Small as the beginning of BIG. Impact, that is.

by Barbara Nelson

This is how wayfinding works: you begin practicing certain skills just to feel better, but this seems to benefit other things too, until quite unintentionally you end up working to mend things you thought were far beyond your small scope.
—Martha Beck, Finding Your Way In A Wild New World

As often happens, just when I’m thinking of something I’d like to share- some genius shows up in my mailbox saying it far better than I’d drafted!  If you  “get” and follow Martha Beck’s advice,  you will see a huge impact in your life and the lives you touch.  “Begin to practice certain skills just to feel better.”

Burn out, frustration and exhaustion are all in the air this month.  In coaching conversations, it starts out looking like something else- failure to complete things, procrastination, complaints of being stuck, even rebellion.  When we get near the bottom of the issue, it’s often something like, “of course I’m feeling like this, I’m over-booked, not prioritizing, spending time with people that make me mad, and putting myself last all the time.”

Extreme self-care is a remedy.  I wish I knew the name of the gentleman in my presentation in Seattle who pointed out that the acronym ESC was the name of the “escape” key on your keyboard.  Sometimes extreme self-care requires escape, to a place where you really are focused on your “self”.  Other times, it requires your full presence and intention.  Boundaries are important.  Knowing when to say no.  Being intolerant, and, sometimes, impatient when people or things aren’t in alignment with your values.

Sometimes coaches call it “raising your standards.”  You start expecting more of yourself, of other people.  You stop “tolerating” less than the best of yourself and for yourself.  You meet deadlines.  Goals are achieved.  You work out, you pay attention and get enough sleep.  As you improve, and you expect more, you are raising your standards.   Just as Martha says, it starts small, but it grows.  The impact is huge over time.

I’ve already ordered her new book, by the way, and I’ll share more from her, as always.  Meanwhile, today’s a planning day.  What standard will you raise?  Spend an extra 20 minutes thinking about something you want to change, practice, improve.  Write yourself a post-it note; do something so that it stays top of mind.   Start feeling excited about the new possibilities of what you’ll create in your future.  Feel sure that things will be different.

Then- have a lovely weekend, with extreme self-care for all!

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Wait- why do you have a website?

by Barbara Nelson

Your website serves two functions:

  1. At a minimum, as a “brochure”, it provides necessary and sufficient credibility. 
  2. At best, it is a valuable marketing tool.

Everyone in business today should have a website and an email address attached to the domain name.   Add an “about” page and other basic information, and you have an online brochure that will tell people who’ve met you in some other forum that, yup, your firm is a “real” business.  This is not difficult to do, depending on the level of design you choose and whether you want to learn wordpress yourself or outsource.  In today’s world, whether you think it makes sense or not, a website is the equivalent of a business card.  

As a marketing tool, your website attracts people who need your services.   Prospects, researching their problems and questions online, find your site.  Once there, they want valuable, actionable information.  They want to easily find what they want; they want to get it with no strings attached.   Finally, websites that serve a marketing role engage those prospects and help move them from being researchers to being buyers of your services.

I’ve come across a few folks who’ve just thrown a page up, their business is growing, they’re busy, they leave the page up.  They apologize when they point you to their site. Not OK.  Without going into a lot of detail- a bad website is worse than no website, but just barely.  It’s your business, the site represents you.  Even when the purpose of a site is solely to reassure someone who already loves you, please ensure it doesn’t detract from your reputation.

On the other hand- what if your website were responsible for 30% of your new business?  Paying clients.  As you think about your marketing strategy for 2012, consider what role your website might play.  There are different considerations across practice areas and target clients, but make sure you’re open to the possibilities.  The cost of acquisition might warrant an increase in your investment in your website.  Tomorrow’s clients could be researching the problems that you solve right now. 

So what?  As you head into a new year, planning your marketing investments and priorities,  answer the question:  why do you have a website?  Make sure your website serves its purpose.

Disclaimer:  I’m not a marketing guru.  My position is always that there are rocket scientists out there who offer terrific resources on most every topic I coach.   I’m about the rocket science of  action, using those expert resources.  Sometimes, however, I find it helpful to share something that sounds as if I’m positioning myself as a guru.   Au contraire, mon amie!  (if I were, I might feel compelled to get into the website vs. facebook/linkedin/etc. conversation, but heck no!)

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Ask for help. Be grateful. Owe many thanks.

by Barbara Nelson

Thankful for readers, yet stuck for what to write about, I rambled through Thanksgiving quotes.  Here’s the one that popped:

On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.  ~William Jennings Bryan

Yup.  If you’ve lots to be thankful for, it’s likely that you’ve had help along the way.  Most of you can also think of the help you’ve gladly given others, and the thanks you’ve received.

So why is it so hard to ask for help?  Why do so many of us fear that we might look “stupid” if we ask for help? Why so hard to acknowledge dependence? 

