“When you are a healer sometimes it may feel because you love what you do that perhaps you can’t bring yourself to think of what you love as a business. However, you know what? That is a wonderful bonus…being in love with what you do because you are passionate enough about others and then wish to share it with others.” — Teresa Morrow

Whoa. How profound are those words. Teresa said that when we were having a conversation yesterday about me having writers block for an article I’m writing for The Saponifier magazine.

Do you ever find yourself struggling to think of yourself as a “Business Owner?”

I know that when I started my first business, I REFUSED to call myself a business owner. I wasn’t a business owner. I was a healer, a creator, a handmade toiletries manufacturer… but good grief NOT a business owner!

Unfortunately, that was the problem with my first “business.” Because I was ignoring the business stuff and resisting it, my business wasn’t growing and it wasn’t supporting me. I was running like mad trying to get it to be successful… but without those really foundational business pieces in place - it was going nowhere fast - and I was getting exhausted, frustrated and stressed.

It’s amazing when you find what you’re passionate about and when you decide that this is what you want to do in the world. But you also should realize that your passion needs some sort of support so that it can support you back. And it’s perfectly reasonable to want support… without support, you can’t continue your work - and Heaven knows, we need you.

Yes - Me - I feel stuck and unispired. UGH. I hate that feeling - and worse - I hate pressuring myself to NOT feel that way. You know what they say, what we resist persists…

This week, in my e-zine, I wrote about needing help and being vulnerable.  I talked about how we all need help sometimes, and that as healers and business owners, it’s ok to need that help, it’s ok to be vulnerable, and it’s ok to reach out for support. So in the interest of being vulnerable and authentic, here I am - being authentic and telling you that I just feel stuck this week.

I was sitting at my desk yesterday wondering what I was going to blog about. And I kept thinking, and thinking, and I looked at my inspiration file, and I visited some networking groups to see what others were talking about… I thought about my Effective Newsletter class… but inspiration continued to elude me. So I shelved the project for a little while, thinking that stepping away from it might help.

Well now, here we are today, and I’m banging my head against the desk wondering what the heck to write about. And then - as if ironically - inspiration struck!

My friend (and coach) Mark Silver wrote a great e-zine article this week about trying to accomplish marketing tasks while in a bad mood. In that article, Mark offers a simple Sufi teaching: Always be in authentic service. Always.

Today, my translation of that teaching is - talk to everyone about the fact that you feel stuck and uninspired!

The truth is, I love to write. I love to talk, I love to help people, and network, and share. But there are times - like this week - where no matter how good things are going, I just feel stuck when it comes to writing or sharing or speaking.

When feelings like this crop up - and I have the sense to slow down and listen to them instead of rebelling against them - I notice that there is a message for me here.

Instead of continuing to resist this feeling, I sank into it and asked what my heart is really needing.

Ya know what I need? A break!! I haven’t had a true, honest to goodness day completely off of work (aside from weekends  that have been UBER busy) yet this summer. Wow.

So guess what?? My daughter doesn’t have summer camp tomorrow, I’m getting a brand new bike (yay!) so I think I’m going to take the day - no - the weekend OFF.

If you find yourself coming up against a rocky emotion, take some time to sink into it and ask what it’s trying to teach you. Our emotions are always great pointers to tell us if we’re moving toward or away from what we really want. So if you’ve got a strong one, listen.

I was teaching my live Effective Newsletter workshop yesterday, and a participant brought up a really interesting point. We were talking about how she is publishing a set of CD’s and she said that she found a wonderful publishing company to work with. She was grateful for their help because she wouldn’t have known even where to begin with a project like that.

Her expertise was in creative piece - recording the CD’s. She had no idea how to get them published or on Amazon.com. She said “I’m a master at what I do, I don’t need to be an expert at publishing - I let someone else be the expert in that, and I gratefully pay them for their service.”

How many times in your business do you try to master something that you’re really not an expert in? I know so many practitioners who dive into things that are outside of their area of expertise.

What ends up happening is a lot of frustration. It’s not easy to learn the ins and outs of something and try to expertly apply it to your business. Like web design. I know so many people who try to tackle web design. They end up mad, frustrated, and worst of all - with a web site they aren’t even close to being happy with.

The biggest reason we try to tackle these things is money. We plead that we don’t have the money to hire someone to do these things for us.

If you explore your options, you can find ways to outsource tasks that aren’t going to be expensive. And, if you really look at your budget, where is your money going?

It’s worth it to get the help you need. It saves you time, it gives your business an edge, and it allows someone else to be the expert, and allows you to do the work you were really meant to do.

I was recently at a networking event. It was awesome – lots of healers and alternative therapists all gathered together, making connections, sharing, relating… There was good food, refreshments, and wonderful music. It felt good to be in the midst of all those like-minds. 

