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I believe that every entrepreneur needs to have some dedicated focus time in their business to be able to grow it—whether that means getting more clients and making more money or leveraging it and multiplying it by leaps and bounds. I’ve got some very specific strategies to clear the decks and create focus time in your life.

Try to create at least four hours per day for marketing or growth and development. When I recommend this, I often hear lots of shrieks, “Ah, how can I do that? I’m so busy.”

Not only are we busy in our work lives, but also in our personal lives, especially when we’re starting out and oftentimes working from home. One of my favorite mantras that I’ve used for many years is, “A strong focus now creates a different future later.” So, how do you create focus time in YOUR life?

As you know, in your business it’s about delegating and getting other people to do things for you that you’re not that good at doing or that, at this point, should be done by somebody else. But what about all that extra time that is taken up in your life? What about all the non-work related busy-ness that actually eats into your work-related focus time. I’m talking about the time it takes to run your life.

I’m a busy mom of three and I find there’s so much that I need to do outside of work to keep things going. With a house and a husband and three kids and lots going on it would be easy for me to use my work time to do these extra-curricular things. So many personal time wasters are the things that you have to do, but don’t necessarily need to be done by you. For example, buying groceries. A lot of people go to the grocery store two or three times a week but they don’t really have to if they were to use grocery delivery.

Then there are the online drug stores. Why run off to CVS, when you can save time ordering online? Thinking about dry cleaning. So many drycleaners will do pick up and drop off. Consider doing that so you save the time that it takes to schlep over there. Then there’s housecleaning. You shouldn’t be doing your house cleaning yourself, if you can afford it. Sometimes people will charge as little as $50 to $100 to clean your house once a week or maybe once every two weeks. For many years I dropped off the laundry because I thought, “Well, for about $10 or $12 I can have my laundry done—match my socks and fold everything so that I it’s all done for me.

Then there’s online banking. Instead of spending the time to go to the bank you can now do everything online, including paying your bills. Consider using your business and personal credit cards to streamline your purchases. This way at the end of the month, you only have those two credit cards to pay off.

So, I know some of you might be thinking, “Yeah, that’s fine when you’re established in your business.” I started off where most people start off, without a lot of money and on a shoestring budget. But, I thought of it this way, “What if I could just have somebody for $12 once a week do all of my laundry and fold it and it I would only have to put it into the drawers. How much time would I have saved for myself?” That’s about three hours!

You can then use that time to get more clients and make more money by applying more of these client-attraction strategies. So, imagine the more time you create in your day by delegating some of your personal stuff or systematizing it or doing it online instead of going to an actual store, the more time you create for marketing in your day. Between the hours of let’s say 8:30 and 5:30, you’re dedicating that time only to work-related activities.

Now, I’m not assuming that you can run out and have people clean your house and do your food shopping and everything else for you right away. Instead I’m saying to just start with one very little thing. Use the time that you saved to focus on growing your business. It will transform how you live your everyday life.

Your Video Assignment

Identify the time wasters in your day, in your personal life, that are eating up your business time. Write these down and start thinking about how you could do some of these things online or have them done by somebody else—somebody that you could hire at $10 an hour to run a few errands for you so you don’t have to.

Then reapply and reinvest that time back into your business so you get more clients, make more money and multiply your business.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” —Dr. Seuss

Some solopreneurs go for their goals and Client Attraction assignments with amazing zest and enthusiasm. They’re the I-know-what-I-want-just-give-me-the-tools-and-let-me-at-‘em-Fabienne type of folks. Nothing gets in the way and they just get things done. The majority of folks, however, at one point or another, get stopped in their own marketing tracks.

It’s usually NOT a lack of how-to, but something else that invisibly stops them. You may have asked yourself, “If I know what I want, and I know how to do it, and it’s all spelled out for me here, then WHY am I not getting it done?” It’s frustrating and sometimes demoralizing, because we often end up beating ourselves up as a result. I know I have.

I call it the case of the missing obstacle. When you know something’s stopping you, when you’re sabotaging your own behavior, but you don’t know WHY, it’s time to delve deeper to see what the gunk is that’s underneath the surface. If you don’t figure this out, you’ll stay in the exact same ‘stuck’ marketing place and not grow your business.

Here’s a client example. “Susan” and I had been talking about sending out a specific letter to her network, for MONTHS. As I do with every client, I’ve given her 8 or 9 different examples of what the letter can look like. Heck, she probably even has it written already, but for some reason, it hasn’t been sent out yet. And every time I ask what’s going on, the answer is mumbled and unclear. I took a compassionately ruthless stand for her and asked if I could figure out with her what was going on. We dove in.

