This was originally a 19 things I learned in 2019 list but as I reflected, I realized that the meta lessons came from a tapestry of experiences from 2009 to 2019 that I felt more valuable to me (and I hope valuable to you) as I wrote in my journal this morning.
I could list every win and loss but I got more out of seeing how much has evolved since then. And holy moly have things really changed in 10 years!
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Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
See, most people who set out to change lives with their businesses, or serve the planet, don’t enjoy the process of selling. It feels gross, pushy, and just not “like us”. At least not at first.
(And frankly, that’s a good sign. It proves you’re in business for reasons beyond cold, hard cash.)
However, no matter how much you hate selling, or how icky it makes you feel… you don’t really have a choice. As business owners, we do the things that we need to do to get our message out there, make it matter, and monetize it — and in the case of every business on earth, that means making sales.
So… how did I get over my distaste for sales? And how can you?
By recognizing where this dislike of sales comes from… and reframing it.
Let me be clear about something: Overall, fear of sales comes from ego. Fear of sales comes from thinking this is all about you. Fear of sales comes from worrying about what others think, or that your stuff is not worth anyone’s time or hard-earned money.
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Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
After almost 20 years in the branding, marketing, and businesses spaces, I’ve learned there’s only one thing that scares most entrepreneurs more than failure.
(Nope, it’s not success. It might even scare them more than that.)
It’s the part of entrepreneurship that brings up allll your hidden stuff and puts it out in the open and into the spotlight.
It’s confronting, it can be scary, just because of how powerful it is.
What’s that one thing?
It’s being seen.
Yep, every single entrepreneur I know — including myself, including the most successful, profitable business owners on the planet — carries a piece of that fear with them at all times.
Real talk: Putting yourself out there, being seen on a global platform, and taking things to the next level in your business in a way that puts you at the front and center of your industry is an intimidating prospect for anyone.
It’s also a risk, because when you falter or fail? The world sees it. And we all know the internet is full of trolls who can’t wait to jump on the slightest misstep.
That’s why I always say success is 99% mindset, and 1% mechanism.
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Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
Today,I want you to do something a little uncomfortable:
I want you to score your business (if you’re brave enough) on a scale from 1-10, 1 being a total newbie business owner, and 10 being a multi-million dollar, totally-killing-it-influencer.
So for example, if you’re a 3, you might have a business going with a few clients, but right now you don’t have funnels or systems in place.
A 5 might be a business with one funnel and one product who’s doing fairly well, but isn’t doing a lot of self promotion.
A 7 might be a business that makes great, consistent money, but has you working way too hard because your systems aren’t quite there.
I encourage you to do this because really? There’s no shame in any game. Every single one of us started at zero, and it’s important to know where you’re at with the basics.
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Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
There are moments that totally shift the way you look at things. All of a sudden, up is down and right is left, and you have to change your course.
These moments, which I call pivots, may make you pause or sit down — sometimes even make you fall down.
But the beauty of this is that what you choose to do next is what makes you great.
So what do you do when face a pivot you weren’t expecting?
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Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
Many entrepreneurs get stuck when it comes to branding, because they get stuck in their story.
And what I mean by that is they feel their story — the deepest and most impactful parts of it that connect with their audience — are “too much” of something.
Too personal.
Too vulnerable.
Too painful.
The idea of sharing your story is terrifying. Talking about it on a livestream feels like such a big task. So you don’t share your story, and your brand suffers because sitting in your story is keeping you stuck.
You have to share your story. You have to feel it, (even the parts that aren’t glamorous), and sit in it…then allow other people to feel it with you.
Now, you can’t just share the hard parts of your story – you also have to bridge it to your customer. You want to say, “Yeah, that sucked, but the story doesn’t end there. Look what I did next. Look at how I changed things.”
Learning how to be a great marketer using storytelling is about breadcrumbs. It’s about dropping the breadcrumbs that allow people to see themselves inside of your story.
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Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
