Mary Schiller tells Three Principles coaches that genuine generosity builds a thriving practice. She launched a free daily audio blog in 2015, gained visibility and followers, then attracted paying clients once she offered services. The challenge: find ways to give consistently without expecting payment in return.
Hello there, it's Mary Schiller, author and chief permission granter at MarySchiller.com. It is day 3 of our business success Challenge, and this video series is primarily for people in the Three Principles Community who want to create a beautiful, lucrative, helpful, impactful coaching practice. So in our first day's video, I challenged you with the question, are you working on a business or are you engaging in a hobby? In the second day's video, I asked you to challenge yourself to bring more of yourself and your story into your business. In this video, day 3, I'm going to talk about something else that is discussed quite a lot in the business community and elsewhere, but again, it's something that I don't see a lot of people actually doing on a consistent basis. And that is giving. Giving. Now, you've probably heard people say that, you know, in the business world, the more you give, the more you get back. And I can tell you that without a doubt, that has been true for me. When I really began focusing on giving I noticed a dramatic, dramatic upturn in my ability to create a business for myself. It was almost like there was no need to sell because people began to see me in a lot of circles. My name started to be, be more circulated, and people saw me putting something out there at that time on a daily basis. In the fall of 2015, I started a daily audio blog called The Daily Principles. And initially, I didn't do it for a business purpose because I wasn't in business related to the 3 principles. I had a job that was completely unrelated to the principles. I did it because I wanted to see if I could create a daily message an audio message related to the principles. Well, after a few months of that and then losing my full-time job, and people really knew who I was, I had developed quite a following on there, and it really was incredibly helpful in getting clients. In fact, uh, the day that I decided to become a professional coach and I had a website up that was kind of so-so, but it was there anyway. And the day that I put pricing up for coaching, I got people saying yes. And it was because I was giving consistently, and I wasn't giving from a place of, you know, maybe this will get me business. It was, I wonder if I could create a daily message that would help people. And That is where this is really coming from. You know, there's nothing worse than interacting with someone who is giving something to you and you know it's because they want a favor in return, right? But when we come from a spirit of true generosity, it really impacts people because that isn't something that we encounter very often in this world. Let's face it, you know, If you think about the people that you interact with, whether in business or personal life, the ones that you're probably really drawn to are the ones who give a lot of themselves, who are there for you, who are there to support you and help you when you need them, who are consistent, and you know that you can rely on them. Well, that's really all we're talking about here. It's being consistently available and helpful to people who really need you. And when and if the time comes that they want to have more of you, they will be willing to compensate you for your time and for the value that you have given to them and that they know that you will give to them. I realize that this does sound counterintuitive because you're kind of like, well, if I keep giving, giving, giving, you know, won't people get what they need without ever talking to me? Well, some of them will. Some of them will. There are probably hundreds and hundreds of people— I know there were because I remember the statistics on my site— who listened to my audios and who never received coaching from me. But that's okay because the core of what I'm trying to do is share these principles. And there are always going to be people who want to take that to the next level that you can only do through some other kind of service or product. And people are willing to do that. So if you look, for instance, at even within the Three Principles Community, the people who are most successful, look at how much they do give without getting anything except a thank you. You know, they, they give lots and lots of their time. They run free groups. They produce free programming, podcasts and radio shows and, and all kinds of things. And I really feel like a lot of people who want to build their own business, whether it's a coaching business or some other kind of business, don't really get this piece of it, that it isn't about asking, it's about giving. And when you give, it makes it a lot easier to then receive because you are entitled to receive as well. That's part of how this value exchange works. So for today's challenge, I really want you to look at yourself and what you're doing related to building your coaching practice and see, how much am I giving? How much am I really giving to people and not asking for anything in return? And if you really look at that and you decide, you know, I'm not giving as much as I really need to be or really want to, then start to give more. Figure out some ways that will be inspiring and fun for you to give more to people. That can take lots of different forms, so I don't want to, you know, try to dictate what that should be for you. It should be something that you enjoy. But be consistent about it and be free with it. Don't hold back. Give, give, and give some more. So thanks for listening, and I will talk to you in the next video. See you soon.
