When it comes to marketing and business decisions for your business your intuition is like gold.

I believe so much in this that INTUITIVE is one of my core values for my own brand.

Don’t ever discount that feeling based thought you have, your gut feeling, that instant reaction that you have to something you have to make a decision about.  Now I am a big one for making sure that all your decisions around your marketing, business, brand are smart and considered and that you take into account as many relevant factors as you can before deciding anything.  I just know that your intuition can at times be the guiding light you need to steer you in the right direction.

Too many people make the mistake of ignoring their intuition when it comes to business because they think it’s the wrong the to do;  but there is so much power in your instant reaction you should never discount it.  If, when you have considered the facts you need to, you still find yourself wavering or wondering what the right thing to do is, remember how you felt in that fleeting moment when you were first presented with whatever it is that needed your decision making prowess.

How did you feel when your designer showed you the four options of logos for your new brand – which one did you just love, which one made you cringe, which one made you think, well, kind of nothing?

When that person approached you about a potential collaboration what was your very first feeling – like wow that is amazing she wants to collaborate with me, or more like um, no, I don’t think that would be a good fit?

When you had that first discovery session with a potential client did you see all kinds of promise and possibility or did you feel like there is a big mismatch there?

When a retailer approaches you about stocking your product does it feel like the right fit or do you think its just not the right place for your brand to be?

When you find someone you think could be the perfect business or life coach for you do you just know in your heart this is exactly what you need to invest in right now?

Sometimes the answer you need is in those split second moments before too much thought or outside influence creeps in to your mind and starts to cloud what you already knew for sure.

Don’t forget your gift.

Can you think of  any examples of this from your own business that you would love to share? Because I would love to hear about it!

Kate 🙂

(source Quote Queen : Pinterest)

Every single day for me brings some new learning and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Right now I am learning how to be my own boss! Not something you would expect to actually be that hard. But honestly I think it can be.

I’m also learning how to keep up the momentum on those days when I feel like everything has stopped, like I am stuck in mud and wouldn’t be able to put one foot forward even if my life depended on it.

I’m learning that I need to get back to taking better care of myself.

That I need to do whatever it takes to believe in me. To believe that I am valuable.

That I am worthy of those dreams that I have and that they will come true.

That I need to make exercise and body a priority again.

That my mind is where EVERYTHING is at and that I need to nurture it more. Mediate again.

I’m learning every day some way that I can be a better mother to my precious and loving children.

Learning how I can break though self-imposed barriers, self-sabotages and limiting beliefs. In a big way, right now.

How to be the best I can be, for everyone.

Mother. Wife. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Consultant. Coach.

Every. Single. Day.

Learning, always learning, how to harness my super powers and be the best version of me. Ever.

(Pinterest : Lisa GT)

Sometimes when you are working in your business, on your own, you know there is more that you can be doing.  You know that you are ready to move it on up to the next level. Things have been good but it’s time to seriously take things to the new heights.

It’s not always easy to know where to start with this and that’s when you might be ready to look for help from an expert.  But you could be wondering exactly what kind of help do I need?

Am I doing fine at the business side of things but just feel like there is something inside me holding me back?

Or could the opposite be true? That you are loving the flow of your work but the business side of things is just getting you down and stopping you from moving forward.

Here is a list of questions that will help you work out if what you need is a business or marketing coach; or maybe it’s really all about what a life coach can provide you with.

1. If there is one thing you are putting off doing every single day what is it?
2. Is there a marketing calendar that’s been waiting for completion for months that you cant stand the sight of?
3. Is it writing a blog post? Sending out a newsletter? Staying active on social media?
4. Is it just that you need some clarity on what the right next steps are for your business?
5. Should you be redefining what you do?
6. Should you be focusing on new customers?
7. Should you be selling more online?
8. Could you take your offline business offline into a bricks and mortar space?
9. How can you build your business through collaboration with other people?
10. How can I focus on my finances more to ensure I am maximizing my cash flow opportunities?
11. I feel like I’m not charging enough but I’m not really sure how do I know?
12. When you wake up in the morning how do you feel about starting your working day? Energised, bored, anxious, excited, overwhelmed?
13. How do you want to feel – is there a gap between the two?
14. Or do you find it hard to identify what is actually preventing you from taking this next step?
15. Do you have thoughts about what could go wrong?
16. Are you worried about offending people in your life by amplifying your own success?
17. Do you feel like you are stumbling over something you can’t quite put your finger on?  Like there is a wall in front of you that is too difficult for you to climb over?
18. You know there is something bigger and better but you are scared to even think about the possibility?
19. Do you have fears about the future that are really keeping you stuck?