You hear people talk about ‘Fear of Failure’ all the time, but in my experience, ‘Fear of Success’ is just as prevalent. You see, Susan knows deep down inside that when she sends that letter of introduction about her services to her entire network (friends, family, clients, prospects, colleagues, former co-workers, etc.), she would essentially be ‘outing’ herself, she wouldn’t be able to hide and play small anymore. She would eventually get lots of clients as a result (it’s inevitable; I’ve seen it hundreds of times over).

This ‘Fear of Success’ was stopping her because it was combined with a nasty case of ‘Fear of What Others Will Think.’ What really kept her from sending the letter talking about her new business was imagining her former colleagues, those she did extensive training with, receiving the letter and thinking:

• “She is so presumptuous to think that I would want to help her.”

• “What has she DONE with her training?! This isn’t serious.”

• “What she’s doing now is flaky, shallow, and unprofessional.”

• “She had such potential as a blank-blank-blank; I can’t take her seriously anymore.”

But that wasn’t all! On top of all that, my client was also worried that if/when she fills her practice and becomes financially successful, people will envy her, will think she’s too good for them, and won’t like her (old gunk passed down from her mother).

No wonder she didn’t want to send the letter! The deep-seated fear of having colleagues disapprove of her, added to the fear that people won’t like her when she becomes successful, was almost unbearable. The thing is, none of these was valid; they were all self-created (we deflated each of these balloons down to nothing). So essentially, all of these fears were made-up, and null and void. She committed to doing the letter this week. It was a major breakthrough for her.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m no stranger to the fear of what others will think. In fact, I was a pro at it, until recently. For 36 years, and until a few months ago, I would stop myself in my own tracks and not know why. Now, I’m a self-described high-achieving-go-getter and all that, but underneath, I played it safe for fear of what others will think, just because I wanted people to like me.

The thing I realized recently is that you can NEVER control what people think about you. Yes, you can do smoke and mirrors, fancy manipulation, and damage control, but in the end, people will think about you what they will, good or bad. And even if it’s GOOD, you can’t control it, because everyone’s thinking about others through their own filter. Each impression of you is filtered through their own experiences, their own fears, their own projections, and all that stuff you can’t control, even if you tried tirelessly.

So I have a new expression. It’s two words and it’s not appropriate for printing here (my clients know what it is), but when I start thinking about what OTHERS will think of me if I do something, I say it quietly to myself. Inevitably I smile, because it’s a little naughty, and then I go do the thing that’s going to move my business forward, no longer as worried about what others will think. It works for me and now a bunch of my private clients use the same unsophisticated, yet very effective technique.

Do you see how tricky this whole thing is? Getting stopped in marketing is not 100% lack of marketing knowledge. It’s also that OTHER invisible stuff, which is holding us back that we don’t see or can’t touch. And when you eliminate it, when you pop those balloons of fear and limiting beliefs, then there’s nothing left to hold you back.

You can then move forward easily, in marketing, in life, and into making what you REALLY want to make in your own business. Otherwise, you’re playing small and what’s the point in that? My friend Maria makes me laugh when she says, “Go BIG or go home.” It’s my new motto, and falls right in with the following quote. Although you’ve seen it a thousand times, it bears reading again, in light of what we’re talking about today:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” —Marianne Williamson

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

You can NEVER be fully Client Attractive when you’re worried about what others will think, when you shrink and minimize yourself and your talents for fear of making it big and then having others envy you. To get you out of your own way when it comes to marketing, I want to change the Dr. Seuss quote slightly:

“Be who you are and [get marketing] because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

That said, if you want to fill your practice FAST, you still need to know how to market your services. If you want to set up a step-by-step marketing system that feels easy and authentic to you, The Client Attraction Home Study System™ will help. With it, you’ll prioritize what to work on first, clear the decks, and avoid all the unnecessary stuff. It gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems to consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter.

The lesson here is, it’s time to get over the hurdle and do what it takes to get to the next level.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

Have you ever noticed how most businesses, especially independent professionals, promote their services? It’s often by doing just THAT, promoting their services (“Let me explain to you about our services, program A, service B, and how much they cost.”) But when you think about how YOU hire someone or purchase services, do you not look for someone who can solve your current problem? Who can take you out of the mess you’re in? Who can save you from whatever’s bothering you, and fast?