I got into a conversation with a really great massage therapist. And she asked me a really interesting question: “so, how do you teach this marketing stuff? I mean, I’m a healer – I’m not a business owner and I certainly don’t want any parts of all that business-related stuff!” 

Oh I totally relate to that! Before becoming a coach, I had a healing business. I was a Reiki practitioner and an aromatherapist – a big part of my business was creating hand-made toiletry products. 

I remember that time in my life. I was happy being a healer. I definitely didn’t want people – especially my clients – to think of me as a “business owner.” And I hated all aspects of the administrative part of running a business – including marketing. 

The problem was, because I was ignoring all of that, my practice really struggled. 

The biggest reason my practice struggled is because I ignored, and even ran from the marketing piece. 

I refused to become a “sales person.” And I refused to be aggressive and manipulative. 

I didn’t want to be obnoxious, and I didn’t want people to get irritated with me. So I barely did any marketing. 

I did little things here and there. I would post fliers, put my business cards around town, attend holistic fairs, and tell people about my practice if they seemed really interested. 

The problem was, with only doing all those passive things, no one could find me. Yeah, I was getting myself out there, but I wasn’t really connecting with people. 

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Marketing is actually nurturing if done correctly.
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The truth is, in order for you to really serve the people that need you, you have to spread the word about your practice.

It is very rare that people just stumble upon your information, or “just happen” to see you when the time is right. 

And people DO need you. They just need help finding you. 

The way they find you, is through marketing. Marketing is the vehicle that helps people connect to you, feel safe with you and develop a relationship with you. 

It is the vehicle that helps people understand exactly what you can do to help them heal. 

Marketing has been and continues to be used and abused, that’s for sure. 

And I know you don’t want to subject yourself, your practice, or your clients to that. 

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Striking a balance between being a healer, and a business owner.
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As a healer who wants to serve people, it is very necessary that you do things in your practice to help support its infrastructure, and that help your practice grow. 

Without conducting these activities, your practice is not going to get to the point where it’s serving everyone you want to serve. And it’s not going to get to the point where it supports you as much as you support it. 

One of the big keys to the growth of your practice is marketing. 

So how do you market your practice without becoming a shady snake oil sales person? 

1. Connection. You must be able to find and connect with the people that you want to serve – the people you feel deeply about healing. 

And you must be able to clearly articulate what you do for them. And that’s not just telling them about your healing modality. It’s being able to clearly tell them – in their own words how you can help them. 

2. Building Relationships. This happens over time. Not eons, but it definitely takes some time. 

People rarely purchase from you, or sign up for a session the first time they meet you. And there are a variety of reasons for that. 

If you have a way to build a relationship with them, it continues and strengthens the connection they feel with you, and helps facilitate a client relationship. 

3. Strategy. In order for you to keep growing your practice, you must have a strategy that continually and consistently gets you out in front of new groups of people. 

You have to expand your reach to find the people out there that need the healing you are offering. 

I know this all might sound overwhelming and like it takes a lot of time and a lot of work. I’m going to be honest – it does take work on your part, and you may need someone to show you what to do, and help guide you through developing a marketing strategy. 

During the Mindful Marketing Group Coaching program, we are going to implement these three points, plus so much more. 

I will show you that marketing can and should nurture your potential clients and clients. I’ll guide you step-by-step through developing a solid, supportive marketing strategy that helps your practice grow. 

This program will take the guess-work and anxiety out of marketing.  For more information on the group coaching program - click here.

I am so stealing this idea from Lynn Terry’s post… I loved the question and thought it would be great discussion for those of us in the healing arts world.

If you could rub a lamp and ask for 3 wishes from the business building genie - what would your wishes be?

I know - shocking isn’t it?!? LOL!! But yes, it’s true - I’ve made mistakes during my journey through business-ownership. Since I’ve been talking quite a bit about newsletters for the last few weeks, I’d like to share some mistakes I’ve made with mine, what I learned, and how they impacted my practice.

1. Tried to manage my subscriber list in my e-mail program. This one was frustrating. When I first started my newsletter in 1999, I figured I would just manage it through Outlook.  I highly recommend NOT doing this. After you reach about 20 subscribers (which takes about no time to do…), it gets really cumbersome.

In your e-mail program you have to create a “group” to manage all of the addresses. Then you have to manually add people to the group. Then, if you’re sending a bonus to people for signing up, you have to manually send that. Now, on the surface, all of that doesn’t look that hard. But if you have several people sign up in a day, plus you’re trying to do everything else in your business - this can add a lot to your plate. And what if you forget to add someone, or add someone accidentally… don’t ask me how many times my e-zine went to my entire address book… boy were some people confused!

