out money on Facebook or on your other social adverts.

If you’re doing some split testing of ads A and B, you want to be on top of that daily, especially if you’ve got an event coming up.

3. Post on Your Socials Daily

Try to post on your social media business page daily if you have time. You can use the same exact post, image and content because you’re directing it to your social media plan.

I use Buffer for this, which is scheduling software.  Buffer helps you push your posts out looking cleaner.  It’s a lot more time-efficient and you can go in later and add hashtags.

You don’t want to change your posts for every single platform unless you’ve got all the time in the world.

Weekly Actions

Set your intentions for the week and plan your week. Some people do this on a Friday so that they can go into Monday knowing exactly what they’re doing. Some of you might want to do it on a Sunday night or Monday morning.

1. Update Your Online Calendar

Make sure that you have all of your priorities listed out however you’d like to do it. Then, what I recommend is you have an online calendar like Calendly and block out your dates and times for the week.

I do this at the beginning and end of the week to ensure it’s up to date and refreshed.

Every week you want to ensure you are inviting people to like your business page, so if you’re adding new friends, make sure you have a system for inviting them to like your page.

You also want to quickly invite people to like your business page and if you have a Facebook group, every week make sure you’re inviting new people to that weekly.

If you don’t schedule it and its not part of your system then it can get left behind.

2. Write a Blog Post 

I recommend that you write a blog post every week.  I do this by getting my assistant to transcribe my video into the blog you see on my website. She downloads the video from Facebook, transcribes it and uploads it to YouTube. She takes care of my waffle!

You might want to do that as a system: Do your FB live, write your blog, then send it out in an email to your community. Your people deserve to hear from you, every single week you’ve got so much knowledge.

Make sure that you’re showing up and serving them.  Send an email at least once a week.  Making a system helps you connect with new and potential clients.

3. Reconcile Your Accounts and Do a Weekly Review

I do this every Friday. I’ll go through and reconcile my accounts and look at my income and expenses, every single week.

The other thing I do every Friday is a weekly review. I’ll sit down and I’ll write out my wins and my learnings in my reflections.

If you don’t track information and mark your progress, you won’t feel that feeling of satisfaction when you achieve your goals, which is incredible. And you won’t really analyse and reflect on what you could have done better.

So I literally just do a massive brain dump on a Word document every Friday and it just keeps me on track. If you have a community, you can ask them to do it with you as well.

In my private Inner Circle Facebook Group community, I always get them to post their actions on a Monday, and then on a Friday I get them to post their wins, their reflections their learnings and we all celebrate.

We need to celebrate our successes and it’s really nice to do it together as businesses.

Monthly Actions

I recommend that you have a system that you revisit your website and refresh it monthly, updating any wording or images to keep it fresh.

You might need to update events that you’ve got coming up, depending on how many you do. I tend to do a meet-up every month when we’re not in isolation.

I do a webinar about once a month. If you do 12 webinars a year then you are consistently bringing in new leads to your business. All the people that register and don’t go end up on your email list.

Webinars are an amazing asset to have in your business, and they’re working so well at the moment. Once we get back out there into the marketplace and actually seeing each other in person, then I recommend a meetup event where you are showing up as the expert, the educator and the authority.

Quarterly Actions

If you don’t have quarterly goals, I recommend that you consider creating and aiming to hit quarterly goals so you know exactly what you’re working on for the following three months.

if you block out your year into the three-month blocks you can work out how many quotes you need, how many webinars, conversations and discovery session to fill your quota.

Each quarter I go away and do my quarterly review. I actually book a place at the end of March, June, September and then have the big one at the end of the year.

I do all my planning in this time for the following quarter. I set my goals and I’ve got my vision board. I set my habits, targets and reflect on the past quarter.

You might want to revisit your business vision and mission and values during this time.  It’s always good to sit back and work on your business, rather than in your business. This helps you to take a step back and take a strategic look at your business.

You also want to plan some events, launches and workshop days for the following quarter. Every quarter I do a free workshop. Free workshops are a lead magnet that I get to meet new people and bring them into my business.

I also recommend that you create a new freebie as a new lead magnet every quarter.

Want to know exactly HOW to do these actions, so you can get new paying clients fast?

I’m running a FREE workshop THIS Saturday, 23rd of May ‘Attract New Clients With Ease’.

