Give Yourself a Promotion

If you are a solopreneur, you probably have a pretty varied job description. Like any career-minded professional, you probably also have goals for the future; things you would like to accomplish and ways in which you would like to challenge yourself.

In the corporate world, there is a structure in place to encourage us to think about our professional development. If we excel, we are given new, more interesting responsibilities, and more money. When that happens, some of our lesser responsibilities are taken on by other people, so we have time to address our new tasks. When this happens, it’s called a promotion.

While we solopreneurs may have goals for professional growth and development, there is no structure in place to help us get there.

Certainly, if we excel, our business grows and we make more money. That part of promotion happens naturally.

The task-advancement aspect of promotion only happens for solopreneurs if we make it happen.

We can only try new things if we make it happen. We can only make time for new things if we relinquish the tasks that no longer serve our goals.

This can be a very difficult thing to do. To stop teaching a class because you need the time to write a book, for instance, can be a tough decision. To stop working street fairs because your time is better spent elsewhere may require a whole new business plan.

Solopreneurs are like sharks. If we don’t keep swimming, we’ll die.

We must constantly update our skills, offer new products and adapt to changing technology. We also need to be our own HR department, and our own supervision.

When you have your own business, if you are not moving up quickly enough, it’s because you forgot to give yourself a promotion!

Three Heinous Marketing Mistakes Made by Healers, Part Two

This is the second in a three-part series about mistakes that entrepreneurs with healing practices often make.

The first mistake, which I covered last week, is about being afraid to market, being shy about marketing and not doing the research to become knowledgeable about marketing.

The second mistake, our focus for today, is sort of the opposite problem.

Don’t become a spammer, or an in-your-face-business-evangelist, no matter how excited you are about your product or service.

If you are paying more attention to the size of your mailing list, rather than the quality of your mailing list, you are making a mistake.

If you are sending newsletters to thousands of people but getting an open rate of less than twenty percent, you are not marketing, you are spamming.

If you invite folks to your webpage and then require them to sign up for some free offer before they can read about your services, you have clearly demonstrated your questionable priorities.

And, if your freebies really aren’t free, or aren’t valuable, you are guilty of some of the oldest tricks in the book.

P.T. Barnum was right, there is a sucker born every minute. But do you want your client base to be full of suckers?

If you are guilty of these sorts of high-pressure marketing techniques, you get a gold star for enthusiasm and hard work. If your tactics are working for you, and you are OK looking at yourself in the mirror, that’s your choice. However, there are considerable drawbacks to these types of techniques, and, once you are labeled as a spammer you will lose a lot of ability to promote your work at all.

Sometimes we become spammers unintentionally. I woke up the other day to find myself included in a very large group message on Facebook. The healer was marketing a webinar. In her great wisdom she felt the best way to do this was to send a group private message to eighty of her closest friends. When she realized how poorly received this was, she apologized, saying that she didn’t realize what she did was wrong. If even one of those eighty people reported her to Facebook for spamming, her marketing problems were only just beginning.

She was guilty of spamming, but she was also guilty of last week’s mistake; failure to do research and learn how to market.

Getting labeled a spammer is a very real risk. In the past year I have tried to partner with two different organizations whose URL could not be included in my weekly newsletter because the URL was already identified as a spam site. It’s hard to promote an online event if you can’t send the URL to your client base.

The other risk of these kinds of marketing mistakes is that you will simply look cheesy.  If you want to be the “Amway” of your particular modality you certainly can, but you will end up limiting yourself more than you will be helping yourself.

Find the balance that works for you. Quality is better than quantity. Classy is better than cheesy.  Do get your word out. Don't be a spammer.

Three Heinous Marketing Mistakes Made by Healers, Part One

This is the first in a three part series about marketing mistakes. Each week I will address one mistake in detail.

The specific type of marketing I am addressing is the marketing of businesspeople who could loosely be called “healers.” In that category I include medical professionals, psychologists, tarot readers, life coaches and energy healers, amongst others.

Basically, I am addressing practitioners of healing arts, either allopathic or alternative. I am doing this both to help my colleagues benefit from some of my experience as a successful practitioner, and also to warn against some marketing problems that could be devastating to a new business.

The first mistake, and the one I will cover in this post, is so simple it is surprise that it’s a problem at all.

The first marketing mistake, and one that most healers make, is to be shy about marketing, or to not put any energy in to marketing at all.

If we wanted to be marketers we would have majored in marketing in college and we would be working in that field now.

We are healers because we are called to be healers. The problem is, we may know very little about marketing. We may easily fall prey to expensive rah-rah networking schemes that don’t work. We may truly believe that if we burn enough candles and visualize hard enough our angels will direct our clients to us. We may be uncomfortable talking about ourselves. Marketing may make us feel boastful, insincere and impolite.

Here’s what healers need to do.

Be honest and direct in your marketing. Be clear about your purpose. You simply want to make people aware of who you are and what you can do for them.

Decide who your demographic is, and how to best reach them.

If there is something you don’t know how to do, or don’t understand, research it. Don’t be afraid of technology, and don’t be afraid of learning something new.

Don’t let high-pressure ad execs talk you into expensive media campaigns or unnecessary “SEO.”

Believe in yourself, your ability to help people, and your ability to be successful.

Do the research you need to do to learn the best ways to market your practice.

Learn the technology you need to know.

And, most importantly, don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. It’s not boastful to market. It is appropriate to make it easy for people who need your services to find you.

Next week, we will tackle the second heinous marketing mistake!

Shock Value

There was a time before the internet when FM broadcast radio was how the cool kids (of any age) stayed connected to each other and their world.

During that time morning radio was ruled by the Shock Jock - DJs who pushed the envelope with language and subject matter that was designed to get a response.

Now it's hard to shock anyone. We've seen it all on-line. Sadly, the most shocking things we hear seem to come from the mouths of our politicians.

But that doesn't seem to stop the spiritual-but-not-religious community from trying to shock us. Right now it seems that everyone, from get-rich-gurus to life coaches to tarot mavens, is trying to separate themselves from the pack by being edgy.

Edgy - that is - true edginess - is a wonderful thing. But here's a clue. Using foul language is not inherently edgy. True edginess has to have some intelligence behind it; some cleverness. Putting the word "ass" in your title or text doesn't make you edgy. It may make you look like an ass.

Other things that are just not edgy include intentional misspellings. "Krazee" is not edgier than "crazy." It just makes you and your product look, well, crazy.

Using the word "naked" to describe anything other than an absence of clothing is not edgy. It's also not unique; everyone is doing it. Unless your book, program or event is really going to be in the nude, don't call it "naked." Just don't.

My fellow spiritual entrepreneurs, if you want to be edgy, be edgy - but take the time and energy to be clever, not crude. Otherwise you look like Howard Stern in Downward Dog.

Don't try to shock us. In 2013 we are unshockable. Make us laugh, make us cry, make us think.

It may be that in 2013 the way to separate yourself from the pack is to be courteous and professional. What if you presented yourself as respectful and kind? What if you took the time to use good punctuation and proper spelling? What if you did your research and spoke (or wrote) with grace and dignity? What if you tried to distinguish yourself with your message, rather than with cheesy packaging? I think that would be shockingly edgy!