Productivity

Leading your clients when your personal life takes over

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Joanna Lindenbaum and children

A few years ago, while I was leading a group call with nearly 30 women, my parents telephoned me on both my home phone and my cell phone 4 times within about 2 minutes.

I could feel my heart start beating faster as I was coaching. My mother has had MS for 30 years, and there have been many emergencies, hospital visits, and even life-support situations over the years.

A version of me 3 years ago would have tried to ignore her calls until I was done teaching — yet be scared & un-present to my teaching the entire time — because I wouldn’t want to come off as unprofessional.

An even older version of myself would have freaked out completely, told the folks on the call that I needed to reschedule, and then go on to deal with whatever was happening.

Last week, instead, at an appropriate pause in between spotlight coaching moments, I let the women on the call know that my parents had called 4 times and that I was concerned enough to feel I should call back, but that it would only take a moment. I asked everyone on the call to hold for just a minute and quickly called my mom. There was a slight emergency situation, but nothing very serious. I was able to get off the phone in under 90 seconds, return to my clients with full presence, and then take care of the situation at an appropriate time.

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The Struggle About What To Charge

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In this moment, I can’t actually think of any client I’ve ever worked with that hasn’t at some point wondered or (most likely) agonized over what to charge. And I confess, I certainly have grappled with this many times in the past as well.

The question about where to set your rates brings up a whole slew of internal questions and judgments:

How valuable is my work?

What will people think when they hear my rates?

What are other people in my industry charging?

Will anyone buy from me at all?

Am I undercharging?

Am I overcharging?

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Leading your clients when your personal life takes over

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Joanna and her kids

Last week, while I was leading a group call with nearly 30 women, my parents telephoned me on both my home phone and my cellphone 4 times within about 2 minutes.

I could feel my heart start beating faster as I was coaching. My mother has had MS for 30 years, and there have been many emergencies, hospital visits, and even life-support situations over the years.

A version of me 3 years ago would have tried to ignore her calls until I was done teaching — yet be scared & un-present to my teaching the entire time — because I wouldn’t want to come off as unprofessional.

An even older version of myself would have freaked out completely, told the folks on the call that I needed to reschedule, and then go on to deal with whatever was happening.

Last week, instead, at an appropriate pause in between spotlight coaching moments, I let the women on the call know that my parents had called 4 times and that I was concerned enough to feel I should call back, but that it would only take a moment. I asked everyone on the call to hold for just a minute and quickly called my mom. There was a slight emergency situation, but nothing very serious. I was able to get off the phone in under 90 seconds, return to my clients with full presence, and then take care of the situation at an appropriate time.

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Why I work on some evenings these days…

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Last week was Autumn Equinox which — among other things — is all about the energy of Balance.

During the time of the Equinox, the daytime hours are exactly as long as the night-time hours. The Earth is in a beautiful moment of balance between light and dark, Winter and Summer, inner and outer energy.

So this is a wonderful moment to reflect upon how you are creating balance in your life and in your business.

Balance is one of the most important elements of any successful and happy business. And when things aren’t in balance, you feel off, resentful and most likely are not creating what you want. For example:

–Working so much that you don’t have enough time for rest, self-care, family or the other priorities in your life
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Some vulnerability about my business…

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I recently posted this on Facebook, and it received such an overwhelming response that it felt important to share with you as well. It’s a short article, but a VERY important one!

The last 15 months with a baby and a 1st grader and a business and a sick mom who lives far away and…well, just life and all that comes with it…has been really hard at times.

In terms of business, there has been massive, massive growth on some levels, and on other levels I’m moving way slower than ever before. I thought my re-brand would be done and ready to go by last January. Ha! I’m hoping now for end of September. I thought my Sacred Archetype Assessment would have been ready by last December. I released it in July. I had plans for writing my book and creating some really, really huge marketing moments this last Spring. That hasn’t fully happened yet.

I’m sharing this for a couple of reasons:

1) I could have easily beaten myself up through all of this, judged myself for being lazy or too slow, compared myself to others, etc. But instead I chose to honor my pace, to honor that my business is NOT my first priority in life, to honor that I choose to make time for my children FIRST, and for my business to fit in with my life and not the other way around.