This workshop is exclusively for service-based entrepreneurs, running their own small business.

During this workshop we’re going to cover step by step, exactly how to attract new paying clients who are willing to pay you what you’re worth.

You’ll learn how to create an effective online strategy, great content that connects with your ideal client and a streamlined automation system.

You will discover my proven 5-Step Client Attraction Formula – it’s a step-by-step process of everything you need to attract new clients. It’s been tried and tested and it works.

You’ll walk away with a clear, step-by-step marketing roadmap that takes away all the guesswork.

There’s no catch, no hype, just valuable content and action-taking. These online workshops are quite small, because I do limit the amount of people that I allow to register.

So, are you ready to start attracting your ideal paying clients?

Click here to learn more

I can’t wait to see you soon!

Kat

 

P.S You can download the checklist with all the actions here

 

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5 Of The Best Ways To Market Your Services At The Moment

I think you would agree that the way we do business has changed dramatically for many of us recently!

Things are shifting and changing in the online world and the way we do our marketing.

When it comes to business, we need to be able to roll with change, be flexible and be adaptable in order to keep growing and succeeding in our goals.

It’s important to make sure that we keep up-to-date with what’s happening in business and in own individual industries so we don’t get left behind.

Here are 5 of the best ways to market your services online during these changing times:

Number 1 – Consistent Content

 

The first way that I recommend that you market your services at the moment is by doing consistent content. There are three main things that you’ve got to make sure with your content.

The first one, you’ve got to make sure that it’s original. So you don’t want to just be reposting other people’s posts you don’t want to just be putting up quotes.

You need to be making unique content that is in your unique voice, using your tonality  and stories of your experiences.

That’s why people will follow you as opposed to just downloading information from the internet, they want to get to know you, they want to know your skills, your experience, your knowledge, your unique combination of personality and style.

Make sure that your content is original, relevant and targeted to your ideal client and niche.

This is always one of the first steps that I take with all of my clients, to help them to make sure that they have nailed their niche – that their niche is really tight, because if you don’t have a tight niche, you’ll be competing with everyone.

If you’re a coach for example and you just call yourself a life coach, it is way too broad in general and it will be very hard for you to be a master, being an expert in one thing.

You also want to make sure that your content is consistent, regular and targeted to your ideal client.

If you stick to your ideal client, to your brilliance and genius zone, you’ll be able to post so much content because you know it and don’t have to research it.

Ideally you need to be getting on a camera. I know it can be scary but it’s a must in your business, especially in the age that we’re in, we cannot afford to hide anymore.

If you want your business to grow, if you want to get more pay clients, you need to be able to present yourself on video.

Number 2 – Client Attraction Funnels

 

A funnel is a process that leads someone from not knowing you at all, to nurturing them and them getting to know, like, and trust you, and for some people, eventually becoming a paid client.

If you want to automate your marketing and have a consistent stream of leads coming in, you need to make sure you’ve got a funnel that leads them through the process and we can do this in an automated way, while also providing an exceptional client experience.

Even though a lot of the steps are automated, you’ve got to make sure your client has an excellent experience.

I teach how to automate all of these steps in my accelerator program, so that you can start to remove yourself a bit from all the manual tasks and have more freedom.

Initially, it takes work to set up funnels where for example, you might set up a landing page and you offer people a great downloadable free guide, cheatsheet or checklist.

It’s something of value that takes your client from A to B. Your paid program is taking them from A to Z, but your free offer that goes into your funnel might take them from A to B.

Your ideal client opts in, they put their name and email in, and then you continue to nurture them and provide value.

This nurture process builds trust and establishes connection with your ideal client and as they move through the funnel, they become a paid client.

You give value to them through the process, through your emails, Facebook lives and other educational content that you create.

Social media activity has increased by 70%, according to one statistic that I read. There are SO many eyeballs that have migrated online.

And if you don’t have a funnel to capture people, you’re getting left behind. You’re literally leaving money on the table, and people that you can help have been left behind as well.

So that’s the client attraction funnel.

Number 3 – Crafted Webinars

 

With crafted webinars, there’s a whole specific way of doing it to get paid clients.

You need to create really valuable content and present it for free, but also it’s important that that you’re not over-teaching.  You show people a section of what you can help them with, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle.

