Find YOUR Way To Run Your Business!

Find YOUR way to run your own business.     Are you running and marketing your business based on the ‘exact 10 steps’ someone else used?     Or using techniques with an energy of ‘this doesn’t feel right’ but doing it anyway because it’s worked for other people?     How’s it working out for you?   Recently I attended a 3 day workshop to complete a diploma in internet marketing (even though I have a Bsc degree in communications, 15 years experience in media and over 2 years in my own business…but my ‘need’ for pieces of paper to validate my knowledge is a story for another day and another episode ha!). I left feeling totally flat, and a little miffed to be honest.   For a long time the online marketing ‘tactics’ have been bothering me.     I see more and more, the ways in which people try to manipulate, hard sell and let’s be honest downright ‘dupe’.   The ‘live’ webinars that aren’t live, even down to pretending you can chat to the host…but for some reason there must be a bug when you use it.    All the times you see ‘I know I shouldn’t do this BUT’ posts…*enters another funnel.   The #vulnerability and thinly veiled sales pitches in groups…we all see you!   The countdown timers that just start counting down again and the offer doesn’t ‘disappear’.   The affiliate marketing for some seriously shady products.  Rule of thumb…if you don’t want to put your name or your face to it, you probably shouldn’t be selling it!   The ‘we had so many people upset they missed the deadline so we’ve reopened for 24 more hours’ or ‘we’ve literally JUST come up with this payment plan and reopening for 24 more hours’.   Suggesting to affiliate for systems you’ve never used, programmes you’ve never been through, without a care in the world for the people at the other end who buy.   A lot of this was covered at the training.  Urgh!   I took my husband who is SUPER anti marketing and I honestly thought he might pluck his own eyes out at some points.   When questioned about how to sell something less tangible than the ‘make 6 figures in 6 months’ claims the response was simply…‘change what you’re selling.’    I choose to be different.  I won’t make wild claims that need a disclaimer or to have ‘not typical results’ displayed next to it.     I won’t ‘own’ results that my clients have got because THEY’VE done the work, I know what it feels like because i’ve had it done to me!   I’m just here to facilitate, teach, coach and mentor them to where they want to be using all the knowledge i’ve spent years, and paid a flippin fortune to learn.   Does this mean it’s harder? Yes absolutely.     But am I in integrity and building my business the way I want to?  Yes, absolutely.   Do I sleep well at night? Yes absolutely.   Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes, understanding the psychology of why people buy can be just as helpful for the person BUYING as the person selling, so I get it, I really do, and a lot of it I really do agree with.       Limited availability and time sensitive offers can help us invest in ourselves when issues of worth may have stopped us before.   It can help us make the right decision for us, get us off the fence and i’ve been grateful for it more than once.     Change is hard and our brain will work against us every step of the way because it’s misguided intentions are to keep us safe.     We make it harder on ourselves, and often the sense of relief when i’ve made the decision to invest in something high ticket is liberating.   I wouldn’t have got here if it weren’t for some of the tactics.   But, when it’s done with integrity and you’re telling the TRUTH.  When there really are only X numbers of spots. And the offer really does expire at X time.   Also don’t get me wrong again, I don’t believe EVERY marketer works in this way, there are CERTAINLY people who ARE marketing with integrity.  It just feels like there’s less of them these days because it’s so noisy out there.   It makes me sad when I see people who’ve ‘tried’ all the ‘exact step’ systems and it’s not worked for THEIR business.     Part of the reason for that is they usually miss out a TONNE of the steps before they even tell you what the first is!   It leaves people feeling less than.   It leaves people wondering what’s wrong with them.   In worst case scenarios they accept failure and quit.   I’ve fallen for it too.  I’ve lost count how many of those ‘this is EVERYTHING you need to have a business JUST like mine’ scripts i’ve bought into.     The trouble is, most of the time, I don’t want a business ‘just like theirs’ at all!  I don’t actually WANT to do some of the things they’re telling me to so I sabotage myself and make excuses.   