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I Took A Look At Something Important This Week

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This last Monday, Penina had the day off school, and I strategically set up a playdate for her during Yael’s nap so that I could get some work done. Normally, I wouldn’t necessarily do this, but my babysitter was off most of last week, and I had stuff on my list to do.

As soon as I got Yael to sleep, I went to the computer to get through some emails.

About 5 minutes into it, Penina and her friend came downstairs, all dressed up — they wanted me to watch their play.

My first thought was "I don’t have time for this!"
My second thought was self-judgment that I would even think my first thought, because my kids are more important than anything to me.
My third thought was to chill out on myself.
I went upstairs.

While I was waiting for them to start, my mind was on the email I had left unwritten.

I didn’t even sit down, because I was thinking I’d watch them for a minute or two and then be able to get back to work.

They were dilly-dallying getting started, and I noticed some inner tension, because I wanted to send that email and write a newsletter article before Yael woke up.

And then Penina came "on the stage" and started singing. And as she sang, she looked at me to make sure I was listening closely. So I sat down.

And I decided to forget about the email and be fully present to my daughter and her friend. I started swaying to their singing and allowed myself to get fully caught up in the moment.

I pretty much ended up hanging out with them through Yael’s nap, deciding that this week’s newsletter could be a re-print of an older one I wrote, and that nothing would fall apart if emails went out a day later.

(This week’s newsletter article would have been a re-print, but I posted this originally on Facebook, and then I realized it was the newsletter article that I hadn’t written!)

I am clear on my priorities in my heart and soul, and most of the time in how I act. But I have to admit that every now and again my actions betray me. Sometimes I get caught between home and business. Or forget that one of the reasons I chose to be an entrepreneur in the first place was because I wanted more FREEDOM in my life to do what I want to do.

Today was a powerful reminder for me on how important it is to be vigilante when I slip into "work, work, work" — to realize it as quickly as possible and move out of it, so that I can have the life I want and a business that supports it.

Whether you have kids or not, living and being present to your LIFE is crucial. If you’re part of my community, you’re like me, and I know that while your business is important to you, it can’t be the end all, be all.

Where can you pay more attention to your life, starting TODAY?

What are the “little things” you do for your business that actually are big things and take you away from your life and freedom?

I would love to help you attract more aligned clients and visibility while also making choices that are right for you and your life. Fill out this 2-minute application, and we’ll set up a time to speak and see what you’re needing right now.

With love,
Joanna

One Of My Favorite “Growth” Tools

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7-3-14journalsI’ve kept a journal since I’ve been 6 years old.

My first journal had a cover with a red and white floral design, and it had a lock and key. The pages were lined, and I wrote (with lots of miss-spellings and really bad grammar) about my first day of school, the girls I was friends with, the bully in the class, my parents’ refusal to give me an allowance, my beloved grandfather who passed away that year and how I felt about all these things.

I remember so clearly the absolute delight I took in sharing my secrets and myself in those pages. The book – which was small in size – felt to me like a sacred and magical tool. My 6-year-old self believed it had the power to make my life better.

I still have that journal, and the 45+ others that I’ve filled since then.

The writing in those journals has evolved from small words written in print letters to more sophisticated thoughts written in cursive or sometimes drawn with pastels.

The stories told in those journals have seen me get my period for the first time, fall in love with (& get heartbroken by) my first crush, realize my parents weren’t perfect, get rejected from my college of choice, graduate college and grad school, deal with my mother’s illness, travel across the world, get and recover from Bell’s palsy, quit my job to start my own business, get married, birth two children, and everything in between.

And my 38-year-old-self can say without a doubt that journaling does have the power to make your life better, richer, and happier.

Throughout the years, my journal has helped me:

  • connect deeply to myself and my desires
  • tap into my inner wisdom and uncover my intuition
  • create clarity out of confusion
  • express my anger in safe and really productive ways
  • release pain and frustration and disappointment
  • connect to Spirit
  • make better decisions
  • cultivate hope
  • cultivate self-love and confidence
  • and so much more

Over the last decade, I have also used my journal to support me in every single aspect of my business, from my confidence level & ability to value myself, to my marketing and operations plans.

Journaling has helped me grow into a successful, soul-centered entrepreneur who (for the most part) knows herself and her desires really well, has the insight and clarity to make good decisions about offerings, marketing, rates, team and systems, and has the courage to take risks and make out-the-box moves.

