Let it be easy. Using your unfair advantages to grow your business.

Hello and welcome to the Business of Executive Coaching podcast. So I want to talk today about a concept that I have been really, I guess, refining or, or reflecting on a lot over the last few months. And if you've tuned into any of my free masterclasses or, or we've spoken, you might have heard me talk about it. And this concept is this idea that every one of us has a set of unfair advantages when it comes to sales and marketing. And it is a huge opportunity for us if we can figure out firstly, what they are and secondly, how we can use them. But before we get to the nuts and bolts of the unfair advantages we should be playing with and we should be using, there is a bit of a mindset hurdle that might be at play for you. So many of us grew up with a message and it was often explicit, right? Not necessarily all that subtle, that anything worthwhile must involve hard work or struggle of some kind, right? So just think back to your childhood. Did you get that message? And you know, while, while it's not wrong, right? That message that things that are worth having, we have to work or struggle for them, often it's true. But when we have internalized this message, it can also mean that we have trouble letting that are easier for us, that come more naturally or that are simple for us, that, you know, that might be our strengths or our good fortune. It is harder for us to let them be easy. Instead, we then lean into patterns of overthinking, of over complicating, of over revising, of over engineering, right? And the most successful executive coaching business owners let it be easy, right? So let it be easy is, is this theme. So if, for example, they are naturally skilled at something, they let it take less time. If they get a plan or build a plan, they implement it. They let the plan be right instead of assuming it has to be harder than that or subconsciously putting things in the way and complicating it. So I'm wondering if there are any areas you can think of where you might overthink or overcomplicate or, or make things harder than they need to be. I certainly know that I do. And one classic example I see with coaches is when it comes to writing content for LinkedIn in particular. So you could be a fantastic writer, right? And many coaches are. And you write something that's really good, but rather than let it be really good or even great and post it and move on, you have a pattern of ruminating. You go from here's a good bit of writing into oh, but how's it going to be received? What are people going to think of it? Have I made any mistakes? And so you start going into this pattern of doing constant small changes. You go over it, you edit it, you go over it, you edit it. And so what could or should have been a 10 to 15 minute task becomes three hours over multiple weeks. Anyone? Do you recognize yourself in this? Another example I see is that you might have a great and supportive network, right? Personally, professionally. But instead of simply reaching out to those folks to start a conversation about what you're doing, about their business, about the challenges they're having, instead you become quite paralyzed with fears. And they're all natural, by the way. Like, I want to normalize that. But those fears are things like, what if they think I'm annoying? What if they think I'm spamming them? What if they don't like me as much as I think they did? What if they ignore me? What if I only have one shot and I blow it with a crappy message? In other words, we overthink it and we over engineer it. Anyone? I would say that almost all successful coaching business owners have started in this same boat. I certainly did. But the thing that distinguishes people who move on to build, you know, these really thriving businesses is that they develop systems and they work on their mindset to get to a place where they can let it be easy, right? So my goal for you is that you can get to a place where you can let it be easy. Because if you are willing to let it be easy, then you have a chance to use your unfair advantages. Now, to some degree, our unfair advantages are those things that our strengths, right? So the things that we can do that we find easier or quicker or smoother or more effective than somebody else in our position might do. But I want to be a bit more specific than that. And so there are a few very specific unfair advantages you might have or you almost certainly have in some way or another that you should consider and you should identify for yourself. The first one is your network. So the truth is that one way or another, your network is an unfair advantage to you. But how? Well, in a few ways, and this is not so much network, but your, your professional background, which, you know, formed part of your network, but your professional experience grants you a level of credibility, right? But there are people for whom your background will be simply impressive, right? They'll be like, oh, yeah, the good, good experience. But there are other people for whom this background that you have means that you have an unfair advantage when it comes to selling to them. For example, if you have experience in an industry or sector, or you have a particular type of technical training or background, or you've been in a certain type of role, it is highly likely that when it sells comes to selling coaching or coaching adjacent services to people who are in the same industry, sector, technical area, role, or ones that see the benefit of that, that industry, sector or background, then it is going to be much easier for you to sell to those people, all those organizations, because of their existing belief that you understand their context better than someone who does not have that experience. And so for me, my, my example of that is being a lawyer, right? So I was a lawyer in my early career and I decided when I left the law that I wouldn't work with lawyers, right? I didn't want to work with lawyers, I didn't want to work in law firms. I didn't want to be exposed to that anymore just because I was, I really had a sense of wanting to, wanting to change and wanting to shift and I shot myself in the foot, right? That was, that was a decision that did not leverage my unfair advantage, right? Because selling into all of the other sectors that I ended up working in, although it did happen, it was harder than it needed to be. And when I did start working with lawyers, and the truth is that they, they came to me, right? It, it just, I couldn't avoid it. The, the lawyers were in my world. And so I started working with, with law firms. I worked with global law firms, I worked with in house legal teams, I worked with judicial bodies, I worked with law societies, I worked with barristers, you name it, I ended up working with lawyers in all capacities. And the reason I did was that the sales effort for me in those contexts was so much easier, right? It required less of me because those people I was selling into already believed me to be credible, right? I didn't need to convince them that I was credible or that I was professional or, or that, you know, they could trust me. That was already there. And that was an unfair advantage for me when it came to selling my services. So know, similarly, whatever organizations you might have worked in, there are other organizations generally smaller organizations than those ones or ones that are growing, you know, competitors even for whom your work with those organizations represents either an aspiration or an insight that they do not yet have. And so you are by proxy perceived to have those insights, that status, those ideas, which means that you're perceived to bring additional value. And that is an unfair advantage when it comes to selling and marketing. And you might say, but Ellie, coaching is context agnostic. I do not need to be an expert in an industry in order to be an effective coach there. And you are absolutely right, you do not. Coaching is context agnostic and you probably heard me say this a number of times, but selling is not context agnostic. Selling is highly context dependent and it is highly based on perception of credibility. And that's what these unfair advantages. There is also a potential unfair advantage that exists in our networks when we look a layer deeper, right? So once we know who is in our network, then we can figure out who are the advocates in there, who are the decision makers, who are the likely referral sources. And in this, I'm including your personal networks. Now this is the one that makes people really cringe. The idea of asking for help from their personal network, asking for connections, asking for referrals, asking for work. But it might just be this network that makes the difference between a business that grows and one that languishes. For example, if someone in your book club is the head of HR in one of your ideal client companies, then you need to go for it. Of course, you do need a strategy that you feel comfortable with. And we talk a lot inside the corporate to coach accelerator about strategies for reaching out to these folks, you know, successfully and in a way that feels good, but you have to do it. So I've touched on a few examples and I want you, you to take some time to really think about what sets you apart in this way. What are your unfair advantages, particularly when it comes to sales and marketing? So are they, you know, they might be strengths in terms of, you know, your ability to, to write or, or to connect with people. Like, you might have this, you know, incredible ability to connect with people through, through outreach messages. Right? Use it. But how is your professional background an advantage? Right. That might also be an unfair advantage. And who is it an unfair advantage when you think about where that credibility lies? What other. Who are the personal or professional connections that you have that might represent unfair advantages and what else? Right? I want you to brainstorm it. Think about it. I would love to hear what your unfair advantages are. So please head over to LinkedIn, send me a message, comment on a post, or you can book a call with me@elliscarf.com bookacall and that will be in the show notes as well. And I'd love to talk about your business and your unfair advantages and how you could leverage them and also whether you'd be a good fit for the corporate to coach accelerator if you want to take it to the next level. So, on that note, I'll see you next week where I have got a really amazing guest for you. The wonderful Denise Duffield. Thomas. Okay, talk soon.