by Dr. George | Conscious Leaderpreneurship, Prosperity
Conscious Leaderpreneurship Call, April 29 2010, with Rev. Suzi Schadle
Wouldn’t you love to be paid and prospered for who you are and what you love to do?
My Conscious Leaderpreneurship special guest this week, Rev. Suzi Schadle, believes this is possible, and… the best way to create a sustainable economy!
As Suzi says,
I believe the new economy is all about people awakening to their unique passion and purpose, and then fully expressing it as a path to prosperity. What we have the greatest passion for is often where we also have our greatest natural talents and the capacity to do the world the most good.
The intersection of our passion, talent and contribution is the sweet-spot where our life-purpose lies. To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, “Where your talent and your bliss meet the needs of the world, that is where your purpose lies and that is where Spirit wants you to be.”
So often we have had it backwards—“If I have money, then I will be able to do what I want and I will be okay.” Suzi contends the more powerful model is BEING who we are and DOING what we have come here to do, which will naturally lead to HAVING all we need and want.
“Let’s create a world where we all do well by doing good.” – Rev. Suzi Schadle
Come join our discussion about how a world filled with fully self-expressed and fulfilled people is a world of peace and prosperity.
My call with Rev. Suzi Schadle from the Center for Spiritual Living Eastside this Thursday, April 29th, from 12 noon – 12:45pm, PST. If you would like to receive the call-in number and code for my Conscious Leaderpreneurship calls, please opt-in at the bottom of this page.
by Dr. George | Client Attraction and Conversion, Paid Intro Sessions
When I launched my business in 2005, I was the poster child of success for using “free introductory sessions” to build my business. Indeed, free sessions helped me build my coaching business to an annualized six-figure income in only 73 days! With a combination of networking, events, and complimentary introductory sessions, my income grew to the six-figure mark, and then doubled by the end of the first year. As this kind of jump-start is almost unheard of in the coaching industry, it became a sort of calling card, garnering me interviews, introductions, and more.
So why would I abandon a system that delivered so much success!?
While I did some things very right, such as offering diagnostic “Strategy Sessions” that offered stand-alone value, parts of my system didn’t work so well. (I explain more about diagnostic Strategy Sessions vs. “sample sessions” in a previous article, “The Problem with Free Introductory and Sample Sessions.”
One thing that didn’t work so well was the “free” part of the sessions. While free for the prospect, there was a high hidden cost for me: an enormous commitment of time and energy. I would meet anyone who appeared to be a potential prospect, whether they came from a workshop, website, referral, or other means. I would painstakingly gather all kinds of information about them and their business, and next, I’d spend literally hours conducting a free Strategy Session with them. (more…)
by Dr. George | Marketing & Sales, Paid Intro Sessions
If you’re a coach, consultant, or service professional, it’s possible that you offer some kind of free introductory session, sample session, or complimentary consultation. Indeed, this is the primary method of “marketing” taught in some coaching schools. It goes something like this: “Go offer free sample sessions to everyone you know. Ask them if they’d like to continue coaching. Some will. Congratulations, you now have clients!”
And you know what? Some people will hire you. Maybe one out ten. Maybe two out of ten. Chances are, some won’t want to pay the going rate for a coach or other service professional, some may even insist on “trading services” instead of cash, but they enjoyed your service, and they’d like “more, please!”
You rationalize, a client is a client, and you take a few under-paying clients.
Now you’re somewhat busy (though not making much money), so you go find more people to give free intro sessions to. And the cycle repeats… you give umpteen free sessions to find a few clients who might not even be willing to pay your rate, much less stick around for the long term. Invariably, they leave about the time you find your next new client, so it feels like you are just spinning your wheels.
And it’s getting harder, not easier. You’ve exhausted your initial list of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and other warm contacts, and now you’ve got to go meet complete strangers you hope will hire you.
You give free sessions to friends of friends. You offer sessions to people you meet at grocery stores. You network like a maniac. You blog. You tweet. You give introductory sample sessions, and just in time, because the first people who hired you have now run their course, so the new clients are just replacing the ones leaving through attrition.
Congratulations, you’re broke and exhausted. Welcome to self-employment.
What went wrong!?
Let’s take a look:
1. You used the scattershot method of marketing.
You didn’t wait for people to identify themselves as prospective clients; you simply went out and found people who could fog a mirror and agree to a sample session. The result is that now you’re trying to convert prospects you didn’t even really attract in the first place! It’s more like you “attacked” them – by putting them on the spot to do a “free sample session” with you. (more…)
by Dr. George | Entrepreneur 2.0, Freedompreneur Mindset
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” –Calvin Coolidge
There’s a critical difference between “persistence,” as in perseverance, and “insistence,” as in continuing to believe that what you are believing, thinking, and doing are the right things, despite blatant evidence to the contrary.
If you could distinguish between the two, would it make a difference in your business and your life? Of course it would!
On today’s Conscious Leaderpreneurship Conversation, we discussed practical ways to tap into “superconsciousness” and distinguish between persistence and insistence.
Listen to the recording here
