How’d you hold up this week?
Me? I did alright.
Wednesday I was challenged to close a sale in 8 minutes. I didn’t, although 3 of my classmates did. But this taught me a valuable lesson: I can’t sell anything without leads. Yes, this is sales-y jargon that used to churn my stomach, too. But I’m in business. And if I don’t have good, solid, qualified leads people interested in what I do, I have no sales.
But I tried. I quickly created a page announcing a special Twitter deal for coaching & announced it to my stream. No takers, but the deal’s still on.
What am I going to do about it?
I’ve been hibernating all winter, barely peeking out my front door to say hi to the mail lady. So I’m going to start getting out of the house more. Start a local meetup for creative entrepreneurs & wannabes. Talk to local arts leagues about quitting the starving artist habit. Hit a craft/art fair a week and talk to artists.
If you’re in business, what have you learned recently? You can leave a comment below if you want.
And since it’s Friday, and I moved my linky posts to Fridays…
Start Clicking!
How to do what you’ve always wanted: Simple, no-nonsense, definitely no woo-woo method to do what you want. Step 1: open it up. Step 2: Make Your Choice. Step 3: Do one thing. And another. And another. As I’m fond of saying: lots of small steps add up to some really awesome stuff.
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Where Passion Met Purpose – How The Creative Entrepreneur Propelled My Biz forward: Another fellow creative who found this book life-changing. You will too. I promise (and if you sign up for my “venti” coaching package, this is one of the first 3 books you get!)
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Ignore Coaches: (at least when it comes to passion…) I’m going out on a limb here, because coaching/consulting is my newest-chosen profession, but read it anyway. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know my views on passion. This shows I’m not alone!
Our passions or appetites may be fickle and hard to satisfy; values rarely are.
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Becoming a better marketer—Part 3: Part 1 and Part 2 all contain excellent marketing advice (for someone who already has a bit of marketing know-how) but I have to link to this one because Yolanda critiqued the Thrive Creative Coaching site. And Yolanda, I will be adding the things you mentioned in your critique. Promise!
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Strategic Planning is for the Birds: Earlier this year I decided to write out a Strategic Plan ala Lisa Sonora Beam. It made me feel awful. Partially because writing out my year in advance felt like shoving me in a painfully small box, and partially because I tend to rebel against any sort of order, even if self-imposed. Thanks for this simplicity, Pam.
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And for good measure (the title says it all): Why Affordable Products Hurt You & Your Customers.
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Did you find any good reads on the internet this week? Share them in the comments below!
