Well, that’s not entirely true…

A two wheeled clunker was my primary mode of transportation in art school. I even peddled a couple dirt roads on that thing. As a kid, my pink Huffy and I owned the streets of my neighborhood. But, none of that really counts. The first time I attempted to ride technical single track (skinny mountain bike trail) was my first real day on a bike. Every time I got on my mountain bike that summer was like attending a personal growth seminar.

“Okay, steep hill ahead. Avoid scary boulders to the right. Ignore deep ravine to the left. Stop–Holding–Breath. Don’t be too tense! Relax. Get Ready?”

Fall…Fall…and Fall some more.

Once I was so worried about getting over a large boulder that I freaked, tensed up my body and flew completely over my handle bars landing in a tree. “Is my arm broken… what about my leg?” Lip trembling and sucking up the tears, I began the process of reassembling my contorted body. “Why was I even doing this?”

Growing a business is a lot like
riding a mountain bike.

When on unfamiliar terrain, most people have a tendency to freak out, over anticipate and waste way too much energy trying to get it right.

I had to be tenacious to get back on my bike after a 20 minute cussing fit I just had with the mountain I was trying to ascend. Pushing my bike to the top with a full on pouty face while my friends glide up like they are riding a motorized bike is about as demoralizing as it gets. It’s the same way with your business when you look around at the store fronts of your competitors and think, “They make it look so easy. Why am I struggling so much? I suck.”

The willingness and acceptance to be a beginner is the only way to get someplace new.

When you’ve become accustomed to being really good at the work you do, it’s easy to get stuck there. You don’t want people to see you as a failure, so you stop trying things that push your comfort zone. The problem with this is that you got really good at what you do because you had the courage to get out there and try something that others’ wouldn’t dare. You were a beginner, and it didn’t bother you. You weren’t afraid to mess things up because you didn’t know any better. Now you think you know better and that is exactly the problem.

I’ve been in business for myself for 10 years now, and every time I try to grow it or take it in a new direction, I feel like a beginner again. It’s frustrating to underestimate my time and completely miss my expectations, so I have to actively find a way to move from judgement to acceptance of being a beginner again.

Visualizing success makes you successful

The most challenging thing about mountain bike riding is learning to relax when you are scared. The natural response to heights and rocky passages is to get all tense and afraid of falling. Instead of riding over obstacles smoothly and letting your shocks work for you, you end up trying to turn your bike into a jack hammer. This stiffness makes you fall, which confirms that you should have been afraid and it is a downward spiral from there.

When a challenge seems bigger than me, I use this visioning technique to get out of my head and into action.

I sit down and ask myself, “what will it look and feel like once I’ve mastered this task?” I picture myself gliding over the rough terrain. I feel centered and balanced over the bike. My body lets’ go of the anxiety and oh look at that… I am having fun.

Planting a positive image in your brain helps your body open up to the possibility and know what to do instead of it’s fearful response.

Overcoming challenges draw out true nature and develop character.

To grow beyond your current edge, you have to let go of all your assumptions. Instead of comparing yourself to others and what you should be doing, harness the power of your mind to visualize success. If you can see it and you can believe it– you can get there.

That will help in the day to day.

Both business and mountain biking are one challenge after another. I still fall off my mountain bike. Why do I do it? Because it’s fun. I no longer compare myself to others, and I’ve found that the real joy is in the challenge. It’s not about the achievement, it’s about developing character. Learn to love the process.

What do you do when a personal challenge arises for you in your business? Leave a comment below. Inspire us, make us laugh, or just let it all come out in your writing.

Mark your calendar for February 13th– and get ready for some free love.

My good friend Sage Lee– the man behind Small Business Big Brand– is hosting a LIVE webcast event and TV recording. Sage has put together a panel of ten branding experts– I’m one of them– to reveal insider secrets that will help you call in the people you’re meant to work with.

Tune in– at 1:15pm (PST)– to hear me speak about Building a Tribal Brand. Immediately following– at 2:15pm (PST)– I’ll be speaking about The Power of a Visual Brand.

Throughout the day you’ll also meet Jesse Koren, Brandy Mychals, Mark Hoover, Jeffrey Van Dyk, Suzanne Falter-Barnes, Vinca Heart, Natalie Ekobo, and Kelly Cornell. You won’t want to miss this great group of speakers!

Make sure to tune in LIVE– you’ll be able to phone in and ask specific questions. Plus– when you register, you can apply for a chance to have your brand reviewed by Sage and his panel of experts.

Sign up here >>

I’ll see you on Monday February 13th!

In marketing, focus trumps expertise.

When I graduated art school, all my friends were writing resumes and I started my business. I didn’t have any marketing training back then, but I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to make the ideas in my head real. Specifically, I wanted to learn how to make one of those really cool advertising photographs, and I wanted to get paid for it.

My plan was simple.

