"What you have to give is enough--if you give it with all your heart." --Chieko N. Okazaki For years, I've noticed how many of my clients stopped themselves from marketing because they needed to learn MORE. They'd already gone through the required training, and many were certified, but it was like something strange was in the punch bowl and they were all drinking it: the "I'm Not Enough Yet" fruit punch. Here are some of the things I heard from some clients and workshop participants. Notice the 'enough' theme: I need to learn more to be credible enough. I need to be an expert for clients to want to work with me and since I'm not an expert, then I don't believe I can do it. I'm not good enough, I don't know enough. I don't have enough experience. I haven't studied enough. I'm not as good as my competitors, so I need to be more. Some health practitioners were a perfect example of this. They didn't seem to be ready enough to get out there to attract clients, until they learned more about other holistic modalities: Reiki, herbs, yoga, acupressure, aromatherapy, Chinese Medicine, CranioSacral Therapy, Jin Shin Do, etc. Otherwise, they didn't feel ready to go out there and market themselves in a BIG way. I wondered where this was coming from. Was it a sense of not 'being enough' as a person? Was it a fear of really exposing themselves, meaning, if you're not "ready" to market yourself fully because you don't know enough, then you won't really ever have to expose yourself and be vulnerable. Was it something about having to be a "good girl" and if you weren't perfect, you weren't "good." Perhaps it was the sense that they weren't whole and they needed more to "complete" them. Whatever it was, I knew this was a bottomless pit. They would never end up feeling whole, just continuing to LEARN instead of DOING. What I was sure about, is that if you wait to know it ALL before you get out there and market, you'll never actually get out there in a BIG way. There will always be hesitancy and we all know that "He who hesitates is lost." This is a bit like Perfection Paralysis that I sometimes talk about. Except now, it's a false sense of needing to BE perfect. You don't need to be the expert to do more marketing and to have clients. "Expert" is a relative term. I call myself a Client Attraction expert, but I'm not the only one who talks about marketing your practice so you can fill your practice. And I'm not the one who's been doing it the longest. But I do have a way of doing it that no one else has, not just because of my System, but because of how I deliver the information and WHO I am. My knowledge, my own experiences, my methods, and my energy, all combine to make me different in the marketplace. And it's the same for you. You see, you can be an expert simply because you know more than the average person. Stop anybody on the street and ask them something technical about what you do (and take for granted), and the likelihood is, they won't have any clue what you're talking about. But YOU could do it in your sleep. If you are a holistic healer, knowing a couple of modalities or just simply how to make brown rice without burning the pot is enough to have people want to work with you. Heck, most people haven't eaten brown rice other than in a Chinese food take-out container, let alone know what it's good for! So, in that sense, you ARE an expert and you DO know enough. Dan Kennedy has a great saying: "Good enough is good enough." Yes, you can learn MORE and I recommend you do. For example, I read more books, manuals, and home study systems on marketing, manifesting and self-improvement in a year than most people read in a lifetime. But I'm not waiting 'til I know it all, because I never will and neither should you. But you better believe I'm still out there attracting clients, and so should you. Forget 'Perfection Paralysis'! Just get out there more than you are now and it'll all work itself out. Your Assignment: Don't let the fact that you don't know it ALL stop you from becoming a mini-expert. You know more than the majority of people and these same people NEED you to market yourself so they can find you. They need the solution you provide. Have confidence in what you do and then go for it. Then, as you're working with those clients, continually learn more, build a team of people and resources around you so that you always have someplace to turn for an answer if you don't have it at your fingertips. Clients can wait 24 hours for an answer. They don't care, they just want the answer! Remember, if you know that "Good enough is good enough" and you give it all you've got, you will always be enough and your clients will get just what they need. Now, go out there and do what it takes to fill your practice, OK? That said, if there's ONE thing you do need to know more about, it's marketing your practice. You can be the best 'whatever', but if you don't know how to systematically attract new clients and close the sale, let's face it, you'll never have a full practice. If that's the case, it's time to invest in a step-by-step system that will feel easy and authentic to you. Copyright (c) 2007 Fabienne Fredrickson
Please Rate this Article 5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
