Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Cara Lumen

Know Your Value, Value What You Know

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by Cara Lumen

I didn’t get the bid but I sure learned a lot about how I can and must value what I have to offer. How do we make that shift, that shift that keeps us from underselling ourselves, or our services, or even our expectations. 

Know how much you know
 
This was a bid to write a teleclass for someone else. I’ve written tons of teleclasses for myself and have been asked if I would consider writing for others but I never perused it. So I decided to bid on this opportunity. Now I’ve been well trained, I’m a Certified Teleclass Leader and I’m experienced and through the years I have added creative elements to my teleclasses so the students get great value.
 
This project was based on a 52 page book. If part of the teleclass series is to read the book – guess what –you’ve gotta add more content. And because it’s a learning environment you have to create experientials that help the students own the material.
 
That comes out of my brain, my knowledge, my background, my experience.
 
And that has great value.
 
Do it right
 
Giving a teleclass is not just about talking and hanging out. It’s about offering more than they expect; it’s about organizing your content so they get it! So that they go away with a shift in their awareness. And that takes planning. And knowledge. And insights. And thought.
 
And that has great value.
 
So in my bid I added all the small things I know how to do to build community and keep the learning process going.
 
It is very effective.
 
Bid its true value
 
It’s tricky to bid copy writing. You really don’t know in advance how long it will actually take you. A copy writing colleague of mine suggested I bid by the day or half day. That allows for whatever takes longer than you figured on. Then she told me to decide what I wanted to earn per day and create the bid.
 
One other thing influenced my bid. This is material that can be repeated over and over after it is created so it has a long shelf life. It will keep on generating income.
 
I considered that in setting my price.
 
List the extras
 
In my bid I listed all the extras – my own teleclass template, the community building material and on the bid simply marked it "included."   That clearly indicated the extra value I was providing.
 
See what new doors it opens
 
But here’s the big gift – it opened up a new place of service for me. I put my copy writing and content editing services back on my web site and wrote a sales page about creating teleclass and workshop curriculum for others based on what I decided and discovered while creating this bid. When other people ask you to do something for them – listen. See if it’s what you love to do, see if it’s profitable and add it to y our services if it would be fun to do.
 
Value what you know
 
It turns out I had a bigger vision than the person looking for a bid, or maybe a greater sense of the value I had to offer when I start bringing everything I know into a project. I could have lowered my bid, or taken things out – but that wouldn’t have made it as top notch as I want all my work to be. I don’t want to settle I want to play big and bigger.
 
And you know what, a few days later I was hired for a really big curriculum development project by someone who knows my value and values what I know.
 

© 2009 Cara Lumen

There is No Such Thing as Instant Business

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by Cara Lumen

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither can you build your business overnight. There are too many decisions to be made – too much personal growth to be encouraged. I continue to have coaching clients come to me eager to start attracting clients but they have not done their foundation work. And that basic work simply takes time. It takes time to uncover your most effective place of service. It takes great decision-making to focus your business into an effective organism, and it takes a sequence of position-building steps to create a firm foundation upon which to build your business. It’s an unfolding process that simply takes time.

Who do you serve and what do you offer them?

I have coached many service professionals in the healing modalities. Their work can often be successfully applied to just about any person with any ailment. But that is such a broad target market that no one will recognize themselves in that positioning and will not have any clue that they are the perfect client for that services provider. So the first thing any of us have to do is choose a target market and narrow our niche. And that niche keeps changing. I just tweaked my niche today – again. Defining your business and positioning yourself is an on-going process that requires frequent self-evaluation and awareness of the changing marketplace. Once you get your "who and do what" statement figured out you are at least aiming in the right general direction. I went from "I help entrepreneurs attract the people they are meant to serve" to "I help resourceful women entrepreneurs move their passion from vision to venue and attract the people they are meant to serve." Do you see how the additional bit of definition helps people recognize themselves and how it helps me recognize my ideal client?