I knocked on every studio door in Detroit. When it was opened, I performed a little song and dance that charmed them into letting me inside. During our conversation I mentioned my CD portfolio. It worked like magic. Everyone wanted to look at it. I let them keep it, left behind my card, and followed up every week until they hired me.

Consistency is key.

The people who did the hiring were really busy, and had I not followed up they were going to easily forget me. Having a plan that you do consistently sets you apart because most people give up after 1 or 2 tries. You may think you are being annoying, but if your prospect needs what you sell, the reminder acts like a relationship builder. Persistence pays off.

Once you have your foot in the door,
you have to stand out.

All that work to get noticed didn’t land me the jobs. It got me meetings with photographers and producers. In the meetings, I beat out many highly qualified contenders when I showed my super savvy CD portfolio. At the time, a CD that could run a slide show on both a MAC and a PC was cutting edge. By not taking the typical approach to showcasing my work, I demonstrated something that was really needed in the photography business at the time: digital skills. The whole industry was starting to move from a traditional 8×10 film workflow to a new high-end digital process. The model as they knew it was dying, a new one beginning. I represented myself uniquely by positioning myself as someone with creative problem solving skills. This lesson has become central to every new market move I’ve made since.

So, what’s the secret to a highly effective marketing plan?

• FOCUS – I knew my audience, and I had a clear vision for my business.

• SIMPLICITY – My lack of marketing knowledge worked to my advantage. It limited my options and forced me to concentrate on what I could do best.

• CONSISTENCY – My plan was simple. Therefore, it was easy for me to do it over and over again. My persistence made it difficult for prospects to forget me.

• DIFFERENTIATION – I demonstrated a unique approach to solving a technical problem. In so doing, I created my own little niche in the market and stood out.

There are many different marketing options out there. It can be challenging to figure out which ones are right for you. It’s the 4th week of January, and if you still don’t have a simple marketing plan that leads to sales, treat yourself to a Rocket Powered Focus session.

Click here to learn more.

SELLING FEELS BAD

All the Holistic and heart-based entrepreneurs I know are driven by a deep love for the work they do. They feel their way in life. If they don’t like the feeling of being sold to, they often create a mindset that selling is bad. Therefore, when they go sell their service they feel bad about themselves. Sound familiar? This is a very uncomfortable situation. The reality is, to stay in business, you have to make sales. If you have the mindset that selling is pushy or manipulative, then your business will struggle. You will to do everything possible to make sure you don’t have time to sell.

COST OF YOUR RESISTANCE

What is the #1 thing you can do today to bring in money to your business? Likely, it is to call someone who needs your service. Sounds so simple, but you procrastinate. Instead of picking up the phone, you do what you do best: learn more about your craft, organize your information, take growth and development trainings, buy information products and other ‘how to’ guides. All of these activities have made you amazing at what you do. You are likely light years ahead of your competition in terms of expertise and genius, yet your competition is closing the deal, bringing in the money, and expanding their businesses. They may not be as good as you at what they do, but they have something you don’t …. a positive mindset about sales and marketing.

AN UPDATED MINDSET

Marcia Martin teaches that we have a deeply rooted cultural belief that someone else can make you do something you don’t want to do. In other words’ “the salesman made me do it.”  She says, “we live in a universe where the concept of sales is an excuse from responsibility. Anytime we do not want to be responsible for our choices, this reality is proven to be true.” The truth is, each of us is responsible for our own choices. No one can make us do anything.

Sales conversations feel uncomfortable because you are expecting to be rejected and you fear not being liked. Trying to sell your service from this space makes you seem insecure. Even though you are just nervous about selling, all that negative energy skews the perception of your prospect. Imagine being asked on a date by a potential suitor. If the person approaches you seeming uncomfortable in their own skin, will you be inspired to trust, open up, and say ‘yes’?

Before you start a sales call, get in touch with a belief in yourself and your abilities, and set the intention to find out if you and your prospect are a good match.

THE VALUE OF A GOOD MATCH

A good match is a healing relationship. When you express your unique talents and gifts it feels like you are contributing to the world. When your prospects can see, acknowledge, and expand their reality with your service you’ve created an experience that transcends price comparison. I call it an orgasmic experience because you are expressing who you are, while at the same time satisfying your client’s needs and desires.

Finding people with shared values and a desire for your service is worth your time. Getting to know them makes it clear when you should turn down opportunities and when you should jump on them. Knowing your clientele helps you make stylistic choices in your marketing. Perhaps most importantly, it makes prospecting for sales a lot more fun.

Good business is built on relationships, not one time transactions. In a relationship, you learn your clients quirks, develop inside jokes, and get to know their fears and concerns intimately. You become a valuable part of their lives. Marketing and sales becomes an empathetic call to your people.

When you see how your work effects your client’s life, Lisa Sasevich, the Queen of Sales conversions says, “it’s a dis-service to NOT make an offer.” If you have something that will help them create the life they desire and you don’t make an offer, who are you benefiting?  It’s not good for you and its not good for them.

