The other day I had an earnest entrepreneur tell me that she so longed to just be herself—but she wants to earn money and believes she has to be something else to do so.
Then on the weekend, two different entrepreneurs at a backyard bbq said multiple times how hard it is to be in business for yourself.
A potential new client came to me because she longs to have a profitable blog and wants to set it up the “right way” from the beginning.
These all stem from us believing the adage that to win, we have to play the game. The game presumably has rules although no one has ever seen written anywhere. We believe that if we can somehow play this game the right way, we’ll have a better chance.
The game implies that we must hold a role, or move around our token, and compete against those around us to arrive at some endpoint where finally some are winners, and some are losers.
What we are, along the way, is getting played.
In this game, we are fed the line that creatives don’t make any money, nor do teachers, healers, writers, coaches, performers, or those in non-profits. The stat of 50% of all businesses failing in their first five years is paraded about. To add some excitement to the game, there are a ton of hyped up, perfect systems that if you just follow someone else’s steps exactly, you, too can have the same result. Overnight. For only ten thousand dollars.
No wonder many of you are doubtful you can make it.
Here’s a different notion.
Your business will flourish when you live in deep acceptance of your whole self, from furious flaws to glorious strengths, and take consistent action in alignment with that self.
You are a winner just because you have the willingness to play at this business thing. The process itself can be enjoyable, not just rewarding at the end IF you are one of the lucky ones.
Even better news? There’s no ONE way to get there.
There are many glorious, unique, and perfectly suited to you paths. You are already designed to follow any one of those with great success, fulfillment, and joy. You can be seen for who you really are on that path. In fact, that’s exactly what will bring the money in.
Because let’s be honest, any perfect marketing path is only perfect if it lets you be all of you. Trying to ratchet yourself into something that you’re not just doesn’t feel good.
Marketing that doesn’t feel good is marketing that you avoid, dread, or put off. If you do it while feeling badly about it, you’ll not likely get the amazing results you deserve.
How does being authentically YOU in your marketing bring in the bacon?
1) Your uniqueness is your selling point. We each have a whole set of variables that make us uniquely us: personalities, points of view, preferences and that unknown element you see when you look into someone’s eyes. Step into any room full of people and you begin to see just how diverse we really are.
The quirky things that make you distinctly YOU are the very reason that a client will choose you over another person who offers a similar service. It’s the way that you say it or do it that can be well heard by types of people who really get you.
It’s your specific strengths and weaknesses that make you perfect for your clients. Often a client will bring something up to me and having lived through a similar situation, I have the very answers and tools they need. If I hadn’t had the experience, I wouldn't hold the piece they need to move through theirs.
In other words, it’s your exact, unique journey that will best serve—and sell—to your clients.
2) Potential clients are attracted to authenticity. Many people are looking for ways to just be themselves. Tired of all the hype in a culture that only seems to focus on a narrow band of success and appearance, we would rather bring our whole selves out to play than try to fit into someone else’s mold.
When we see someone who is authentic, real, and genuine it sparks a certain amount of admiration and curiosity. We want to know more and we can’t even explain why. We move closer in, hoping to gain permission to also be ourselves.
More and more, we choose to work with people when we resonate with them. Resonance means we hear specific words/tones of voice/experiences of another and decide “wow, that person is exactly who I need to hire.”
When you can be your whole self, and speak your truth, the correct clients are drawn to you.
3) It takes energy to not be you. It takes a ton of energy to push down parts of yourself. Keeping your own truths at bay or doing what you “think” you should do brings about a heaviness and dissonance that not only doesn’t feel good to you, it keeps clients away.
It’s like having an energetic roadblock on the freeway of giving and receiving.
Pretending ends up costing everyone. It robs you of energy that you could otherwise use for creativity and putting yourself out there in powerful ways. It takes away the chance for clients to benefit from your gifts. It can even make you feel that you are an imposter.
Feeling like a fraud makes it harder for you to sell.
4) Money flows to certainty. Certainty of the worth of your product or service makes it easier to promote and sell. When you are certain that your solution/product/service will fix another person’s problem, you often will have no difficulty sharing that with them. When they hear your certainty, it creates the know/like/trust factor needed to buy from you.
Plus, when you are clear on what you want, the universe meets you halfway.
However, lots of purpose driven entrepreneurs feel squeamish about money. Do you name your money goal or do you waffle in the “it’s not about the money” side of just wanting to make a difference? Do you shy away from making a lot of money because you think it’s unethical, selfish, greedy, or has negative connotations? Be willing to do the work needed for you to shift your money beliefs to acceptance and ease. This will allow it to flow toward, rather than away from you.
Money flows in when your pricing and client results come from your certainty.
5) Your authenticity creates a rich experience. Oprah Winfrey says it well “I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier.”
Many 6 figure entrepreneurs will tell you two things:
- that they are having a blast earning real money while deeply serving other people.
- The second thing they will say is how much they had to grow to get there.
Growing not just professionally, but personally.
Because the skills and personality needed to run a tiny solo business is not the same as what you need for a larger, more abundant business. Are you willing to grow past whatever is holding you back in order to move boldly forward?
Take your first step by downloading my free marketing lessons clicking this link here: BE AUTHENTIC, BE RICH: 5 Marketing Reflections to Get You There. This simple five day training will get you started in understanding how authentic you are being in your marketing. Once we have the awareness of where we are, we can start to move toward where we want to be.
I hope you get started on finding your genuine self in your marketing. Your real riches come when you are both earning money and have done the growth work to know your full self. When you are in deep alignment with yourself, it is a rich life indeed.