Self-employed professionals miss the mark when they “describe” the process of what they do, as opposed to talking about what problems they solve… Let me give you a personal example. When I have a computer virus keeping me from emailing my clients, I just want the problem SOLVED, fast, not really caring about anything that isn’t directly related. And if your message has what I need now, I’ll probably hire you, especially if I don’t have to think too much about it.

Here’s an example:

Promote services: I’m a business coach

Problem solver: I help independent professionals get more clients, in record time, without spending a lot of money.

Which sounds more compelling and more likely to get noticed by someone?

Here’s the thing: Chances are you’re in a market where there are plenty of others who offer similar services to just about what you offer. So, you need to differentiate what you offer by positioning yourself as more about solving someone’s problem – then focused on you and your process.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Next time you look at your marketing materials, take a look at how you’re positioning yourself. Then, tailor it to your target audience.

* Are you describing what SPECIFIC problems you solve?
* When networking, are you seen as someone with answers?
* Do people often say “Wow! I need you! Can I have your card?”

If not, you’re probably losing potential new business.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

It’s always important to educate the people who know you about what you do. What I’ve noticed over the years of teaching people how to attract more clients is that they don’t use ALL the marketing real estate they have in a way that will get them clients. That might be the case with you too, but we’re going to change that today when we talk about using your e-mail signature as a Client Attraction tool.

Recently, one of my clients was expressing her concern over how she earns money. She realized she has limited how much money she can make by relying solely on one-on-one clients and small groups.

Until now, she has preferred to work with one person at a time or even small groups to keep the activity hands on with lots of personal attention. That does limit her income because there are only so many hours in a day where she trades hours for dollars. To earn more, she’ll need to reach more people at the same time.

This requires a bit of a mindset shift to think about how she can better leverage her offerings. Opening up to ideas that produce more income in the same amount of time will be the key to reaching the next level of earning.

Here are two simple options that I suggested to help her step up to the next level. One method produces leveraged income and the other generates passive income.

1. Leverage Income

Let go of only offering the hands-on approach and get comfortable with the idea of larger workshops, reaching 10 -20 or more people. At the time, I charged something like $1,000 for a 10 week program and had 20 members enrolled. That added $20,000 of income to my earnings every time I ran the program and I often did this several times a year. This way my fee per hour was $2,000 versus $150 or $200, so you can see how the income grows exponentially.

Another leveraged income idea is to offer a monthly Q&A call, so clients can ask her questions directly. This program has given me the ability to help people that would not necessarily become one-on-one clients. This also gives potential clients a way to get a taste of working with you and help them make the decision to work with you privately later.

2. Passive Income

Another way to raise your earnings is to sell passive income products. Offer a monthly, low-cost program so many people can have access to tips and suggestions. Deliver a monthly podcast interview on CD or as a downloadable MP3. Even if you only sell a few CD’s a month, it’s still passive income and you’re helping a broad audience.

In addition, you can develop a home study program which will work for you like one of those infomercials for the Bullet food processor – you set it up and forget it, but it keeps selling. I wrote my home study program several years ago, but it is still helping people today and I sell several every week.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

After reading about these two ways to increase your income, what ideas come to mind? Which would be the easiest way to go for you? Leveraged or passive income? Choose the option that will work best for you right now and get it ready to market and don’t miss my recent video tip about creating passive income. The sooner you start selling this new offering, the faster you will build your income and get past the limitation of trading hours for dollars.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

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What do you really do? This is a common problem amongst entrepreneurs but it is especially problematic among those who do more than one thing in their business. For today’s video strategy, I want to ask you a few questions that will help define your business. These strategies will help you get more clients by making it easy for prospects to understand what you offer, which will eventually make you more money in your business. Let’s get started!

I suggest to all my clients: Be known for one thing and one thing only. Most people, though, are good at several things – like a nutritionist who also does Reiki, offers Bach flower remedies and teaches jujitsu! Or a coach who offers a combination of life, business and spiritual coaching. These entrepreneurs have a problem defining what they do and as a result, it’s not always easy for prospects to connect the dots and see the value there. What the customers needs most is a tight definition of exactly what you do, so they can feel comfortable saying: “Oh! I know exactly what you do and I want to work with you!”

Sometimes, entrepreneurs will take these different things they’re interested in and create two or three different businesses that they market at the same time. This is a difficult predicament to be in because, as it is impossible for one person to successfully drive two cars or ride two horses at the same time – it’s nearly as difficult to successfully market two or more different businesses at the same time. I don’t know if any one that can truly do that without sacrificing one or the other, so I recommend not doing that! The solution has to do with the answer to this question: Do all roads lead to Rome?