In the webinars you show people how to get from A – B,  but you lead people from your webinar into making them an offer of your signature system or program which takes them from A – Z.

Make  sure that you’re really clear that if they want the support and accountability and if they want the online community,  it’s your signature program that they will get that in.

Webinars are so popular at the moment, and the people doing them are absolutely smashing it.

I did my first webinar in 2016 and it was one of the most scary things I’ve ever done. I actually found it harder than running live events because of my fear of technology.

But I pushed through and now I’ve done hundreds of them. I really love them and they are super effective.

If you’re willing to step up and learn you will be ahead of your competitors, because it requires you to face rejection, fear and self-doubt.

It’s not an easy path, but most of your competitors are taking the easy path, because it’s the path of least resistance..

Doing crafted webinars well can separate you from your competition and is a fast way to attract new clients.

Number 4 –  Create Community Online

 

If you’re a leader or a business owner don’t just hang around in other people’s Facebook groups. Have your own Facebook or LinkedIn group and build your own community.

Having your own group means you are building your authority and expertise. You’re positioning yourself as a thought leader and as a subject matter expert. And it’s also a way for you to find out what people are struggling with, what problems people have and what common goals and visions  people have.

These communities  become a really supportive, beautiful space. It’s not the easy road and you have to be consistent with your content and that means you have to show up, whether you feel like it or not.

It’s about making a commitment. When you do that, everything changes in your business. That’s when things started to change for me, when I got committed to showing up consistently.

Most of my clients now didn’t sign up straight away. (I’ve got 29 clients at the moment). Most of those clients consumed my content they watched me over time.

Only 3% of people are active buyers at any one time. 7% are interested and know that they need to solve a problem.

Which means that around 90% of people that see your online posts are not ready to buy. So having an online community allows you to provide value, nurture people and build trust and rapport over time for when people are ready to buy.

Number 5 – Create Facebook Ads

 

The price of Facebook ads is declining. According to the new New York Times,  Facebook ad prices have declined by about 50%.

According to some other studies I’ve read recently, Facebook ads are the cheapest they’ve been in six years.

Predominately because so many industries have removed themselves from Facebook advertising, like travel, entertainment, hospitality etc.

I also heard recently of a guy who used to invest $1,000 and would get about 40,000 views on a video.

Now he’ll invest half of that, about $500 in Facebook ads and get about 80,000 video views.

So that’s about four times bigger.

You have a unique opportunity right now to maximise this at the moment.

You can build your email list, capture a whole lot of leads for a lot cheaper.

But soon the restrictions are going to be lifted and things are going to change, so there is quite a unique small window that we have right now, before prices start going back up.

The important thing is to make sure that you get your message clear, influential and that it lands to the right people.

So if you want to get more clients, I highly recommend that you pick at least one of these strategies and get going on it straight away.

Do you want to learn the best way to apply these strategies and attract new paying clients?

I’m running a FREE ½ day online workshop on Saturday 23rd May, ‘Attract New Clients With Ease’.

For more info about the workshop, go here

Stay safe and well,

Kat

 

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How To Overcome Your Own Objections To Selling

This week I’ve been having lots of conversations with people about sales and the beliefs people have about selling.

With the current economic climate, the topic of whether people should be selling, discounting or holding back and retreating is in a lot of people’s minds.

People are wondering “Is it appropriate to sell during these times?”

There are a host of limiting beliefs coming to the surface during this coronavirus season.

This is highlighting the difference between people who truly believe they have something valuable to offer

I don’t know your unique business situation, but I wanted to offer some ways of thinking about it to help you out.

If you’re a business owner and your service genuinely helps and serves people and improves their life, sales is key.

Sales is the ONE THING that will improve your financial position and give you more of what you love.

Sales are the key to bringing you freedom in your business and in your life.

Marketing, copywriting and presenting are all things we need to do well, but ultimately if we can’t get people to put money into our bank accounts, we will never be truly free. We will always be working for someone else.

I’m talking to all leaders, coaches, consultants, educators, thought leaders and subject matter experts. If you are a heart-based business owner, this is for you.

I want to ask you a question: what comes to your mind when I say the words ‘selling is…’? What’s literally the first things that come to mind?

If you hold the belief that selling is in any way negative, such as scary of difficult, that’s going to affect your ability to sell. If you feel like sales is hard, why would you do it?  You’ll avoid it at all costs. And then your business will suffer.