The pressure of earning money leads to overwhelm

You may or may not be an overnight success, but there are many steps to take before the income can be generated. And those steps take time depending on the depth of your business experience and the clarity of your vision. What are your strengths? How can you best capitalize on them?  What is your packaging? What is your pricing? What marketing strategies are you going to use? Allow time for those answers to emerge. I can urge you to use all four mandatory self-promotion strategies but each one takes focused time to put into place with your unique approach. Give yourself lime to decide upon and implement the marketing strategies that suit you and your business.

Stay with it

It takes six weeks for marketing to work. So if you market really hard for four weeks and stop because you don’t see any results, you’ll find that in two more weeks you will see some results. But those results will ultimately stop because you stopped. Marketing is a consistent, weekly, daily activity.

It takes seven to nine contacts with a prospect before a purchase is made. What happens if you quit after four? Not a lot. When you promote a teleclass or a new product, schedule your marketing to begin six weeks out and plan seven to nine ways to remind people of your offer.

Listen to the messages you receive

You are always receiving feedback from many directions – your intuition, your clients, the success or non success of a marketing strategy.  Keep listening. Take notes. Set up ways to measure. Your clients will tell you what your unique gifts are. Listen to what they ask you for. Notice what they compliment you on. Listen to what else they need that you might give them.

Take measurements. Write down how many people are on your list, record what strategy you are putting into play and check the numbers in three months. See what strategies are being the most productive for you and do more of those.

Notice what kind of referrals you are getting. I am both a coach and a writer. I’m marketing the coaching more but I am getting steady referrals for my writing. I have to listen to that and see if I’m missing a larger message about my business structure and/or my marketing.

Cultivate your strengths

Entrepreneurs are often multitalented and certainly multi-interested.  So much of our work is about making decisions – choosing one thing over another, letting go of one thing in order to make room for something new. Uncover your core motivation and honor it with every choice. I am a lifelong learner and a teacher. All my choices must be held up to those two strengths. 

I know what I’m not particularly good at and there are a few things that I have to work with and around in order to find my unique but still effective approach. Listen to your own testimonials. Read your own "press." Notice what others see in you and build on it.

Growth takes time

Life is an unfolding process. We must allow it to happen. Building a business is an unfolding process. It is about growing you. It is about unfolding your potential. It takes time to learn new things, make new decisions, uncover new insights, and develop new strengths. Business is not instant – it is a glorious adventure of self-discovery and a gradual awakening to your perfect place of service. Don’t rush the process. Enjoy every minute of it.

© 2009 Cara Lumen

 

Do What You Love, Love What You Do

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by Cara Lumen

Most of what I do I love. But recently I’ve noticed there is a resistance, a reluctance to make a list and set some plans and take certain steps. There’s even a tightness in my stomach when I put certain items on my "To Do" list.

What needs to change? What do I need to do differently?
 
I do — deep inside. It’s time to see where I am, decide where I want to be and make some new choices. It is about finding my new rhythm. Where do I place into my day the things I want to do?
 
Deepen Your Spiritual Practice
 
One of the major changes I have made is to find a place to fit in a daily Falun Gong  practice. I do it in the morning after I’m dressed for my day. The last step in the practice leads me into meditation. I can feel my energy balancing as I thoughtfully practice this powerful moving meditation. I notice the increased deepness of my sitting meditation. There is deep inner work going on that I know only by sensation, not by recognition.
 
Deepening your spiritual practice is one way to make change.
 
Allow it to unfold
 
I started to write “make a bold goal, think a big vision.” But that’s part of the doing, not the being and being is where change is made.
 
I have deepened my level of gratitude. Before I go to sleep. Upon awakening. During the day. I continue to feel the blessings that surround me. The goodness that is in my life. The fluidity of my experience. And I am grateful.
 
