When you're DESPERATE for clients...

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Hello, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Happy Sunday, everyone. Happy long weekend. I know for my US People and my UK People. US we have Labor Day uk. You have a bank holiday, which I don't know if you name your bank holidays. That's actually a question I'm curious about. So if you're tuning in from the uk, I'd love to hear the answer. Today I want to talk about what it's like and what the process of being desperate for clients actually does to you and your business. Okay, so going to be diving into this. This is day four of me going live every single day this month for four days. And I'm very excited for this. Just to let you know, some housekeeping. So I am going live to the Facebooks, to LinkedIn, to YouTube, to Twitter. And I had some issues with the audio on LinkedIn. Yesterday. I reached out to Streamyard. They were having a ton of reports of bad audio to LinkedIn. So it is literally just a problem with LinkedIn. So if you're tuning in or if you're watching this later from LinkedIn, I highly recommend going to one of my other sources to watch this when I'm done. I should have done this when I was posting this, but too late. Oh, well, when I'm done, if I hear that there's the same audio problems today, then I will put the link for the other channels in the comments. You can go and watch it. There's. Okay, so let's dive into the topic. This is, you know, when you are desperate for clients. Now, we all know how this feels, right? When, if you've started a business and you need to take clients to make money, there's that beginning stage where it just doesn't happen the way you expect. Okay. I can tell you this is hardest for my clients who come from a sales background. Okay, so say you sold cars in a previous career. You have a quota. Your company sets your quota. Your company's been around for a couple decades. It knows on average how many cars you should be able to sell in a month. Okay. And generally, if you're a good salesperson, if you do your work, you can hit that goal. You can hit that goal, you can make your bonus, everything works out and you're happy at the end of the month. And. And then you do it all over again. The Next month and the next month and the next month and so on, so forth. That is for an existing business. Okay? If you are starting a business on your own, that consistency is not going to happen for a while. So if you're. If you're in those beginning stages, I just want you to take a deep breath with me right now, okay? And let it go. Okay? The consistency will come as you build the habits of taking action. The only thing you can control right now in your business is the action you take, not the results you get, okay? The action you take is the only thing that you can control, okay? The action you take is also what you're thinking, okay? The action you take is also the mental game. And one of the things that up the mental game is being desperate for clients. Okay? So let's talk about that. So when you're desperate for clients, basically what happens is you are mentally all over the place. You are ready to settle for absolutely any client that. That stumbles through the door who may or may not be perfect for you. You're so, so desperate for clients that sometimes you discount yourself even though you know your work is worth more. You're so desperate for even the smallest amount of money to be coming in the door that you settle for clients that you know you shouldn't. Okay? Now, one of the things that happens very often for my clients or for people who are desperate for clients is they start falling for canduitis, okay? They get candidis, and it's a very deadly disease. It's one of the things that I work on with my clients. They can avoid it. And it's basically you hear all these different little problems out there in the world that you could probably help someone with. You're like, oh, yeah, I can. I can help with that. Yeah, I can help with that. So say you're a carpenter who specializes in building decks for people, and it's just been a really slow year, and someone's like, you know what? Like, we need to build an extension on the house. You know, the carpenter who specializes in building decks is going to say, oh, yeah, I can do that. Even though it's not their specialty, even though it's going to take them longer to do a project like that because they're not familiar with it, okay? Even though they're worried that they might screw it up, okay? So canduitis is one of the most dangerous things to our clients and. And to our businesses. Okay? So. But one of the things about can do itis is that it creates this inner confusion, okay? Creates this inner confusion of, like, what is it that I even do? Like, what is my business? How do I describe what I do? And let me tell you something. A confused buyer never buys, just like a confused seller never sells. So if you're confused about what you do, I guarantee you the world is confused about what you do as well. Right? They're not sure how to utilize you. They're not sure how you are useful to them in their lives. Okay? So if you're in this swirl of I'm desperate for clients, and, yes, let me just, like, do whatever it is that I can do, and, hi, Asher, welcome. Let me just do whatever I can do to get any money in. What you're actually creating is greater confusion out there in the world as to how you can help people, and that's one of the worst things you can do. It's going to make you getting clients that much harder because it's going to take