Podcast 82: Finding Clients Requires More than Optimism
Sep 16, 2021
It’s scary how many practitioners, especially when first qualified rely on pure optimism to get their businesses going. They start out feeling positive, set their intentions with the Universe, and wait for the magic to happen. And nothing! They're building their business on hope, and before long they’re floundering and not sure what to do next.
Whilst I believe in the Law of Attraction, you can’t just put positive vibes out to the world and sit back and wait for things to happen. You must demonstrate you’re serious about what you want with the action you take.
Optimism and positive thinking can create unrealistic expectations and if you rely on this alone, you'll be left feeling upset when things don’t go right. It won’t take much from you to change from being an optimist to a pessimist.
Too future focussed
Being optimistic about your future will help keep you motivated, but there's a difference between that and blind faith. You need to believe that you'll be successful, the issue is when you believe it's at a point in the future - that once you succeed everything will be okay and you’ll be happy. This will stop you from being present. You’re relying on something in the future to bring you happiness, rather than fully participating in the journey.
When you achieve your goals, there’s always something else on the horizon. Running a business is a rollercoaster ride and practitioners with lots of clients have different challenges that will test them.
Reality check
This is the starting point - being honest with yourself and understanding where you are right now can be eye-opening.
Sometimes we all need a reality check to make sure we're doing the right things. There have been many times where I've been super busy, but not on the things that will move my business forward.
being able to objectively view what's going on, and your strengths and your weaknesses will help you prepare for any challenges you may encounter whilst building your business.
The things we value come at a cost whether that’s time, hard work or financial. They don’t come just because you want them to, you have to take the necessary action to make them happen.
Being realistic will help you to navigate the challenges and see the opportunities that arise. It will be hard work at times, but at least you’ll be ready to work through them.
Create a supportive inner-coach
Creating a supportive inner coach for yourself will help you to move forward in your business and navigate challenges along the way.
As a small business owner, you will learn how to bounce back from challenges and become more resilient. Part is discovering how strong and capable you are while the other is the biggest personal development lesson you'll ever learn and bring out every fear you have.
Listen in on what you are saying to yourself - is your inner voice worried, negative and full of fear?
Rather than just switching any negative thoughts to positive ones, start coaching yourself to build your resilience. For example, tell yourself you can and will do this, that you deserve to be successful.
Change your stories to empowering ones with your supportive inner coach to help you to navigate any fears and build your confidence.
Take action
How much do you want to achieve your ambitions for your business?
Use your imagination to create a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Use this to focus as a compass to help you decide the right action to take and to motivate you to do the work necessary.
Now you know what you want to achieve, break it down into steps and create your own plan of action – what’s your first small step?
Celebrate every step you take, and every win you make happen whether that’s one new client or someone asking you to do a talk. This will boost your confidence and motivate you to keep going.
Podcast 20 – the power of setting 90-day goals for your business
Positive thinking is part of the recipe for success. However, you have to take the required action and build your resilience along the way.
If you’re struggling to find clients, book a discovery call and find out how I can help you today.
Podcast 82 show notes:
- (02:06) Too future focussed
- (03:29) Reality check
- (05:04) Create a supportive inner coach
- (06:34) Take action
Podcast 20 – the power of setting 90-day goals for your business