Allowing your life to unfold is like going on an adventure. You don’t know what will be around the next corner. And if you truly want to have an adventure, you will allow yourself to follow new paths on a whim — this feels right, I’ll go here, I’ll do this.
 
There is patience that is needed to allow it to unfold. Patience and a belief that there is a grand plan, that you are an integral part of it, and that all is and will be well in your world.
 
Do what you love
 
Do the parts of life you love. Do the parts of your business that you love. Be with the people you love. Follow your emotions. Allow them to lead you to fulfillment and celebration, happiness and affection. Your emotions are your guides. They help you choose what will nourish you and help you leave behind everything and everyone that no longer serves you.
 
Love what you do
 
If you no longer love what you do, change it. Tweak it, toss it, start again. Whatever it takes to let you fall back in love with what you do.
 
It’s when we are in love with what we do, when we are in celebration of all we are, that others find us attractive and come to join in our enthusiasm. Honor your heart’s calling. Allow yourself the freedom of choosing to do what makes your heart sing. You will be happiest when you do what you love and love what you do.
 

© 2008 Cara Lumen

New Vision = New Direction = New Action

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by Cara Lumen

My business has made a 90 degree turn in the last two months and I’m looking over my foundation again to realign it with my new vision. I was very happily helping people develop web content and create information products until I became a Book Yourself Solid Coach and found the system and the structure that allowed me to take people from vision to venue. It was like being shot out of a cannon. My vision expanded, my expectations increased and my target market sharpened. All because I added a certification to my credentials and positioned myself differently in my business. Now I have to match my actions to my vision so I can make it happen.

The "Why I Do It" Statement
 
At the core of your business must be an understanding of why you do it. And why you do it must be filled with passion. Why do you get up every morning and joyously go about doing whatever is necessary to make your business grow? If you are not happy, not excited, not eager to get to work you are not in the right place doing the work you were meant to do. You might want to do something about that.
My core reason for being and doing is to learn and teach but I get more excited about learning and teaching some things more than others. Does my new vision make me even more excited than my old one? It sure does. It expands my thinking, changes my target audience and opens up new opportunities.
 
The "Who and Do What" Statement
 
Your who-and-do-what statement takes time to develop and it often changes as you change. You have to keep an eye on it to be certain it reflects your passion and will take your business where it needs to go. This new vision changed my target market. Not a lot, I just upgraded my expectations about who would come play with me and what we could do together. It got me very excited and made it necessary for me to reexamine everything – my web words, the structure of my offerings, my tag line even the bundling and pricing of my offerings.
 
I had to have a coach to help me do it. I knew I wanted to change my target audience but I couldn’t do it for myself. I was standing in my own way. So I got help from my coach and was propelled into greater expectations and infinitely more possibilities. If you need help making the leap, ask for it.
 
What’s working?
 
Every quarter I examine my measurable results to see what is working and what is not. I examine how the needs of my target market might have changed, how I have changed, what new skills I have learned, what new friends I have made that are potential joint ventures.
 
I reexamined the goal I had set myself for the year to see if it still is the perfect goal or if it should be shifted or expanded. Then I looked to see if everything I am doing helps make that goal a reality. If it does, it stays, if not, it goes.
 
How does your new vision make you feel?
 
Every once in a while I feel like I’m spinning in place there are so many interesting choices. Taking time to evaluate where you are, how you got there and where you want to go should include how you want to feel. Do you want to learn more or are you full up of information? Do you want to get involved with a community service so you can get out of your home office? What new hobby would you like to undertake that would offer a change of pace and rhythm?
 
What is your body telling you? What needs adjusting on your emotional level? How are you nourishing yourself spiritually? A new vision means making new choices.
 
How can I expand my vision?
 
My vision seems to expand with everything I learn. There are always so many possibilities that present themselves. Check out your excitement level. Hold up the new vision with your core passion and see how it expands your thinking. Let your vision expand. Tweak it. Let it fly. Let it show you the new direction you can go and then design the new action steps to get yourself there.