Your very first reaction to the words ‘selling is’ and the definition you give the word ‘sales’ is going to determine your success in business.

The number one asset that you have when you’re selling is confidence. If you’re not confident in how your product or service will help someone, no one will buy from you.

There IS a way of selling, that is enjoyable for BOTH parties; it’s authentic and exciting. It gives both parties more of what they want. But first, you need to sell YOURSELF on selling.

Here are 5 ways to overcome your own objections to selling:

1 – Write Down all the Beliefs you Have About Selling

Be honest about your current beliefs around sales and write them down. Do you hold beliefs that sales are difficult? Do sales equate to fear of rejection for you?

Two of the most important needs that we have as human beings is to belong and the other need is to be accepted and not rejected. The truth is that in doing business, you will meet people who don’t like you or what your business stands for.

If you’re not willing to be hated by at least one person, then you’re not cut-out for business.

If you are trying to be all things to all people and avoid rejection, you won’t take risks and being in business takes being willing to take risks. I challenge you, be honest with yourself about your core beliefs around sales. The first step to change is being honest about where you are truly at.

2 – Identify Limiting Beliefs and Objections to Sales

Number 2 is to write down any limiting beliefs or objections you have about sales. Some of these would have come into your list in Number 1.

Do you believe selling is hard or awkward? Or do you have definitions of sales that are positive and empowering? What objections to selling and limiting beliefs around sales do you have?

Now circle all the beliefs that are empowering and cross out any beliefs that disempower and limit you.

Consider reframing these beliefs. Where you feel selling is scary, write down what you want to believe that is empowering, like selling is exciting. Write down what the opposite is of the negative and limiting belief.

If you want to start seeing sales as enjoyable, write down all the reasons why selling is fun and exciting. It means you are helping people and you are also making money from helping people.

3 – Sell Yourself on Selling

Sell yourself on all the reasons that selling is a positive and not a negative. Selling is caring for others and helping people which brings meaning to sales.

The number one thing that you can do to increase your financial position is to get brilliant at sales. Where you’re at right now is directly in proportion to your ability to sell.

There’s many other skills we need in business such as copywriting, marketing and presenting skills, but selling is the one thing that directly brings money into your bank account.

If you don’t have money in your bank account it’s because of your mindset around selling and it’s because of your mindset around your worth and your value. If you truly value yourself and what you do then why wouldn’t you sell it?

This is why I love selling because I genuinely help people improve their lives every single day. I coach and encourage people and they improve their lives. This is the power of what I offer, so I will never stop selling because it helps people change their lives completely. It’s a win-win.

We’ve been programmed to believe that selling is a bad thing and we need to break that conditioning, People assume selling is about greed and money-grabbing.  If you’re offering something to someone who doesn’t need it, then you’re not really selling, you’re manipulating.

When you overcome your fear of rejection in sales, it can become fun. Reframe your beliefs around selling to understand that you are enhancing people’s lives. The money follows when you really want to help people.

4 – Write Down Why Selling Will Give You More of What You Want

You’re improving someone’s life by selling them your product or service. You’re helping others and in return, you are also helped. You are going to get so much satisfaction and joy if you can sell during a difficult period.

The financial crisis has not peaked yet. In fact, maybe in five or six months time, the government will take away its help and banks will stop putting pauses on loans. This is the time when there is government and bank assistance so it’s a great time to sell.

Think of all the people that you can help through the lows. There is so much opportunity for freedom at this time. And sales gives you the freedom to enjoy in life what you want to enjoy.

If I didn’t know how to sell I wouldn’t have freedom.  I wouldn’t be able to work full time in my business and be an entrepreneur.

Without sales, I’d be stuck in a job that I didn’t enjoy. I’ve been there and I hated life. I was miserable, depressed, moody and tired all the time. I don’t want to go back there.

I made friends with sales and I’m so glad I did as it keeps me living my purpose.

One of the best things you can do for yourself and for your business is to make selling your friend.

 5 – Give Your Brain Evidence That Sales is Enjoyable

Prove to your brain that selling is enjoyable. Rather than just saying affirmations and trying to believe them, prove it by taking action.