I want MY business, MY way, that fits into MY life, and I’m pretty sure you do too.   You don’t want to be another cookie cutter, there’s more to you than that.  So don’t beat yourself up when someone else’s exact steps don’t work for you, it’s not your fault.   So you need to be honest with yourself about what you ACTUALLY want.     Don’t use any ‘tactics’ that make you feel icky.  (Please do NOT lump sales in general into this one and use it as an excuse not to do it, it’s time to reframe sales into being of service, you have to sell so people know you can help them solve their problems!)   Because guess what, if something is making you feel ‘icky’ you’ll subconsciously sabotage your efforts anyway.   I get that some of these tactics ‘work’ but I do believe the tide is turning and turning fast and they won’t work for long.     The fake ‘live’ webinars, the funnels that get you somewhere for free, upsell you to the next level and then upsell you again.   It’s leaving people in a constant state of feeling like they ‘need’ something else to get heir business to where they want it to go.   Another tactic.   Another strategy.   But you don’t.   You already have the strategy…you just need to work out what’s going on in your noggin, work out how you actually want to run your business, take any learnings you already have or learn from someone you really trust and find YOUR way to market.   It’s no surprise to me that my podcast and Instagram are my biggest audiences.     I actually ENJOY them. They both feel pretty effortless for me to be on.     It’s also no surprise to me that I tend to find clients from things i’ve done in person.  Whether that’s speaking at an event or doing a training in someone else’s group or programme.   I REALLY enjoy in person. I come alive when I’m teaching people what I know. PLUS I am super picky about who I work with, it needs to be right from both sides so meeting them in person works for me.     It’s also how I learn best myself, so in person is a big part of and something I introduced to the 1:1 programmes I offer so I can make sure people learn as much as possible.  And i’m a hugger, let’s be honest!   Due to that, I’m in the rumble at the moment of what I want MY focus to be and how I want to show up ‘online’ without just being another contributor to the noise and make sure i’m making the impact in the right places.     So there will be big (but exciting!) changes afoot in MY business.   This stuff is fluid.  You just need to learn to listen to yourself and be super self aware to notice when you’re sabotaging yourself and most importantly, why.     What thoughts are going on for you?   Where is something feeling ‘off’ or ‘heavy’ and what can you do to change it.   Questioning what YOU want and revisiting that question regularly is SO key.   When you’re creating something or doing something that you either don’t really want deep down, or that feels out of whack with your values you WILL sabotage yourself.   When your unconscious is running the show and you have ingrained habits and belief systems that aren’t aligning with what your conscious is trying to do it WILL sabotage your efforts.   So what do you LOVE in your business and how you market it right now?  What do you want to change?   Please give yourself a break if you’ve tried an ‘exact’ step method and it hasn’t worked for you.  They’ve either not given you the whole story or your unconsciously sabotaging it. You’ve just got to find YOUR thing.  The thing that you LOVE doing and a way you LOVE marketing.   Just remember, there are people out there doing it.  If it’s possible for them it’s possible for you. 100%.  Choose who you want to learn from and model how they’re doing it.   Don’t sacrifice your integrity and your values because someone is telling you it’s the only way, because it isn’t!     If you got value from this and you know in your gut that now is the time to step up and start rewiring your thinking and changing things for yourself then book in a free discovery call so we can work out what needs to happen to get you from where you’re at right now, to the action taking success you know you can be!! If you want my eyes and ears on YOUR problems I work with people 1:1, through the Proactive Pants Programme and 1:1 full day intensives, stop waiting for if and when and decide to change things now! Fx Fran Excell, Subconscious Success Mentor – Helping Business Owners Overcome Self Sabotage & Get More Done In Less Time at www.franexcell.com RESOURCES: Check out The Positive Pants Podcast here Download your FREE Stressed To Success Meditation here Shop Printables & Meditations here Grab your 365 day ‘Attitude Of Gratitude’ Journal here Grab Your ‘Positive Pants Firmly On’ Notebook here Book In a Free 20 Minute Discovery Call here