It’s just the nature of creating something – specifically creating something that involves other people. And if you’re selling anything – ad space, products, services, etc – you’re creating something for other people.

So when you find out you’re marketing isn’t working like you thought or that your great idea isn’t seen as such a great idea by the people in your market – what do you do?

When the sales slow down and the bills aren’t getting paid – what do you do?

And on those days that you have no motivation, no real desire to grind away at making your business work – what do you?

In other words, what keeps you going?

For me, personally, it’s my vision. Certainly it’s the goals I want to achieve, that’s part of it. But it’s not all of it.

What keeps me going is wanting to live the lifestyle I want – to have a flexible schedule and to be able to work from the hotel while my family is enjoying the beach. Or the ability to work a 3 day work week (3 long days, mind you). Or the opportunity to work at night in the summer so that I can spend the days with my wife and kids. Or taking 4 day weekends to go camping. Or taking a day off so my wife can rest when she’s sick. And the list goes on. For me, as I said, I want flexibility – having the flexibility in my schedule and my location that allows me to do more of what I want when I want.

But I don’t just want to talk about my lifestyle or dream about it – I want to actually live it. And living it means actually taking the time when it’s available. It means being active and spending gobs of time with my kids. Ultimately it means balancing work with life.

You see, I don’t want a life where I’m bogged down by my work. If I did, I could go out and work for any corporation, put in less effort and allow someone else to dictate my lifestyle. Sure, I want – and do – make a nice living. But I don’t want my pursuit of money to become more important than what’s most important to me – quality time with my family, hiking, my spiritual practice, etc. All these things I put above making money.

BUT, I still focus on making money – as a means to the ends I wish to live by. So I work in my business to make money solely so I can have the lifestyle I want. And that’s what keeps me going on the days when it’s just not so easy or comfortable to work for myself.

So that’s me. How about you, what keeps you going when it’s less than easy?

(note: image from Potatojunkie on Flickr,  some rights reserved)

Lots of people are in business for the same reason. Heck, if you’re a coach, holistic practitioner or any type of service provider, it’s likely that at least part of the reason you’re in business is because you want to help people.

There was a study done at M.I.T. a few years ago* in which the increase in brain function was measured with a number of different stimuli. Basically, what they were trying to find out is what sorts of things get the brain excited. What they found was that the #3 most brain-exciting stimuli was money…#2 was sex.

But the stimuli that recorded the most brain activity – most excited the brain – was altruistic behavior. In other words genuinely doing stuff of purpose for other people. Like me, you may say, “sure, that makes sense.” But the reason I remember the study is that altruistic behavior got more than twice the response in brain activity as sex did. So doing things of meaning for people creates a massive biological response in our brain in comparison to sex. To me, that says something.

How do you feel about your work?

Just stop and think for a moment – how do you feel when  you do something for someone else? Not something you’re forced to do. Not something you’re even paid to do. Think about when  you go above and beyond what people expect from you to give them something they weren’t expecting. How does that make you feel?

Define it anyway you like, but doing ‘good deeds’ in a genuine, caring manner, makes you feel pretty good. I know it makes me feel good. I can even feel the added bounce in my step and my overall good feelings. Could this be an experience of what our brains are experiencing when we do something for another person?

My guess is yes!

What’s more, I would venture to say that there’s a measurable, hormonal response in our bodies when we do things for others. It’s probably been studied somewhere, I just don’t know about it.

So what’s it all mean for my clients?

What I’m getting to is that every time you interact with a healing or coaching client, you have the opportunity to do something good for them; you have an opportunity to make a difference in their life. And if you’re in business to make a difference in people’s lives, why not be aware of it? Why not try to do it more often? Why not look to help your client in a way that better’s their life – rather than just give them the service they’re paying you for.

This is something I, myself, had to recently be reminded of. Not that I wasn’t doing things to change my client’s lives – I was, I get feedback on that point all the time. What I was forgetting is why I got in business building websites and coaching clients.

It’s easy to get bogged down with business

And that’s what happened to me. I started being a website designer, a business coach, a marketing advisor or a social media consultant (all things that I do) rather than remembering that I was in business to make a difference in people’s lives.

You see, I figured out long ago that I could take things I was good at and use them to help individual business owners (like coaches, healers, etc) better their lives. For instance, when I build a website, I put my client’s business goals at the forefront. This often means that their websites get them more client, which increases their income and makes their life better. And that’s because for us independent business owners, our personal lives are directly tied to our business lives, making it difficult to have a peaceful life when you don’t have a solid, dependable business.

That’s why I’m not a website designer, a business coach or a marketing advisor

I may use those titles and even do the work required of each. But I’m in the business of making people’s lives better. I do it through building websites for my clients and teaching them how to use them effectively to get more clients as well as how to do all sorts of things better in their business. That’s my means.

But my end is that through what I know I can make a difference in my client’s lives.

I’m just glad to be reminded of what my own business is really about. It changes how I see who I am, what I do and how I do it. It brings a deeper sense of satisfaction for my work and a stronger caring for my clients. And, perhaps most important, it reminds me to consciously look for ways I can make a difference in my client’s lives.

How are you making a difference in your client’s lives?

If you’re providing a service of some sort, the impact you have on your clients is making a difference in their lives. Do you see that yourself? Is it something that happens as a result of the work you do? Or is it something you’re consciously aware of as you work with clients?

I’d love to know how you’re making meaning in your client’s lives.

Let’s talk about it.