Here are some of my "best practices" for successful journaling:

  • Be consistent: There are periods of time when I journal every day, and then periods of time where I journal only every other week. Of course, when I am more consistent, I receive so much more from my journaling practice – each journal entry builds on the next and deep, deep insights are revealed over time. But even when I just check in for a few minutes, writing just for me has the power to transform my mood, provide me with hope and trust, and give me insight on next steps.
  • Write fast: I have found that the faster I write when I journal, the easier it is to get past all of my mental gobbelty-gook and obstacles and go to a much deeper place inside of myself that holds the real wisdom. There’s something about writing as fast as you can that eliminates your filter and gets you to your truth.
  • Write for yourself: In order to really allow your truth and wisdom to flow, it’s vital that you journal for yourself only, and not with the thought that someone else may read your writing. When you write with the knowledge that it’s just for you, you have permission to express any emotion that wants to be expressed, any idea no matter how silly it seems, and any big goal without being judged.
  • Mix it Up: I personally get a little bored with writing from the same voice in every journal entry. I get stale that way. What has really helped me continually find deeper and deeper places inside myself is to mix it up – write from different points of view, sometimes draw, sometimes write in silence and other times with music playing, write letters, make charts, make lists, etc.

Not only have I used my journal for over three decades for my own self-growth and learning, but I regularly give my clients and students journaling assignments to support them and their businesses. It has been utterly amazing to watch my clients grow on the inner and outer levels through their self-discovery and through their journaling.

And this is what I want for you, too.

That is why I am thrilled beyond thrilled to share with you the Deep Insights Business Journaling Intensive:

Next week (starting Monday, July 7th), I will send you a journaling assignment each morning. For five days in a row, you’ll receive a specially-designed journaling assignment from me to help you gain clarity, wisdom and confidence about your business. Each assignment can take as long as a half-hour, but in order for it to be effective, you don’t need to write for more than 5 minutes. You are going to get so much from your writing, and then even more by participating in our Facebook group where I’ll be doing additional teaching and coaching each day.

You don’t need to register for the Journaling Intensive – as a member of the Soulful Coaching community, you’ll get it in your inbox automatically each day-my gift to you.

What you should do right away is join our Journaling Intensive Facebook group so that you can introduce yourself to the other women in the community and get ready to share your insights from the journaling assignments. I’ll be on the Facebook group a LOT next week to share my own insights with you and coach you! Here’s the link to join:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/801350099917050/

Can’t wait!

Your Time = Your Business

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Running a business is full of responsibilities and obligations, and it can be easy to lose control of how you spend your time. But how you spend your time determines the success of your business.

If you feel like you aren’t doing what you want to be doing in your business or soul-centered project, chances are good that your priorities do not match how you spend your actual time.

And, if you’re not spending your business time according to your priorities, chances are good that you’ll feel stressed, dissatisfied, tired or disappointed with your work life.

For example, if you highly value developing your network of colleagues, but instead focus a lot of energy and time on operational details, then you are likely feeling harried and disconnected from like-minded practitioners. Or, if your biggest desire is to grow your business, but your time is actually spent running errands and doing paperwork, unfortunately, your life won’t magically open up more time for marketing your business.

You need to prioritize what’s most important & then set the intention to make it happen.

Align your business with your priorities and your values:

1) Clarify What’s Important

Make a list of everything in your business or project that is important to you. This can include expanding your prospect list, developing new programs or offerings, marketing, cultivating referrals, etc. Get specific with this list. For example, instead of simply listing "networking”, perhaps list particular individuals or groups of colleagues who are important to your business.

2) Rank What’s Important

Order your list in number of importance to you. This is now your priority list.

3) Identify Your Top Three

Now, take a look at the top three items on your list. Star them. Ask yourself: Are these really my top priorities in life, or are some of these items "shoulds" or "obligations"? If there are any shoulds or obligations, re-prioritize so that your top three really connect with you on a heart/soul level. Some questions to ask yourself are:

  • Am I excited about this item?
  • How do I feel when I devote time to this item?
  • Is there anything I would rather do than this item?

4) How Do You Really Spend Your Time?

Is the majority of your actual time devoted to the top three things on your list? If yes, wonderful! If not – what are you spending your time doing instead? If that’s not a top priority item: why are you spending your time on it? Do you actually need to be spending time on it, or is it simply a distraction? Can it be delegated?