 

© 2008 Cara Lumen

How to Identify the Red Flag Client

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by Cara Lumen

She was abusive, disrespectful, and bad-mouthed the person she had worked with before. How on earth did she get through the Red Velvet Rope Policy and how can you identify a red flag client before you start?

Define Your Red Velvet Rope Policy
You know those soft red velvet ropes that are lowered to let certain people in and keep others out. We each get to create our own red velvet rope policy to be certain we work with people we are meant to serve.
The client I described was not mine, it was a client of a friend of mine and my friend was in knots because even when she said she wanted to end the client relationship the woman cried which made my kind friend have a hard time sticking by her decision. And it was an example of how manipulative the woman was.
We talked about how she was not serving in the role of friend to this needy person. She needed to place herself in the role of a professional keeping a professional relationship with her clients. She needed to define and set boundaries for herself. She gets to make choices about how she wants to work with people and who she wants to work with.
Why you must do the choosing
Think of a client that you do not like to work with. Are you resentful? Do you drag your heels a bit when it’s time for her call? Will you be glad when the time agreement has expired? That’s not a good match. That’s certainly not your ideal client.
Now remember how great you feel when you love the client you are working with –  the great work you do –  the satisfaction you feel at your clients’ success. That’s why you must choose your clients carefully. So you can do your best work.
How you can spot the red flag clients
What intake structure can you put in place that will help you recognize a potentially poor relationship and never undertake it? Well, you need to have a really clear picture of your ideal client  – particularly the qualities you want to attract. Do you want to work with people just beginning in business, ones that have established themselves and are ready for a big next step, or a high end client that needs someone to help them keep a larger company on track? Do you want a person who is decisive or one who prefers to ask five of their friends for an opinion before making up their mind? Does your ideal client keep her agreements and exhibit innovative entrepreneurialism to solve their problems? Is your client capable of achieving success? Do they want it? Do they expect it? Will they accept success?
You need to create a few questions that you can ask in your initial conversation with a potential client that will let you know that this is a person you are meant to serve.
How much business/marketing knowledge do they have?
This is important because if a client is new to business they need to be very clear why they are in business and who they want to serve. They need to have a business plan and a marketing plan. If they haven’t done that you will need to help them through those steps. This is foundational work that needs to be in place and be continually reviewed. It is the holder of their vision and the design of their path. .
What do they have in place and what is working and what is not?
When I work with people on web page development I need to know what they have in place – opt in, shopping cart, web host, merchant account, blog, etc.
I need to know their vision.
And they need to know what is working and want is not. When they know where their strengths are it shows me they have set up measurable guidelines and continually monitor their progress.
How pro active are they?
Will this person do their homework, follow up on their agreements, and think up new ideas and possibilities? Those people are wonderfully exciting to work with. If they are really full of ideas will they allow you to help them focus and accomplish one step/project at a time? Will they take direction and do they value what you have to offer?
Listen to what they don’t say
It’s trickier to discover what their personality is like to work with.  Ask them about their relationships with other professionals and listen to what they do and don’t say. Are they kind, respectful, honest? Or disgruntled, and complaining? Ask some open questions and then just listen and you’ll get some good clues that will alert you to any potential red flags.
Make it ok to say “no”
Expect the best from everyone but listen to your intuition. Don’t take a client because they have a pulse and a pocketbook. If it doesn’t feel right see who else you can recommend, or simply say, “This isn’t something I can help you with.” If you are their last chance or they are under a last minute deadline that is a major red flag. That means no one else wants to work with them and they wait till the last minute to get things done. Don’t fall for their story. Your life and business is yours to design. You are the director who casts the play and directs the action. Cast the players in your business thoughtfully.
You are not meant to work with everyone. There are certain people that you are meant to serve and when you do you can help them achieve amazing results.

© 2008 Cara Lumen