047. What's Missing from Most Marketing Strategy that's Holding Us Back

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello my friends, how are you? Welcome to the podcast. This week I am just rounding out my week, finishing up and it's a, I don't know, 90 something degree day here and I just let my dog Ginger in and she's now sitting in my office sitting behind me, panting. So if you see her or hear her panting in the background, I'm sorry, but we're working with what we're working with. She wants to be near me. So that's what's happening. But I wanted to talk with you today about what I see is missing from most marketing strategy. And I often. Well, I know that it's holding us back. It held me back for a long time until I gained awareness and I see it hold my clients and others that I talk back. And so I wanted to just talk about this because this really is why I teach marketing the way I teach marketing. And it's all based on what I learned from my own failures, because failure is often our best teacher. And so in this case, it definitely was because it really opened up so much for me as far as what I decided I wanted to create in the world. So, so yes, I learned what I'm going to teach you today from my own failures. And it's really, it was kind of little failures along the way in the early years of my business. And then my biggest failure, what I consider like my biggest failure, I don't know if it's like huge, but it's just was, I think the most heartbreaking failure, which was a few years ago, I created an online course and I spent thousands of dollars to learn how to create online courses and to launch this course multiple times. And each time I did, I thought I needed to improve my marketing or do better or spend more, be in more places. But as the launches went on and on, the interest and response level went down and down. And at the end of the day, all I sold was one seat in this course. And I didn't break even. And I felt awful about it. I was really heartbroken about it because I know, I knew that the course was, and you may have heard me tell this story before, but I knew the course was beautiful and so valuable and full of so much goodness, but it was like I just couldn't get people into it, right? And so I kept asking myself, what went wrong here? Like, what went wrong? And I was just seeking an answer, seeking an answer. And that's when I discovered mindset work and that it was what I was thinking, not the course or the marketing that was standing in the way. I learned that my thoughts create my feelings and that creates the energy that I was taking out into the world. And so it all began to come together and make sense. Once. Once I came to that awareness and learned that and found coaching because the thoughts I was having as I was trying to launch this course was, were not, you know, helpful thoughts. The thoughts I was thinking about myself, my course, my business were like, it wasn't good enough. People don't want this. Who am I to create this and sell it? And so taking those thoughts and that energy out into the world and try to sell from there and thinking back, it's like it made perfect sense why no one was buying, right? But you know, even though it was a sad realization, it was so freeing because you know what? I can change all of that. I learned I could change the way I was thinking, I could change the way I was feeling, and I could change the energy with which I was going out into the world. And what I had been doing was waiting on my would be buyers or students to validate me and validate my worthiness, validate my value, which of course is not their job and they couldn't do it anyway, even if. Even if they wanted to, right? Because really our value, our worth comes from inside of us and what we believe about ourselves. And so from that time on, I realized that it is my and learned, I should say I learned this from my coaches and my mentors, that it's my job to believe in my offer. It's my job to believe in myself. It's my job to believe. To believe in my business and the value that I offer and then the level of conviction and passion I display and determination is directly related to the excitement and the willingness that my clients have to give me a shot, right? To work with me, to listen to my ideas and my advice. So what this means regarding marketing and for small businesses like us, and I'm not talking about big corporate marketing, I think I see it as two very different things, like big business, you know, medium, mid and. And large businesses. Corporate marketing is very different than what you and I are doing as small businesses. We are building personal brands, right? People buy from us because they know us personally or because they're able to Interact with us, even if, you know, we don't know them, but through the value that we directly offer people. So, so what this means for us as small businesses is that the level to which we believe in ourselves, our business, our offer, our value, will determine the success of our marketing plan. And so for so many years, I was getting it backwards, right? I was thinking that the, the level or the perfection, I guess, of my marketing plan was what was going to create the belief that it was actually a good product or offer or service. And then that would create my belief and my confidence. You see how that. Backwards. So, you know, I get asked all the time, like, what is the one marketing thing that I can do that will just open up the floodgates of client, clients and money. We all, and I have this still too, right? It's like we think we want this, the one thing that's going to do it for us. And I get asked about that all the time. I see new trends and new things come up and I'm like, oh, maybe that's it, you know, that's the one thing. But really, my friends, it's, you know, to the dismay of people that ask me this question, I tell them, what I'm going to tell you now is it's not one thing. It's not one. It's not TikTok, it's not Reels, it's not posting three times a day at 6pm or algorithm, you know, hacking or whatever, or email marketing or cold calling or texting or whatever kind of marketing tactic, strategy that you can think of, they all work. They all work, okay? They all work. Whatever you want to do to market your business and yourself, it's gonna work because of you, right? All those things, TikTok, Reels, Instagram, Facebook, it's all just tools. Just like a hammer is a tool, right? But what they all need, including the hammer, what they all need to work is you. It's you. It's your passion, your conviction, your message, your why the change you seek to make in the world, the change, the, the, the way you provide your product or service, it's you that really makes the marketing magic. So you are the one thing. And even if you don't know how to use the tool perfectly, it doesn't matter. Like, I don't know my reels, I do reels all the time and they are not fancy, they're not all this, like, you know, transitioning and lots of pictures. Most of them are just me talking and putting my ideas out into the world. But it doesn't matter, right? I show up in that way with everything I've got. And so, so it's you showing up in belief in possibility and confidence that who you are and what you do and the value you offer to your best fit client and what you provide is the greatest value and service to that client, right? It's that belief that and managing your thoughts around that is what creates money, creates value, creates clients. So when we really understand this and learn this, and when you show up in that way in belief and match that with really great marketing strategy, that's fun and aligned with how you want to show up, you can't help but be successful and have a great time, right? And so this is why I absolutely love what I'm doing now. What what I love coaching and marketing coaching and