This 4-step process will help you get clarity on how you want to spend your time versus how you actually do spend your time. It will also help you uncover what’s important and why you spend time on things that are not priorities.

Once you do that, then you can move on to the next level, which is to create a detailed plan of how those priorities will play out week by week in your schedule.

Sometimes, It’s The Little Things…That Boost Your Success!

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In your business or your personal life, do you have a ton of little things constantly requiring your attention?

Things that probably wouldn’t take a huge amount of time to take care of individually, but when added up, seem like they’ll eat up all the hours in your day? These could be annoying little things like dealing with an error on an invoice you need to pay, getting the car tuned up, or returning the printer cartridge that doesn’t fit your printer.

Small things like these tend to occupy and drain far too much time and energy. 

The longer they remain uncompleted, the more they nag at us and take up more and more psychic space. These chores feel like small potatoes, but when you take the time to take care of them, you’ll discover that they have been distracting you or preventing you from making real progress in your business or your life.

Here’s an example of what I mean: One of my recent clients was tackling how to create more efficiency in her workday. She was having a lot of trouble meeting deadlines and returning all of her emails for her small business. When she took a closer look at some of the sources of her workday inefficiency, she discovered that her slow internet connection was eating up a lot of time.

Because her connection was so slow, she was waiting long periods of time to log onto the internet, to send and receive emails, and to do research online. She had been telling herself that she didn’t have the time to call her online carrier and upgrade her connection. In reality, however, this small distraction was actually costing her and her business both time and money! 

Once she took a relatively small amount of time to call her online carrier and solve the problem, she made her workday much more efficient.

There isn’t a perfect time to take care of all these distractions, but you can’t allow that to get in the way of accomplishing your bigger dreams and goals with ease and joy. If you want to make room for success, one of the best ways to do that is to clear away these annoying chores and distractions from your business and your life.

Think about the distractions in your life for a moment now. Are they holding you back from some of your BIG dreams and goals? Ask yourself if, on some level, you’ve allowed those distractions to come into being and get in your way.

Are you using distractions to keep you safe and small? If so, I invite you to eliminate them by using my simple, 5-step clearing process:

1. List distractions. Make a list of the top 3 distractions that are draining energy from your work and the top 3 distractions that are draining energy from your life. For work, these might include:

        -Outdated or broken technology such as mobile phone,
         computer, internet connection or fax machine

        -Unanswered emails or phone messages

        -Outdated or inappropriate wardrobe

For life, these might include:

        -Unresolved argument with a friend or partner

        -Unpaid bills or tickets

        -Not having drapes on your windows

2. List what they’re blocking. Make a list of what each top work distraction is holding you back from. For example: If one of your top distractions is an inappropriate wardrobe, this may be holding you back from:

        -Networking events that will bring in new clients
         or opportunities

        -Applying and interviewing for more satisfying and
         higher paying positions

        -Feeling confident enough to have a conversation with
         your manager about getting a raise

3. Own it. Acknowledge that you have been using each of these distractions as a subtle way of keeping you small.

4. Change it. Commit to eliminating one distraction a week. Take note of what opens up for you once you do so.

5. Keep up the good work! Repeat steps 2-4 for your "life" distractions.

I hope this system will bring you beneficial results and clear a path for your bigness. Please share with me what successes you open up to when you use this process!

How To Fill Your Practice With Clients

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Quick quiz: What’s better, a huge list of potential clients or a smaller list?

The answer may surprise you. A big list isn’t always better.

There are many entrepreneurs who have huge lists. However, that’s not the same thing as a community. The difference is the connection. If you haven’t built connection, it doesn’t matter how big the list size is. You’ll have a really hard time cultivating a community that cares what you think and say and have to offer. It’s all about cultivating relationships and connecting with others. Those connections are what bring people to you, signing up for your seminars, registering for your programs, and filling your practice.

So even if you have a smaller list, if it’s filled with people who know and trust you, they will be so much more likely to want to take the next steps with you. They will want to tell others about you. That is so much more effective than having a huge list.

Many entrepreneurs have what might be considered "small" communities, yet you’d be amazed that they are able to earn high incomes and fill their programs over and over. It’s because these people aren’t just some list. They are a community. When you create your own community, you’ll see how powerful it can really be.