 

As you have probably worked out the first 11 questions are really leading you in the direction of a business and marketing coach and the last 8 are far more relevant to a life coach.

If you can spend the time to answer these questions you will much closer to being able to identify what part of you needs to be supported and nurtured right now to break through to the next exciting stage in your business.

Perhaps you have answered yes to some of each type of question.  If this is the case you need to find a business coach that is able to support you through some of the more personal blocks or sabotages you are experiencing too.

It’s important to understand your real needs in order for you to find the perfect person for you and your business.  And when you find someone you think might be a good fit before you commit to any long term coaching be sure to have a discovery session that is about seeing if you are the right fit for each other on a personal level – super important if this person is going to make you feel supported the way you deserve to be.

AND so you too can do more of what makes you awesome.

How do you define your Ideal Customer?

Sometimes it’s just not that easy to define who your ideal customer is.  I do believe though it is super important for your business to actually put pen to paper on this one – for you and for those who work with your brand.  Its all about clarity & focus; understanding your customer is critical (sorry that’s a bit serious isn’t it – but its true!).  If you feel reluctant to do this you don’t have to worry, you won’t exclude anyone, I have written about this exact fear before right here.

Once you have the facts about this person out of the way – age, gender, income, what they do, where they live, are they married, do they have kids (or fur kids), how many, how old are they, etc. – the fun stuff starts.

You’ve probably heard about creating an avatar – this word sometimes brings down the gates for people so let me say that all this means is that you are creating a person, your person. You are simply going to put some words down on paper, and even some images for a vision board, of what this person is all about.  Going through this process helps you to know your Ideal Customer intimately.  Understand what makes them tick, what makes them energised, what worries them, what they think about, where they go, where they hang out and more.

Why do this?

Because it will help you focus. It will help your copywriter understand who they are talking to. It will help your designer understand who they need to appeal to. It will help you create offers and products that are right for this person’s life.

Here is my favourite technique I use, over and above answering a series of questions, to help me create this person.

Create a story about a day in the life or this person, or a week in the life of this person, or about a holiday this person has every year that they cant live without.

When you do this think about every single detail.

What is the first thing they do in the morning when the alarm goes off? Go for a run, meditate, hit snooze?

What do they think about while they are having a shower? What to wear, a big presentation they have that day, why the kids are screaming in the kitchen already?

Where do they go when they leave the house? Work at home, work in an office, school drop off, the gym, yoga, back to bed?

How do they get there? Car, train, bike, walk?

What do they listen to in the car? Nova, talk back, triple M, an audio book on self love?

While they are at work what are they thinking about? What they are going to make for dinner, who are they going to have a drink with that night, do I look fat in this skirt, did Steve seriously just ask me out on a date?

For lunch they? Go to the local café and get a sandwich, make their own green juice smoothie, eat leftovers packed by the missus’, or go to the pub to catch up with a mate?

The afternoon consists of? Walking the dog, a session at the gym, coffee with a friend, meeting a client, picking the kids up?

For dinner they? Go out with their husband for date night, are lucky to get a toastie in if they try, have a meal with the family, go on a first date?

At night they watch on TV? The Good Wife, Q&A, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, The Footy Show, Real Housewives?

When their head hits the pillow at night what do they think of? Will the kids wake in the night, what 3 things am I grateful for today, how am I going to get through the day tomorrow, excitement about the day ahead?

Dive deep into your person’s life, thinking about how they feel, what they do, and how you can help them.

Still not convinced? Here is an example of one I did some time ago for a client.

I LOVE doing this I have to say – have fun with it!  And just let it flow, remember this is for you, no one else is going to judge it.  Its all about helping you be the best version of your brand or business for your person and your tribe.

Enjoy!

Let us try to shift our mindsets for a change. Instead of viewing our competitors as someone that we have to beat, perhaps we can come up with ways on becoming partners within the industry. There are several ways that you can do this

• Joint ventures
• Strategic alliances
• Collaborative research
• Synergistic partnerships

Each of the above requires you to ‘make friends with the enemy’ even if it is only for a period of time. It brings changes to the scenery. You get to sit down as civilised people and combine your resources with theirs to create something amazing that will bring bigger benefits to the customers.