*note: If you know of this study, please forward me details on how to find it. Thanks

(note: image from HEREFORDCAT on Flickr, some rights reserved)

Whether it’s been remodeling my kitchen, building a pole barn, learning to kayak or developing websites, I’ve been one of those people who like to do things myself. Usually I read a little, research a little, make a plan and jump right in. And it’s worked pretty good – most of the time.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with doing everything yourself. It’s certainly serviced me well. I’ve learned a great many things and have gained a number of skills over the years. And the confidence I’ve gained in doing things myself has led me to take on projects I might otherwise shy away from doing myself.

It’s also meant that sometimes things don’t go so well. Sometimes I waste more time and spend more money than I would have having a professional help me. For instance, redoing the lighting in my kitchen during a remodel. What would have taken an electrician and his crew less than a day took me 5 long days doing it myself.

So while I’m definitely an advocate of doing it yourself, there’s times when doing it yourself isn’t wise…

What are you willing to do?

Planning for success is one thing. Executing for success is another.For instance, going back to my kitchen remodel, when I think of tiling my backsplash behind my countertop, I cringe at the idea. Now I’ve tiled before, so I know how. And, I know just enough to know that the backsplash is more tedious and time consuming because of all the little detailed cuts involved. So I hired that job out.

It’s the same in your coaching or healing practice. There’s plenty of things you should be doing to increase your reach, market your business and get more clients. But how much can you really do on your own? How much time to you truly have to learn it all on your own? More importantly, how much are you willing to do on your own?

Knowing when to get help.

To be successful with your business – meaning getting more clients, or selling more products or courses – it’s important to know when you can realistically do it on your own and when you need help.

With most coaches or healers I speak with – many who aren’t my clients – it becomes painfully obvious rather quickly that the reason their businesses aren’t full of clients is because they’re trying to do too much themselves. They believe that by doing it themselves they’re saving money and increasing their bottom line. The thing is, nothing could be further from the truth. The real truth, though it’s difficult even for me to admit all the time, is that…

You can’t do everything well that you do yourself.

It’s a hard truth to swallow sometimes, but it’s true. Trying to do everything in your business yourself will lead you to going crazy, wanting to quit or working so much that you never enjoy the reasons you began working for yourself in the first place. None of these are good. All of these lead to burnout and little success. And most of us know what that looks like.

Take marketing, for an example. You know you need to market your coaching practice to eventually end up with more clients. But what you do? How do you market effectively? How do you reach the people who are looking for what you offer?

And once you do, how do you convert them into leads, move them along into becoming prospective clients and then convert them into paying clients?

All this is a process. Each step has a number of proven solutions and task that can help you land more clients. But which do you choose? And if you do choose a program to follow – such as Robert Middleton’s Action Plan approach or Mark Silver’s Heart of Business model – how do you know you can even implement what they’re suggesting?

It’s okay to get the help you need.

It really is. Not only is it okay, it’s necessary to get help in order to be successful. Apple, Inc knows this which is why they have a Board of Directors from diverse backgrounds. Richard Branson of Virgin fame knows this which is how he can run dozens of companies under the Virgin moniker and have nearly all of them successful.

A little closer to you and I – every single person you know who’s been successful, either offline or on, has done so because they’ve asked for help from people. The gurus of marketing, whose programs you’ve probably bought – have learned what they know from other marketing experts and then adapted it for their own business. The highly successful coaches out there have hired people to teach them how to be successful and grow their businesses to such levels. Even your friend from your coaching course has likely hired someone to help them learn how to build a website or write marketing copy or build a list.

Somewhere along the way, those who are successful have asked for and gotten the help they need.

So what’s stopping you from getting the help you need?

Truly? What’s stopping you?

Is it the cost? Just ask yourself how you expect to make more money all on your own. Can you do it? Well if you can – forget what I’ve said and get to it. But if you can’t then you need to seek out someone who can help you. Failing to do so is actually costing you money in lost opportunity and growth.

I went through this one myself and realized that if I paid a coach (a really good coach) $2000 per month for their help that in a few short months I’d be making enough to cover what I was paying him – meaning I’d be breaking even. And everything after that would be increased profit for me. So I figured, if he can show me how to make back his fee in a few months, then he could show me how to make much more than his fee. And it’s worked.

That’s why I say that if you’re not getting the help you need – it’s costing you money. It’s costing you lost growth

Is time the issue? Well, that’s something that just has to be broken through. Time is an issue for every type of business owner – coaches and healers included. You simply have to make time to work on you business while you’re working in your business. I say it that way on purpose. Working in your business is all the stuff you do to get paid – work with clients, bookkeeping, followup, etc. Working on your business is visioning, planning, developing new products, etc.

You must be working on your business to grow. It’s so vital to your growth that if you don’t, you won’t. Meaning, if you’re not working on developing new parts to your business, then it’ll be very difficult to make more money than you are now.So you need to set aside so many hours each week for doing things to expand your business. And what should those things be? Not to be trite, but that’s why you’re asking someone to help you – so it can be specific for you, your vision and your business.

Whatever is stopping you from getting the help you need, push it out of the way. You can find someone who will help you. Just be sure to find someone you trust, who  you communicate well with, and who you feel you can collaborate best with toward reaching and increasing your business goals.

Can I help you? Possibly. Best that we have a short phone conversation first to see if we’re a good fit for each other. But even if we’re not, keep searching for someone who is. It’s just that important! But if you want to talk with me, here’s how to get a free consultation.

Are you currently getting help from a coach, a business consultant, an advisor, a marketing guru? How’s it been? And if not, why not?

Let’s talk about it.

(note: image from H4NUM4N on Flickr, some rights reserved)