Do the many different services, methodologies, modalities and products you offer in your business take clients to the same result? Said otherwise, is everything that you teach or offer leading your clients to the same ultimate end result? Let me give you myself as an example: Yes, I am an expert at marketing, and also at mindset, systems, client management, the spiritual element of Client Attraction, closing the sale, and even Internet marketing and information marketing. Each of those roads leads to attracting more clients. Client Attraction is the “umbrella” or the catch up for everything that I offer. No matter what I am teaching, it helps you get more clients. All my roads lead to client attraction. What about you?

Think about all that you offer your clients. Ask yourself: How does it all make sense and fit into one neat little package? You can do lots of things and teach different things, but what is the umbrella that captures it all? If something doesn’t fit under the umbrella, then perhaps you shouldn’t offer it. Or, find a way to switch up your business to make all your offerings fit into one cohesive package. The key is to have one unified way. This is what I help my clients define.

Your Video Assignment
Ask yourself some tough questions: Do all my “roads” lead to Rome?  What is my “Rome” or “umbrella”? What do I offer my clients and where do all of these things lead?

At the start of a new practice, you need proven results, testimonials from satisfied clients and people familiar with your work who can send you referrals. But, how can you acquire these fundamental business elements at the beginning? This can be such a “Catch 22”. Without clients, how can you figure out the benefits of your work, get testimonials if you haven’t worked with anyone, or hope to get referrals?

Here’s a powerful solution to get you rolling: Seek out scholarship clients! Even though you will be working for free initially, this can be a valid and fruitful business exchange. The reason you want to do this is it gives you the opportunity to get some crucial practice making your offer and testing out your proprietary system. Plus, in this business exchange, you provide free coaching and in exchange the clients provide the needed feedback. Ask your scholarship clients specifically for these three requirements in lieu of payment:

1. An evaluation of your work so you can make changes to your improve system and strengthen it

2. A referral to one of their friends, colleagues or family members who might want to try the coaching process.

3. An enthusiastic testimonial about the results achieved from working with you.

I did this myself when I started building my practice and I needed testimonials. I asked five people to become scholarship clients and within two months, I had five wonderful testimonials. The clients got great results and this worked out as a fabulous business proposition in which both sides benefited.

This is a proven strategy for launching your practice and has worked beautifully for so many of my clients, leading to paying clients with a short period of time.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

1. Write a letter that offers your coaching services for a scholarship fee. 2. Explain the three requirements you will be exchanging for your coaching work.

3. Come up with a list of possible interested parties.

4. Send this letter to at least five prospects and get started building your practice!

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

Information products are a great way to set yourself up as an expert and build trust – as well as build your revenues. Here are three different information products you can create to share your knowledge with prospects at different levels.

1. Articles: When I write an article, the length tends to be as long as I need to get my point across. That means it could be anything from half a page to a page and a half. Once written, articles can be sold on your site, posted on your blog, be used as a way to be featured as a guest blogger, posted to article directories that will be picked up by blog publishers, or used as a freebie to entice action from your readers.

2. Special Report: This is a small e-book, which can be as short as five pages and as long as 80 pages is focused on one single topic. This product is often used as your irresistible free offer to help build your list and get people into your pipeline – the same way I use my free Client Attraction CD available on my site.

An eBook is a good thing to start with for creating an information product to sell since it’s digital in format and relatively inexpensive to produce – but attractive to offer for sale. But, as you move forward, you’ll find incorporating worksheets and CD’s or turning this into a bigger product like a home study course will help you sell far more copies. And you can charge considerably more as well, since the perceived value is much higher.

3. Audios on CD: This type of product features you talking about one particular subject for up to an hour. It’s a great way for prospects to get to know you and become more comfortable with you, which builds the know-like-trust factor. You can outline a particular process or share insights into the big mistakes people make that keep them from being successful. Creating this product can be as simple as recording a free teleclass.

Information products, whether they are for your irresistible free offer, or to start building passive income, provide prospects and clients alike with tremendous value.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

1. Make a list of 10 possible products you can create. Come at this from different angles, thinking about what your prospects or clients need most.

2. Pick the one you feel has the most power to attract more clients or build your list or add more revenue and start creating it!

The lesson here is, it’s time to get over the hurdle and do what it takes to get to the next level.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.