Use an e-mail list management service… so much easier!

2. Have an irregular schedule. Not a good idea. Consistency is your friend when it comes to producing a newsletter. People come to rely on you - they want to hear from you and they want to hear what you have to say… after all - they know you can help them!

If you go too long between issues, people will forget who you are and why they subscribed and they will quickly unsub. I learned that the hard way - after someone accused  me of spamming her because she forgot she actually did subscribe.

3. Not offering your products and services. People want to know how you are in service. Yes - providing value is a BIG key to having an effective newsletter. But - people can’t guess what you’re offering. Tell them.

For a long time, I went the route of not offering my products and services in my newsletter. People loved getting it, and they liked what I was saying - but they wanted to know more about how we could work together - they needed help in the form of products and services. Once I started offering my products and services, people began to take me up on those offers.

4. Copying someone else. Oy. I hate to even write that - I’m not proud of the fact that I put myself aside for a bit and tried on someone else. But I did. I went on this odd journey of comparing myself to another successful aromatherapist (back when I had the healing business…), and I copied her style in my newsletter. I figured she must know what to do to be really successful - so I would follow suit.

First off, I felt empty writing it. I started not enjoying it. Secondly - people noticed. It may have been subtle, but they definitely felt the “emptiness” and started unsubbing.

5. Only offering sales announcements. Now I’m not saying I NEVER send a message that isn’t strictly promotional. I do that very occasionally.  However, there was a time in my healing business when I was only offering specials, promotions, and sales. Not only were people unsubscribing - they stopped even opening my newsletter. YIKES.

Through my newsletter, I’ve learned the exact right things to do to get my message of service out in the world, and I’ve learned what absolutely NOT to do! I’ve been producing a newsletter since 1999 - and not only has it helped me grow my businesses - but it’s been a fabulous way to help me get to know my subscribers, and build a community.

During the July Teleclinic, I’ll be teaching participants step-by-step how to create an effective newsletter. It’s happening July 8 at 1:00 EST. Check out all the details here.

My friend Gina just gave the best explanation I have ever read about why we need a niche. I absolutely love what she says in her recent personal blog post.

Gina starts out by talking about this idea that we, as healers, all relate to. Can’t we help absolutely anyone with our service? And isn’t the point of our existence to be limitless and to “flow organically and cyclically like nature?” Aren’t we all one?

Well yeah. But we’re also physical. And I love what Gina says about this aspect of our lives. Especially “Only through being very clear about what one says yes to can any momentum and power be generated toward moving us along our individual paths. Without the focus, the boundaries, the limitations, the energy is just dispersed and rendered ineffectual.”

Yes yes yes!!! Exactly! And this is why choosing a niche and focusing your business - or any of your efforts - is so important.

In this vast Universe that we live in - and for all the One-ness that we all are… we’re still human. We all have human, physical limits.

So if you want to be heard, you must focus your efforts - as much as that may feel wrong or uncomfortable. It is exactly right.

Gina, thank you for offering this very powerful post!

So… this has been a crazy week - you may have noticed I’m JUST getting around to blogging… and this won’t even be a long one.

To start things off - this week is our recital for dance (I teach advanced jazz and lyrical, Madd takes ballet and tap). We’ve got tons of extra running around to do… started out not being a big deal - I’m a planner and pretty well organized, so the extra stuff was well planned for.

Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal until - major storms hit Tuesday and we lost power for 24 hours! Definitely threw a kink into my Wednesday. Instead of having a few hours in the office, I had… oh… about 45 minutes of “actual” work time. You know how that goes - it backs everything else up.

Wednesday was a very stressful, frustrating day. On top of my workday being uprooted, Maddie had her class picnic, which I had already planned to attend. Beyond that, I spent most of Wednesday looking for somewhere to camp out - somewhere with power, internet, phone, and entertainment for a  6 year old. I thought I had found solace with my in-laws but for some reason, I couldn’t log on to their wireless connection… *sigh*

A few times during the day I found myself just taking a deep breath and saying “Just go with the flow, Jenn - it’s all good…” but that sentiment lost its luster after a while, and I just wanted some normalcy. I did my best to hold it together - but I kept coming back to thinking that there was just some things I absolutely wanted to get done, and darn it - it was maddening! I did hit the wall by the end of the day… I just couldn’t take any more unexpected stress. I admit - I freaked out.  My husband received an exasperated phone call from me… “exasperated” probably doesn’t describe it well… crazy, lunatic, mad-woman probably gives you a better visual of how I was reacting at that time!

Despite the snafu - it’s actually turning out to be a good week. We had great rehearsals, I’m expecting fantastic shows, and we had a fabulous June Teleclinic yesterday all about what might be missing in your marketing path.