Doesn’t matter.   What matters is that if you are at all reluctant to ask for help – get over it.  Struggle is often optional.  Use every option you have to get from here to there as elegantly as possible.  Asking for help will make the journey less stressful and faster.  There’s nothing more to it.  If you ask and are turned down, well, so what?  In the vast majority of cases, people are flattered when you ask for their help and will gladly offer it.

Need some examples?

I love doing this kind of  work and I’d like to add more clients  like you.  I’d really appreciate your help in growing my practice.  [ask for ideas, a referral, introductions, appropriately]

I’m working on a complex matter and I’m wondering if the approach I’m taking is the best one, would you mind spending a half an hour with me?  I’d appreciate your perspective.

You’re one of the most successful solos in the area.  I’ve been marketing consistently, but I’m not seeing a lot of clients coming in.  I wonder if I’m using the most effective tactics.  If you have some time to share your experience, I’d greatly appreciate your help. 

Give yourself permission to ask for help.  Here’s a homework assignment: ask for help at least once a day for two weeks.  On the flip side, offer help when you can.  This Thanksgiving, think about the balance of receiving and giving help, of thanking and being thanked.

All in all, you’ll be happier and more successful in less time if you master the art of asking for help.  I think that’s worth the risk of being turned down or looking “stupid”.  In fact, wouldn’t it be stupid if you could get help and just don’t ask?

(Maybe I should call this the “stupid” post.  Dang, does this post make me look stupid…?)

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Great marketing advice, free, online, no email address needed!

by Barbara Nelson

Bet you thought I was going to offer you a white paper.  Sell you a seminar?  Nope, I’m offering you someone else’s free marketing advice.  It’s terrific advice and I don’t think I could present it better, so let’s not waste cyber storage on another report.

There is no rocket science to marketing professional services firms.*  The rocket science is in the doing.  Everything you need to know has been put out there in enough formats that there is an effective one for you.  Written, audio, video, courses, webinars, etc.

Visit  http://hingemarketing.com/.  Check out their research reports, their library, their webinars.   DANG.  Lots of knowledge capital, some original, some in collaboration with other experts.  Very simple and presented extremely well.  Instructive.  Smart.  As a 5 year-old might say, I like it so much I’m in love with it. 

I leverage this terrific free material with clients, too.  Fully attributed, linking to the Hinge Marketing site.  Check out the sales closing webinar too, with another marketing wiz, Ian Altman, of Grow My Revenue!   Thank you Hinge Marketing and Ian, and many, many others- because you help me stay smart.  Is this dangerous?  Nah.  I think our target markets and what we deliver are different.  If not, I’m in the abundance crowd anyway.

If  your marketing isn’t delivering the results you want to see, change it.  If you don’t know what to do- research it.  If the problem isn’t what to do, but actually doing it, then you need a different solution.  That’s another topic. 

Let me know if you like these resources as much as I do!

* OK, there is marketing ”rocket science”, but most of my readers have room to create significant impact before they turn to outer space.  In fact, you can use what’s commonly available to grow to the point where you can easily fund rocket science!

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November Reality Check

November 8, 2011

What I’m asking clients to think about this week: Where are you versus your key 2011 goals? Review the time you have available versus what you have planned for the remaining weeks of the year – have you prioritized appropriately? Do you need to make any adjustments for holiday and/or end-of-year activities and attention spans? [...]

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Great question: Would you like a 100% show rate for intial appointments?

September 23, 2011

A recent solosezzer asked for ideas to reduce the number of no-shows he was seeing for first appointments.  One of my favorite responses recommends asking for a fee at the time the appointment is booked- a prepayment.  Here’s what Christian M. Frank Fas had to say: During the first phone call, whenever a PC tells me [...]

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Good habit- stay “top of mind” in lots of different ways.

September 12, 2011

Clients will choose or refer you because they know, like, trust & REMEMBER you.  Staying in touch with former clients, warm prospects and referral sources without feeling like a nuisance can be a challenge.  At some point, it gets hard to come up with new reasons to contact.  There are always the holidays, including signature ones that you can customize [...]

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Whiteboard- 2011 goals are due

September 9, 2011

Here’s what you need to do now, in September.  Define the 2011 goals you want to plan to accomplish by year-end.  FOCUS, prioritize and scope it down. You can do everything, but you can’t do it all at once.  Once you’re clear on those goals, chunk them into the remaining three months of the year.  [...]

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What’s on the whiteboard? Chunk-a-Vision.

September 8, 2011

Naaa.  I don’t pay attention to what they say about the importance of post titles.  Anyway- that’s what’s on the whiteboard today.  September is a transition month. By now you know where you are going to be at the end of the third quarter, so it’s time to get ready to nail the last one. [...]

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Laboring on Labor Day?

September 5, 2011

Me too.  I’m revising a money worksheet I’ve been using to focus the Get Clients Now! classes.  The gist of the money worksheet is to help you to logically (& without flinching) think through: Your target revenue per year/month Target revenue per client or matter, focusing on your area of practice Estimated number of clients [...]

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