So life is not a Disney movie. Not all partnerships ended with happily ever after and everyone goes home to bed with deers and bunnies scattering scented rose petals in front of them. In order to keep the partnership going strong and avoid potential conflicts, keep these following tips close to you :

Write everything down

Have a written agreement that lays out the terms, conditions, purpose and outcomes of working together. What are the benefits to be gained from this? Are all parties getting equal share of the workload and incentives? Not everything has to be 50/50 as long as there is clarity on all sides.

Relationship

Since you are going to work closely with this particular person (or group of people) for a certain period of time, I highly recommend that you choose those whom you do get along with outside the business arena or the ones whom you admire and favour their style. It is definitely easier when you start a relationship based on mutual trust and respect rather than trying to combine fire with ice.

Confidentiality

Working together can cause sensitivity and confidentiality issues to come up. All parties will learn how the other person works and may also be privy to ‘in-house secrets’. It is no doubt an uncomfortable feeling to have. Hence the previous 2 tips are important – have a written agreement and only work with those who have integrity built into their vision. With any opportunities, there will be risks. Being prepared can help you minimise those risks and unpleasant surprises.

Open up and stay away

As humans, we are the same and yet different. We can love and hate the same people just as we can accept working with our competitors. Open up your mind to learning about each other and stay away from passing on negative remarks directed to the other party. Regardless of whether you are further ahead of the game or lagging behind, there is always new knowledge to gain from all partnerships.

Nothing is forever

When you and your competitor decide to be allies instead of being opponents never assume that this is ongoing throughout the lifetime of your businesses. There are limits as to how much and how long you can work together. It is perfectly alright to step away when either party feels that the benefits of the alliance are waning. Lay out everything clearly from the start including how long the partnership will go for and the reasons for breaking up. This will give all parties the mutual comfort to walk away with no hard feelings.

The next time you feel stagnant in your business or if you are seeking for additional resources on a new project, how about looking over the fence and asking a competitor for a hand?

Have you ever had a successful partnership with a competitor? What did you learn from working together?

 

Don’t miss Cassie’s Fearless Trailblazer tele summit on right now!

 

Cassie Lee (link to www.cassiejene.com) helps entrepreneurs to be fearless, have fun and to create a rewarding business.She is a creative life + business coach whose mission is to guide busy entrepreneurs to achieve their life & business goals while being fearless (go punch that inner critic), having fun (if it is not fun, we say bye-bye) and staying fulfilled (aka satisfied) all the way.Grab a copy of her free Ebook  (link to http://www.cassiejene.com/free-ebook-you-are-what-you-think/) “You are What You Think” as the first step towards developing your ideal mindset for some serious action taking.

 

It’s not that hard is it? Marketing is all about building relationships with your customers and that usually starts with acknowledging their presence somehow.  And if you can do it in person even better!

Around the corner form my house the 2 closest petrol stations and convenience stores are both 7-11’s.  There is almost nothing in terms of what I need that set’s them apart – petrol / 7-11 stuff / my banks ATM.

Except this.  Every time I walk into one of them whoever is behind the counter says “Hello, how are you?”. We have a little chat. I get my goods and before I leave they say “Have a good day”.

At the other one they don’t say hello, they barely even smile, they do respond when I attempt conversation with them but thats about the extent of it.

Which one do you think I will be going to from now on?

This is so simple to do and for those that don’t just say hello, such a big missed opportunity to build a genuine connection with their customer – there are many opportunities in each of your businesses to interact with your potential customers in some way – don’t miss them!

And if you find they don’t really happen naturally think about how you can create them.

 

I think this is one of the most misunderstood concepts in marketing – what exactly is ‘good value’?

The first answer to this is that value DOES NOT EQUAL cheap / inexpensive / lowest price. Unfortunately thats what many people think.

To answer this question you need to know your customer and know what value means to them.  What’s valuable to me might be completely meaningless to someone else. The best way to illustrate this is by example.

The owner of a brand new BMW 4WD might think they have got really good value buying the car they have because it gives them everything they need and want and it was exactly the price they thought they should pay for it – even though to someone else that might just be the most extravagant purchase they could not even consider because they can’t see the value in spending that much on a car.

A mum who goes to her local cafe with 3 year old twins might think this place offers her great value even though the muffins are $7 because every time she goes in there they bring out the colouring in equipment that keeps them happy for 5 minutes while she finishes her coffee.  Where her dad might walk in to the same cafe and think that price is outrageous for one muffin!