People are always asking me how to find clients. I tell them that their clients are already out there, on their  laptop or on the phone. You need to reach out and tell them that you can help them. You need to risk rejection and risk someone saying no.

Just ask questions.

For example “Are you still looking for help with growing your business or with improving your home or losing weight?”

Ask people how they are going during this time and if they need help with whatever it is you do.

You can offer a free session, and just use it to give back to people.  About 90% of the sales conversations I have with people is them talking to me and me listening, coaching and helping them.

I don’t even think of these conversations as sales conversations, as I genuinely know I can help people.

It’s amazing the number of business owners that I talked to who are struggling to make money and they can’t afford to pay for Facebook ads. This is most likely because they are not having enough sales conversations.

 

If you want to know the best way to sell during these current times, I recently ran a FREE 90-minute masterclass called ‘Selling Equals Service’

It was a powerful session and I received lots of great feedback afterwards.

I talked through 5 keys to effective selling and shared a 6-step VALUES based selling framework that I personally use and share with my clients.

In case you missed it, I’ve created a replay which is now available for the next 48 hours. ?

? Grab Your Free Access Here

P.S. The content is a game-changer if you want to sign up your ideal paying clients, so don’t procrastinate – take action and watch it today before it comes down!

Enjoy!

Kat

 

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5 Stages of Mindset Change

 

We are collectively walking together through a crisis period, one that is filled with great uncertainty for many of us.

We are in a time of loss. We still have so much to be grateful for, yet we have also lost a lot.

And I believe important to acknowledge that and grieve the loss in a healthy way.

I think it’s wise to acknowledge and feel our feelings, whatever they are.

None of us have ever been through this. And many of us are struggling to adapt to the changes that have happened so fast.

Stress happens when our bodies feel fear and we don’t process our thoughts and feelings in a healthy way.

We can’t function and perform well for ourselves, our clients, our communities or our businesses if we live in a constant state of stress.

We can’t pour from an empty cup.

So the first step is becoming aware of what’s happening internally.

How we walk out this crisis is determined by the mindset we choose as we navigate through it.

I’ve recently noticed a cycle in my own thinking through this time, and also in the thinking of some of my clients and friends.

I have named this cycle the 5 stages of mindset change.

In this video and article I share the 5 stages in the cycle and how they manifest in your life, so you can determine how to move to the next stage and use this time to become more resilient.

Stage 1 – React

The first mindset change is to react. We are all reacting very differently to the circumstances around us.

There’s one thing we can’t control and that’s the circumstances around us.

The circumstance is neutral until we put thought and meaning to it. A circumstance cannot make us feel anything.

There are plenty of things we can control, like our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, and our results.

This isn’t anything new, this is well-known in the world of psychology.

This is the way our brain works and what happens when we realise that our reaction to a circumstance is within our control.

We might not control our initial impulse to react, but we can control the meaning we give to the circumstance.

We can control our thoughts about the circumstance, which then controls our feelings about it. Our actions and behaviours follow on from there.

Realising there is so much we can control is very helpful when we feel out of control with a lot of uncertainty in our lives.

We all react differently. Some people are in different stages.  If you think about the stages of grief, there is shock, then there’s numbness. I’ve definitely had some numbness where I’ve found I’m not remembering things and my brain is foggy.

Some of us do what I call going to ‘BED’.

B is for blame

E is for excuses

D is for denial.

We might rotate between blaming other people and blaming ourselves for how we feel. We make excuses. We can start saying that we are not going to achieve our goals or we are not going to move forward.

We can deny our feelings and the changes and almost ‘pretend it’s not happening. In this stage we are reacting to what’s happening rather than taking control of our responses. It’s like we want to just hang out until it’s all over.

Stress occurs in a number of ways and can show up in physical, mental, emotional and behavioural red flags.  We might feel irritable, moody and unmotivated. We might find ourselves over-consuming and indulging in bad habits. These are all symptoms of stress and occur in the ‘react’ stage.

Stage 2 – Reflect

In this stage, we start to reflect on how we’ve chosen to react. Some people never make it to the reflecting stage.

Have we chosen to retreat or advance, to become stronger and grow, or have we hidden from facing the reality of the crisis?

To reflect is healthy. Be open with yourself about how you are feeling and how you have been handling the situation.

Reflection allows us to GROW from this situation.