business coaching because this is how I do it. I talk and I match the mindset and the belief work with really great marketing strategy that I've been working with for 20 years in my career. And that together is the magic for my business, for my clients, right? So this is the work I absolutely love doing because I'm on a mission. I want to help every single entrepreneur within the sound of my voice. I know you're out there to create the belief and the marketing strategy to take your business wherever you dream of, wherever you want it to go, to help you make as much money as you want to make and have the biggest impact that you can. And I know you can. And here's how I'm going to give you three steps to help you begin this work of creating belief, of creating the mindset that you can then match with really great marketing strategy. So are you ready? Number one step, number one is connecting with your why, why you do what you do, the change you want to create in the world, your vision, your mission for why you're here, what you value, what you want to build and create with the business that you have and the skills and the experience that you have. And so this is work I do myself on almost a daily basis, like, and I'll tell you why a little bit later, but this is how we go out into the world in this kind of energy, right? So if I get up in the morning and in my quiet time, I'm thinking about my thoughts, about myself as a coach, and I'm thinking about my clients and how amazing they are and how brilliant and how honored I am to serve them, right? And I think about and. And my business and the team that I have, and I think about why I do What I do, it gets me all in a whole different energy, right? And then I love going out into the world, serving my clients, creating marketing, making reels, whatever it is in that energy. So step one, connect with your why and do it often. Step two is to cultivate your belief that you are the number one best person on this planet to provide your product or service to your best fit client. And this is work I do with all of my clients around your unique business value and how you communicate that out. And it's all centered around how you operate, how you do business like no one else, how you provide your product or service like no one else, just because of who you are, your unique traits, your unique experiences, the knowledge that you have, the education you have, and how that all meshes together in such a beautiful way that your clients absolutely love, right? They're delighted. And that's part of your value. The value that the business value that you offer is you do it like no one else. I don't care what you're doing, what you're selling, what product, what service, you do it like no one else. And so just really step into that and cultivate that. That is your unique brilliance and it is just right for your best fit clients, right? And so I like to encourage my clients to collect evidence of, collect evidence of the value, business value that you provide to your clients. Like, for example, if you get, you know, notes, thank you notes, or positive reviews or emails or comments on your social posts, just collect all of that and go back to it. So it's a, it's really great for training our minds, training our brains to remember that we are making a difference, we are serving, and that people are listening and watching and that we can have an impact on them, right? And so just cultivating that belief, because I believe it a hundred percent that every person walking on this earth has value to offer. Now not all of us choose to turn that into a business, that's totally fine. But I know that you probably did because you're here on the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast. So you're here because of the business part. So you have value to offer, right? So I want you to cultivate your belief in that and then cultivate step three is cultivating your belief in your clients and that clients are all around you, that they want what you have to offer, right? That they are one decision away from that transformation that they're going to experience in working with you. And so I would ask you, like, how do you, or how can you think about your potential clients that is going to keep you actively showing up for them and reaching out and, you know, blasting through your comfort zone to show up for them, to market to them, to reach out to them. So for me, some thoughts have been, for example, clients are all around me. I think that's a thought that I love to practice. Or my showing up today could be the answer to someone's prayer. I love that one. And I only say that. I mean, I'm not saying that to be, like, full of myself or anything, but it comes from me feeling this way, thinking this way about others that have showed up bravely for me and been an answer to my prayer. Like my coaches, my mentors, even my hairdresser. I tell her, you are such an answer to prayer. Right? So it's possible you are an answer to somebody's prayer today. Right? So when you use these three steps, Step one, connecting to your why on a daily basis. Step two, cultivating your belief that you are the number one best person to provide your product or service. And number three, cultivating your belief in your clients that they're all around you and they want what you have to offer. Those three steps will get you on the way to creating this mindset. This, which is only just a collection of thoughts that is going to really fire up and energize everything you go out and do. When you're marketing, when you're having sales conversations, when you are providing your service or selling your product, it's going to come through in all of that and it's going to be extremely attractive to your best fit client. Right? So when you use the steps, you build your belief and apply it to great marketing strategy, you can't help but attract all the business and money that you want that you can handle and feel really, really great doing it, because it's really fun energy. Right? So Ginger's staring up at me. She's, like, captivated by my words. So if you feel like that you've tried everything to market and sell that it's. I want to just offer. It's probably not what you're doing that you need to change. You're probably doing all the right things. Okay? All the right things. You don't have to change any of that. It's likely just some tweaks and changes around what you're thinking and believing. And this is work that I love to do with my clients. Right. I can help you untangle it all. And as a coach, I work with my clients one on one with this to help them build their belief and cultivate that confidence. And then together we plan and apply winning marketing strategy that creates those results that you've been busting your butt to get for so long. So if you feel like you've been trying too hard, it's probably because of what you're thinking. And so I would love to help you if this is something that you would like. My my input on your first step is to just schedule a conversation with me, one on one and over zoom. We can chat about you and your business and we'll figure it all out. And you can just walk away from that conversation, knowing exactly your next steps and having all of that clarity right around your marketing and what you're thinking so that you just clear away all the obstacles between you and your goal. So if that sounds like something you're interested in, you can visit my website, you can check my schedule there, or you can click the link in the show notes. And that's what I have for you today, my friends. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon and see you next time. Bye. If you like this podcast, then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training, Grow youw Sales Doing what you love, where I teach you in depth. My simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.