Someone who has a racing club membership that allows them to go to all the big racing carnival events as well as anything in between might think that the $600 they pay for this each year is grey value because of the joy they get out of he time they spent there – they wouldn’t give it up for anything!  Their friends who are into surfing and would only ever go to the biggest race meeting of the year to have a drink with their friends might think that is way too much money for a membership and would never see the value in it.

An entrepreneur who pays a business coach $10,000 to take her through the first six months of launching her business might think this is worth every single cent because she knows that in the end this is going to be the best money she has spent; this could be the difference between doing OK and kicking serious butt in her business, but her boyfriend might think this is totally not worth it because he just doesn’t understand the value in having a business coach.

A husband who buys his wife a $10,000 eternity ring might think this is great value because the gratitude and love he gets in return for this from his beautiful wife is where the value is for him but his mates might think that’s hilarious he spent so much money! I could be dreaming about this one maybe this is not such a great example… 😉

You can see that this list is never-ending, what I am trying to show you is that value is all about perception.  Your customers perception of what value is for them.  And perception is reality so it is HUGELY important that you have a really clear understanding of what value is for your customers.

And if you don’t know ask them – please!

I hope this post adds some value to your marketing.

Kate

You have a dream. A vision. A wish. An idea. A belief. A spark. Call it what you want to, but it is there.

This is where it all starts and that is what is so romantic about building your own business.  Now it is important to take this seed of inspiration and work out what you need to do to make it grow.

There are so many quotes on exactly this topic I could write my whole post with quotes, tempting but I better not!  You could call this making a plan. A business plan, a marketing plan. Or a strategy.  Or a roadmap.  But that might put you off or build a barrier that you can’t get past so what I would love you to do is just think about your business in the future.

What does it look like?

What do you need to do now to start your business?  As in literally, today, what could you do that would take you one step closer to your business becoming real and not just a wish?

Then, what would you have to do in one month to make sure your business continued to grow & be nurtured? And the month after that? And so on.

If writing a big old plan just sounds like a bloody nightmare for you, and honestly something you are just not going to do,  just start to map out the steps you could take so that in 12 months time it will be looking like the vision you have in your head. Just start by writing down 12 steps you could take in the next 12 months.

Or, if that doesn’t work for you, think about where you are now, and ask yourself if you want to be in exactly the same plan in a year – because that is where you will be if you don’t look forward in your business.

There is this wonderful shift that you will find starts to happen when you at the very least take these small steps and it’s called momentum.  I’m writing about this now because, despite what I do for other people, I have to be honest with you sometimes I struggle to right my own plans. And sometimes this stops me in my tracks, yep, ridiculous I know! But when I get like this I find if I just do one thing after another that gradually the shift occurs and the momentum builds and I am back on track to growing my own business again.

This post might just be one of those little steps.  And I’m very pleased to be back with you again, and looking forward to a bright future…

Kate 🙂

I’m still an intelligent person with a hell of a lot to offer in this marketing and business world.  When I had my three children I gave birth to three little miracles that I am so grateful to have in my life – but I didn’t give birth to my brain!

I’m writing this because I know I’m not the only mum of young children who has started to doubt her ability just because she has had a brief time away from the world she has spent years and years working in.  Or the only one who thought for a minute that my MBA had somehow become irrelevant because I had spent an oh so brief time as full time mum.

I admit, there were some people on my return to work who may have contributed to this questioning myself, but really it was still my thing.  Once I had actually spent some time back in this space I could take great comfort in looking around me and knowing that I still knew, I still got it, and I still cared enough to want to keep it up.

Not only that – and this is the best part – I had a whole new perspective. A whole new way of seeing, of understanding and of developing empathy – for customers, for co-workers, for leaders, for team members.  Brilliant!

The value I can bring to the workforce hasn’t declined at all it has increased dramatically – I can’t believe I didn’t realise this sooner!

No matter how you chose to return to the workforce please don’t doubt that you still have something worth giving, that you are really valuable, that you are totally worth it.  Don’t let anyone tell you you should accept less than what you deserve because you have been on maternity leave – in fact, you know what, tell them the day will come when they realise how inappropriate it was to say that to a new mum.

And of course, if you are a mum or dad reading this you know what the best bit about all of this is don’t you?  Coming home to the little miracle that gave you a whole new and improved perspective on things, every day.

Celebrate the new improved you and get back out there and kick some butt, you’ll get your groove back in a flash!