BE A LEADER NOT A SALESMAN

How to feel good about sales:

• Understand the root of your bad feelings about sales
• Change the way you think about selling
• Get clear on who is the best match for your service and learn about them

Instead of thinking of sales as pushy and manipulative, think of it as leadership.  Inspire your customer by re-framing their dreams and aspirations clearer than they can.

How do you feel about sales?  Comment below.

In the book, The Red Queen, Matt Ridley defines reproductive sex as “a free trade in good genetic inventions” Remove the words ‘free’ and ‘genetic’ and you have the basis of a business “a trade in good inventions”

So, if you have clients, then you are having sex in your business… But, does the sex you are having inspire you? Is it, ya know, hot?

If your clients are as interesting as your Aunt Mildred and your employees are as insightful as your well trained dog… my guess is you aren’t being fulfilled sexually in your work.

Perhaps you think I’ve crossed the line here… sex and business is like vinegar and oil… but don’t they taste so good together?

What if I told you that the secret to standing out in your field is fundamentally tied to how inspired you are by the people you surround yourself with?

You’d probably find yourself thinking, “so, should I fire all my employees?” Or, maybe you only hire people on a per project basis so you think, “the only time I’m inspired by the people I work with is when someone is paying me to create for them.”

Let me ask you a question, you know that really sexy women who turns heads and lifts eyebrows?  Was she hot before you saw her? Or was she hot because she hired you to see her as hot?

She is hot because she wants to be hot. Because it feels good to her to be looked at and because she enjoys looking at herself. She is having fun in her body and everyone, men, women and children notice it. She doesn’t just jump out of bed looking amazing. You better believe that she works on it.

Look at the picture above. What is that about? and why is everyone so interested in it? Everything beautiful is about sex: Dance, Theater, Literature, Children, Love, Exercise, so why not business? Business is a universally understood language, just like love.

What drives every single one of us is the desire to produce something unique, to create something amazing, and to be chosen by the hottest prize in the room because of it.

The question is, what are you willing to do to earn that sort of recognition?

I recommend finding people who are doing something interesting in their business and hire them to consultant, partner with them, collaborate with them.  In other words, have business sex with them. Stop hiring someone who is cheap and gets the job done… Find someone who challenges you to be the amazing creative being you are.

What you will find is that the people who you really want to work with know exactly what they bring to the table and they can communicate it well enough to close the deal.

Are you ready to play at that level?

The Mast Brothers are building more than a chocolate company. they are creating a standout brand that transcends generations.

Have you noticed the rising trend of artisan chocolate bars in your neighborhood grocery store?  It’s like the food section, the wine section, the cheese section and the chocolate section. The chocolate section nicely spills over right next to the check out line, so you can read all the different labels and fill your cart with $5 candy bars.

Yea, baby.

The Mast Brothers sell their chocolate bars for $10 and only at specialty stores. I saw one of their chocolate bars for sale at Stumptown in Seattle. I was so excited, I didn’t think twice about the price.

Why?

They sail their own boat to Madagascar to get their cocoa beans. When everyone else is trying to create a 4 hour work week and outsource all the ‘busy work’, they’ve chosen to design their own wrapping paper, hand wrap their bars, and personally pick up their supplies from around the world. How expensive do you think their production is?

Exactly.

“We feel a literary quality to what we are doing. I think we are writing our own story as we go along. You do only get one shot in this life- why not only make it fun, why not make it a voyage, make it an adventure – For us, for our crew, and for our friends. I mean its something beautiful more than anything.” Mast Brothers

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could have a business where your friends come to work everyday, a few times a year you all go on a distant voyage, and then when you talk about your adventure – you have a genius marketing campaign?

I kinda wanted to keep my bar as art and never eat it. I guess I should of bought two.

Check out this commercial:

The Mast Brothers from The Scout on Vimeo.

Pretty awesome right? They seem plucked right out of a story book. Next time I’m in NY, I’m going to their shop and asking if I can pet their beards. I’m curious if they grew them for the shoot day.

Don’t you just love them though?

What they created is more than a commercial.

It’s a story of how they have built their business around their community values.

“The sailboat, besides carrying our cocoa beans, its carrying our whole story of what we are looking to do. My brother and I think about this a lot. About how the adventure and curiosity of how chocolate is made and how we are showing everybody this. That when they taste our chocolate it is like old Mark Twain stories of adventure and childlike curiosity and a sort of independence and freedom. That fiercely independent almost Emersonian spirit is definitely something that we love and we hope relates and shows in our chocolate.” Mast Brothers

Your marking can be as remarkable as the Mast Brothers!

Instead of marketing a product; market your dreams, values, and community aspirations. Connect with that part within your customers that makes them inspired to support you. You’ll end up with an army of sales people who write blog posts about you.

Know of other companies who are rocking their marketing like the Mast Brothers? Tell me about them in the comments below.

Hey- don’t forget, if you like this post…

Please share it with your friends.