people a little more mental energy and work to even understand what it is that you do when. When you're desperate for clients, when you need those clients to come in, you actually need to become clearer on specifically what it is that you do do and what you do not do. Okay? I'm. I'm a certified coach. I could literally coach on any topic out there. And yet I know that that creates confusion. So if someone comes to me and they're like, hey, Katie, I want career coaching, I say, you know what? That's not what I do. Someone comes to me and says, hey, Katie, I want dating coaching. Like, well, where were you four years ago? And that was my niche, you know, because I started off as a dating coach, and it didn't work. And I say, no, I'm sorry, here's someone else you can go to. If you want to start a business, if you want to get clients, if you want to start making money doing work that you love, that is what I'm useful for, okay? That very specific job, I'm not doing anything else. Okay? So you need to start getting more clear on what it is that you do for clients. Okay? The other side of this is if you're desperate for clients because you need the money, I bet you don't know exactly what's happening with your money. It's become a scary topic. It's become a place of your life or a part of your life that you've kind of sectioned off. You know, kind of like that closet when you're a kid that you were pretty sure monsters were living in. Like, you kind of Stayed away from it. You didn't go and open the door. You didn't check it out. And if you did check it out, like, it was really quick. Like, you opened the door, like, reached and grabbed your scarf and then slammed it shut so that you couldn't see the monster in there. Right now, the less we know about stuff, the more fearful we become. So what you're actually creating by not looking at your money is greater fear about how you're actually, like, completely snowballing this mess of your life down the hill and how it's just going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. Okay? You need to get clear on what is happening with your money. And I know I say that like it's easy. And just the idea of. Of logging into your bank account when you're. When your business is not being successful can make you want to vomit. I know. I've been there. It's not a good feeling. But let me tell you something. Knowledge is power. And if you know exactly how much money you need to make to make it by, I have full faith that you're gonna be able to make it. Okay? If you don't know, if you're not clear on how much money you need to make. Bish one off. I hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly. Hi. Welcome. If you're. If you're not clear on exactly how much money you're gonna make, guess what? The universe isn't clear either. Your clients aren't clear either, okay? You have to know exactly how much money you need to be making or you want to be making. One of the things that I crack up at, and it happens pretty much every single time when I'm on a call with a potential new client and I ask them, you know, how much money do you want to make? I always get these two answers. And the first answer is like, oh, well, I would really, like, just be fine If I made $40,000 a year, and I'd be able to, you know, you know, afford my rent and maybe some electricity and some ramen noodles and, you know, I'd figure out health care somehow. And then I'm like, okay, well, that's a shitty answer, right? Because that doesn't sound like a life. That doesn't sound like a life that I want to live. It doesn't sound like a life you want to live. How much money do you actually want to make so you can live a life that you really want? And then they get really quiet. They get really quiet, and they're like, oh, well, I really want to make $150,000 a year. As if that is, like, out of the realm of possibility. Okay? It's. It's not like you're saying you want to make $2 billion in one year. That's probably not going to happen, right? Unless you're. You're incredibly lucky. I just have an eyelash in my eye. Excuse me, but whatever number you start with as your goal is reverse engineer. Okay, but we have to know what the number is before we can reverse engineer anything. So getting clear on your money. I know, it's scary. It's vomit worthy. Like, do it with a bucket nearby. It's fine. No judgment. But you have to do that. That is the first step. Okay? Now the other side of this is back into the mindset of this. Okay? Is that you. When you're desperate for clients, you're actually not speaking to your higher self. Okay? You're not speaking to your inner leader who knows everything that's possible for you. Okay? That is not the business person Ally that you have inside you that you're working with. The person that you're working with inside you is your what if monster. And your what if monster is that monster. That's like, oh, my God. Well, what if our house burns down? Like, we'll lose everything. And what if the computer breaks? And what if a snake comes out of the toilet and bites our foot off? Like, how are we going to be able to run our business that way? And what if all of our clients start working with us and then they decide they hate us all on the same day. They all want their money back, but we've spent it already. The what if monster is kind of nuts, but very convincing. Except for the snake out of the toilet thing. Unless you live in a tropical area. But your what if monster, what it does is it makes mountains out of molehills. Okay, so maybe you got an email from a client that was like a question about