Now that you know how creating your own community is essential to filling your practice, what do you need to do? Grow that community!

So how do you build your community?

Create a Campaign to Enlist New Clients. Make a list of three groups, or tiers, that I envision as different tiers on a tree, similar to when you go apple-picking. The people who end up on these lists are the ones you’ll be inviting into your services or products:

  1. Tier One: First, the low-hanging fruit on the apple tree, these are people you’re fairly certain are 100% aligned with you. That’s prospects that are the sure-fire bets. This group can include past clients, people who may have reached out to you but didn’t quite follow through, and people who’ve expressed interest recently whom you know are aligned for the offering. You just walk up to the proverbial tree and pluck them.
  2. Tier Two: These are people who are a little more work to bring down from the tree. These are people you know who know other people who would be interested in your offering. These are referrals; the first are current clients, past clients, and other people you know. These are people you might ask specific requests from. For example, you know that your colleague Sandy is close to Christine. You don’t know Christine very well but you know she would really benefit from your offer, so you ask Sandy to recommend your program to Christine.
  3. Tier Three: These are people for whom you might have to climb up the first or second bough of the tree to reach. This is everyone else you know who might have an interest – here is where we move from contacting individuals (like in Tier One and Tier Two) to inviting groups of people – people on your newsletter list, people on your local parenting listserve, people from a networking community, etc.

Get In Touch

Contact your first tier first. They’ll be the easiest to reach and the easiest to enroll. I recommend calling or emailing, and creating a template that can be personalized for each person. Let them know that you’re inviting them to your program, outline the program, and make sure:

  • The outreach is individual – if it’s an email, make sure the person’s name is on it, and that you send it out to each person individually. I recommend this because your prospects will pay MUCH more attention to your email if it addressed to them individually and personalized.
  • Be really clear that you’re not just sending this email out to everyone. They are receiving this email because you believe they are a very good match for your offer. Tell them why they are such a good match.
  • Authenticity. You need to really BE aligned with the people in this tier!
  • Excitement: let them know how excited you are to be sharing your work with them.
  • Call to Action. This is a common problem area for entrepreneurs in both online and offline marketing. You must make a call to action to invite prospects in! My favorite way is to invite someone into a private call with me where we’ll have the opportunity to get clear over the phone to determine if the offering is indeed right for them, and how it can benefit them. Now, a call isn’t necessarily the best CTA. If your offering is a 100-seat performance, you don’t want to have to call 100 people! Sometimes, the CTA is "tell your colleagues" or simply "click here to register" or "Come!" The CTA may change depending on your offering or your marketing channel, but you must have one!

For Tier Two:

Create an email or phone template. I prefer to start with email and then set up a phone call. You may prefer to just pick up the phone – you know what’s right for you. If you call, I highly recommend creating a script for yourself so you remain clear and know what you’re going to say.

Let them know why you chose them: you’re not just asking anyone on the street for a referral. You sense that they are a great source of referrals for good reasons. List those reasons.

For Tier Three:

You can send out a group email for this group. Perhaps this is your entire newsletter community, a LinkedIn Group you’re a member of, your mom’s group, etc. You need a very strong CTA while also clearly defining your offering.

SPECIAL NOTE: For each of these three tiers, you need to make sure that you’re also following up. So when you make that initial phone call or first meeting, if they don’t respond right away, don’t give up. You need to send a follow up email or call within 3 to 5 days of the initial connection.

Following up is essential to the process because most of the time, people will not respond on the first invitation. You need to know that you don’t want to start making up a story about yourself, the value of your work, or how interested this person is in engaging with you. The reason is that everyone is bombarded with so many things to do and respond to that oftentimes the thing that is important to us gets lost in the shuffle. You may need to follow up for a really long time with some people.

Homework:

  1. Get clear on what your current offer is.
  2. For that offer, what is your current call to action? Not the language, but what is it? A connection call? A preview teleclass? A face-to-face meeting?  

(Need help with clarifying your offerings? When you sign up for my newest training program, you’ll get all the help you need & more!)

  1. Get clear on your 3 tiers of contacts for that particular offer and that CTA.
  2. Draft invitations for Tiers 1 & 2. You can use a template, but individualize the messages. Tier 3 can be a group or series of groups.
  3. Send invitations.
  4. Follow up!