We can choose a growth mindset that takes what’s thrown at us and we can use it to become stronger, more powerful and more evolved.

We can live at the ’cause’ side of the equation.

Or we can live at the ‘effect’ side.

We all have a choice. We can choose to retreat or advance, choose to become stronger or diminish during this time. This all starts with reflection. 

Stage 3 – Recover

The next stage that a lot of people move to, is what I call recover.

In the recovery stage, we’ve reflected on how we’ve reacted, and then we start to recover.

We start to become more self-aware, self-accepting and accepting of the situation.

We may have been frustrated or angry at having things taken from us.

For example for me, I was so frustrated that I couldn’t use the gym! Going to the gym has been part of my life for 25 years and it was wired into my habits and lifestyle and even identity. It was a coping mechanism.

I would go from feeling frustration at not being able to go to the gym, to feeling guilt and beat myself up for being silly that it’s such a ‘first world problem’. Then I went to feeling compassion for myself for the loss. Even if it seems small and insignificant to someone else.

I’ve realised that I had to grieve the loss of that part of my life. That it’s ok.

Have you lost things that form part of your identity and are also a coping mechanism? If that’s you, I understand.

There is a sense of loss and grieving that comes with any type of loss of something or someone we’re used to.

When you start to recover, you look at the possibilities.

You ask yourself things like “How do I want to be in this season? What can I do differently? How can I meet my needs in a different way, now that restrictions are in place?”

Stage 4 – Reset

The reset stage is a stage where you need to have empathy for yourself and for others.

This is the stage to show yourself kindness, grace and compassion for what you’ve been going through.

This is where the rebooting and recharging kicks in and your creativity gets turned back on.

Recently, I’ve been wanting to plant some things on my balcony. I want to do some painting and I want to write more poetry.

I want to sort out my online systems and I feel more motivated to make changes, whereas in the first few weeks of this, I was feeling numb, confused, lost and a bit all over the place.

In the reset phase, we make empowering changes.

For example I’ve committed to a friend to meet in the park and motivate each other, go for bike rides and take the weights out.

I’ve committed to some non-negotiables of daily sunshine, nature and movement.

I’ve committed to showing up online, regardless of how I feel. I’ve committed to being productive.

The reset stage is putting in some routines, making sure that you have a schedule and keeping some sense of certainty.

Your brain is freaking out right now because there are so many unanswered questions. We don’t know how long this is going to last. There is so much uncertainty.

Having routine brings certainty to your brain. I need a sense of routine every day. I need to stop staying up late. I need to go to bed earlier and get up with a plan every day. I need to stick to my daily plan and weekly goals.

If you’ve fallen down and gotten off of the track, forgive yourself, pick yourself back up again and start showing up in a way that inspires you.

Stage 5 – Resilience


Resilience is your ability to bounce back from stress.

This is where we shift from the stress response to being strong.

Resilience is about acknowledging your feelings of stress and being kin

d to yourself and deciding to use them to grow.

When we are in the resilient stage, we feel strong, resourceful, creative and powerful.

But then something might happen and we find ourselves back in stage 1 as we react again and go back around the cycle again.

We’ve all been feeling certain levels of stress. It’s important to acknowledge that it is stress and that your brain doesn’t feel safe due to the upheaval we have all been experiencing.

When you feel stress rising up in your body, take a moment to do some stress relief actions:

* Deep breathing or meditation.

* Increase your movement and intake of healthy food.

* Externalising your thoughts – journaling, or processing with a coach or friend.

* If you have nervous energy and find yourself scrolling, find something to create something and do things with your hands.

Remember that comforting yourself is different to caring for yourself.

Most of all – be kind to you. You’re doing great, my friend. Even if you don’t think you are.

I know we all try to be strong and independent, powerful leaders, but we’re all going through this together. It helps us if we are open, honest and vulnerable.

When we face these feelings, it allows us to move on to the resilience stage more quickly.

You don’t need to rush to resilience. The by-product of reflecting, recovering and resetting will be resilience.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Are you a service-based business owner?

Do you need help setting up an online funnel, so you can attract new clients?

I’m offer a free 30-minute strategy session here

*First-time sessions

I’ll help you clarity your next steps to building your own, profit-producing marketing funnel, fast.

Looking forward to helping you get more clients online!

Take care and stay strong,

Kat

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