their package, and your what if monster will take that one subject line. You haven't even read the email yet. They'll take the subject line and blow it way out of proportion and turn it into this. This client is unhappy with everything, and your business is going to. To crash and burn. Okay, that's. That's what your what if monster's prime talent is. Okay, you don't really want to listen to the what if monster because here's what happens. What you focus on grows, and your what if monster is going to have all the bad things in. In prime focus area of your. Of your awareness. That's a bad way. Your what if monster is going to have you focus on all the bad things that could happen. And if what you focus on grows, guess what's going to grow in your life? All the bad things. Okay? So when you. When you partner with your what if monster, you're actually manifesting all the shit that you do not want to happen in your life, in your business, instead of all the good things that you want to create in your life and business. Okay. You're manifesting nightmares instead of your dreams. I don't know about you. My nightmares suck. I don't want them in reality. Okay? So one thing that you can do, or a couple things you can do to counter this what if monster is to stop and celebrate any small, tiny win as they happen. Seriously, the what if monster has not. Has no ability to combat celebration, especially celebration when it came from your effort, when you created the good thing. Okay. And hi, Sean. Welcome. Good to see you. The other thing is practicing gratitude. Being grateful for the circumstances that you have, for the things that you have in your life. The people, the relationships, the success that you've already reached through your own efforts. Being grateful for all those things is another thing that the what if monster cannot handle. And finally getting help, getting help, finding a mentor, learning how to do something that you know is really holding you back in your business, you know? So for instance, if you just do not know how to run a sales call, go and learn. Go and learn how to run a sales call. It's not an impossible skill that you'll never be able to adapt to some of the most talented salespeople, by the way, like they did. They weren't born that way. It's a skill that you learn just like anything else. If you don't know how to market yourself, you're not sure how to get people booked on a call with you. That's learnable as well. Every skill in your business is not something that you are either born with or born without. Okay? You can go and you can seek out help and you can learn how to do it. Okay? So just want to call you out if you're in this position of feeling desperate for clients, of not knowing what's next for you, of freaking out about money and if this was a good idea or not, or, you know, is this just a huge embarrassment? Like, if you're in that position where people are asking you, how's your business going? And you're like, shit, like, do I give them the Real answer or do I lie? I want you to take a deep breath, okay? I want you to take a deep breath with me right now. Part of this is of your own making. You're letting your mindset you up, okay? And the good news about that is that if it is of your own making, you can change it. Okay? And also you have the resources. You are creative beyond measure. You can work this out. You've survived life up until now, okay? And I want you to think back to all the shit you've lived through. Because I've lived through a lot. I know you've lived through a lot. If you got through that, you can get through this, okay? And if you need help, if you, if you're just struggling with one part of your business or a few parts, reach out to me, reach out to other resources that you have in your life and ask for help, okay? Help is there for you when you are ready to take it. All right? But stop. Stop creating confusion in your mind, in your world. Stop with the can do itis. Stop not knowing how much money you want to make and stop letting your what if monster manifest all the nightmares for you, okay? Because we want, we want your higher self, you're inner leader, whatever, whatever you want to call it. We want you partnering with that part of yourself so that you can manifest things you really want. Okay? I believe in you with that. Happy Sunday. Happy long weekend. To those of you who have a long weekend, I will be going live, like I said, every day for the month of September. And Lee, oh, of course, I'm so happy to hear that. Thanks for that feedback. Lee, thank you. For those of you who've joined Asher Bish, and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, Sean and Lee, of course, can't wait to be going live with you tomorrow. And also, if there are any topics that you would like for me to talk about, then just put them in the comments or DM them to me. I'm happy to make this super interactive and go off of what you're looking for. Let me see. Asher. So whole time. Because I'm taking time to refocus and goal set. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I love that. Love hearing that you're refocusing. Even the most successful businesses need to take a beat, refocus and make sure that they are dialed into what they, who they want to serve and what they want to accomplish. So let me see, Sean, as they say, when the what if monster appears, who you're going to call monster Buster. I didn't know that was a saying, but thanks, Sean. Anyway, I release you back to your Sunday. Thank you for joining. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you tomorrow.