This is a shot of Miss Madd in her Wish Upon A Star Costume:

We all encounter unexpected snafus and changed plans - are you ready for sudden course corrections in your business? Are you ready to just “flow” if things get crazy for a day or two?

This experience definitely reminded me that sometimes, you just need to let go of control, trust that everything is ok, and roll with it. After my big freak out, I felt better… and I had a more calm view of the day. Next time, I’ll just resign myself to the fact that the day will be quite different than I planned, and I’ll be much more sane… I hope anyway

Does marketing feel like you’re pushing yourself out there hoping for a response?

Marketing can be pushy, and it can feel… yucky. But it can also be nurturing, and authentic. And actually – that’s whatyour marketing efforts are supposed to do. They are meant to help you build relationships and create a community through your business.

How the heck does marketing create community?

Marketing can be abused. And you see examples of that with the people who use marketing to manipulate, or play on the fears of your ego. 

But, at it’s core, marketing is meant to help your business build and nurture relationships. Marketing is the tool that helps people connect with you, identify with what your offering, and know that they belong in your business. Marketing is meant to help you create a community within the walls of your business.

Marketing is not selling.

Selling is the act of trying to convince someone to purchase something from you. And trying to convince someone to do something is never comfortable. 

Marketing on the other hand, if done from a nurturing place, is meant to help you and your business build and strengthen relationships with the people that need you. 

So what is needed to create a community through your marketing efforts?
 

1. You need a way to stay in touch and build relationships with people after they meet you. 

People may not be ready to purchase from you, or they may not fully understand how you can help them the first time they meet you. By having a way to stay in touch with them, you ensure that they will get to know you and fully understand what you do. 

When the time comes for them to need your service, they have no issue scheduling a session or purchasing from you. 

2. A good combination of active and passive marketing activities. Passive activities include things like advertising, and putting fliers up. If you don’t have active activities to balance these out, your efforts won’t be effective. 

Active activities include networking, and speaking – anything that gets you face-to-face with the community of people you’re trying to reach. 

3. Niche. I can’t say enough how important it is to be really, ultra clear about who it is you want to serve. The truth is, you really can’t serve everyone – even though I know you may want to try  

First, you don’t have the physical capacity to serve all 6 billion people on the planet. 

Second, not everyone is exactly right for your business. And if you try to serve those people – it expends a ton of energy trying to fit them into your business. 

Think about who you absolutely love serving, and focus on them. 

Marketing is actually not only fun, but if done right, in a nurturing, balanced way, your efforts can flow more easily allowing you to enjoy your business more, and allowing you to better serve in your business.

If you’re feeling frustrated with the way your marketing is going, check out my June 10 Teleclinic - Discover what’s missing from your marketing. See the details here.

Lots going on in the blogsphere about authenticity these days. For example, I just read this great post at the Passion Project Blog. And, Adam Kayce has a very awesome viewpoint here.

So, in the interest of being authentic, let’s share. First, I want to talk about my biggest fear. Rejection and Abandonment. I’m afraid that if I step into who I truly am at my core, my whole life will turn upside down. I’m afraid that if I shine my light bright enough, the people close to me will bail on me.

There. I said it.

Now, let’s talk about how I’ve managed this fear. I’ve actually had to learn to work with this fear - to function and build what I want to build even though this fear is very real and very alive within me.

I’ve learned to be an extrovert. It wasn’t easy, and people who meet me today cannot believe that I’m naturally introverted. These days, I think nothing of getting up in front of a group of people and giving a talk, or teaching. These days, I don’t bat an eye about going to a networking event by myself where chances are good I won’t know anyone. Today, I don’t hesitate to jump in the car and drive 4 hours to a speaking engagement in the middle of an unfamiliar state.

But - if you had met me 10 years ago - the thought of doing any of that would have terrified me.

Little by little, I’ve been shining my light… testing the waters if you will. And when I put myself out there, guess what happens? I end up meeting even more fabulous people, and the relationships I already have are strengthened and deepened.

Because when you bring your full self to the table, people are drawn to that. And it’s not in some egotistical sort of way. It’s in a deep, everlasting resonance between your Beings (yeah, that’s super woo woo - but you know it’s true ).

When you express your true self, you find all of the amazing, fabulous, wonderful things that resonate with your true self and life gets even better - and bigge, and deeper, and more meaningful…
I’ve spent time pretending - yeah, I’ve been down that road. What ends up happening is, I attract a bunch of stuff that really doesn’t resonate, and I end up moving away from it anyway.

You’re meant to be YOU. And it’s going to happen… you can’t deny your true self… your soul won’t let you - eventually, it’s going to happen… whether you go kicking and screaming, or willingly.