Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

content development

Have You Left Out The Most Important Thing?

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by Cara Lumen

I’ve been working on my Magnetic Marketing Method series which is a collection of individually packaged marketing techniques that allows you pick the one you want to learn when you want to learn it. But I found one concept that has to be included in every marketing strategy we use that I think is easy to lose sight of as we immerse ourselves in the details.

Why are you in business?

No, it’s not about making a living. It’s not about making something, or selling something, or doing something. Those are surface things. What is underneath? What is driving you? What is the passion, the core need you must express that is being satisfied by your work? What makes your life better because you are doing it?

Kahlil Gibran says, “When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”

It takes the involvement of your heart to create your business. Gibran suggests, “It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.”

Wow! I’m not certain I do that as well as I might.

Passion is your foundation

Why do you want to be in the business you are in? What do you love about it? How will your life change once you shape it the way you envision?

Sometimes it takes time for our true passion to become visible. Although I think that everything happens for a reason, it feels like I sort of fell into being an internet marketing coach. I kept studying and learning wonderful things about marketing myself on the internet and one day I thought, “Hey, I sure know a lot about this. I can help others understand it too.” So my business shifted into that niche. And I love it.

But I also love to learn. And then I get excited about sharing it with others. That makes me a teacher at my core. That is the passion that drives all I do. Can you see how simple designing your business becomes when you can identify your core passion?

Keep building on your passion

If you are like me, you have many things you love to do and you are good at them. So how do you choose? How do you keep building your business on your true passion?

By comparison. As each new idea presents itself, hold it up to your core passion. Is this as close to living my passion as I can get?  How can I change this idea to get even closer? For instance, I write. I love to write. And it is the most satisfying when I can use that writing skill to teach. Yes, I use it to write web content and sales pages, but my whole being is engaged when I create something that helps others learn. So now, one of the facets of my coaching is that people learn why they are making certain decisions and they can then go repeat what they have learned in other circumstances. I’m a teaching coach. I’ve brought my passion into my business.

List three reasons you are in business

Write down at least three reasons you are in business. Ignore the physical plane results. Go deep within. Look for the heart of your passion. That’s why you are in business. That’s why the hours you spend at work are like play. As Gibran says, “Work is love made visible.”

You passion is the power behind the success of your business. It’s what attracts people to you. Don’t leave it out. Make its presence known in every aspect of your business.

©2007 Cara Lumen

The Umpteenth Business Plan – Why You Can Never Do Too Many

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by Cara LumenI

just did my umpteenth Business Plan and discovered some new insights. Every time I go through the process I add a dimension that had not been there before. It’s like slowly peeling back layers to get to my core passion, my core involvement, and my exact place to be in service.

Let your niche find you

If you niche is too broad, no one will find you. We put great effort into selecting and defining a niche. At the beginning of creating a business you mentally and emotionally search for and find your perfect target audience. But in the long run, you don’t find your niche, your niche finds you.

Here’s how. Notice the times you are in service that you feel the most successful. You may have effortlessly written an e-book, or brilliantly coached a client through their process into a great “ah-ha.” What organically comes up in your process of serving that people are asking you to provide? It may be a new skill you discover, it may be a new need you must meet. Let the needs of your current clients and customers define what you offer. This is how a niche finds you. It is a combination of what you love to do and what people love to receive from you.

Be patient with yourself. The discovery of your perfect niche may develop over time. Just remain aware of what continues to  show up in your business and your heart.

How long do you serve one customer?

One of the aspects I saw more clearly in creating this business plan was exactly how long I can serve one person. Do I coach them for 2 months, 6 months, 9 months? Then what happens? What do I have in place to continue to offer to those people I have worked with 1:1. If I don’t find something, I have to go find more clients. It’s much more economical to continue to build relationships with those who already know you and like what you are doing.

How long do you serve one customer and what can you do to extend that time?

How has your business changed?

I’m not the same person I was even a year ago. My business is not the same. My target audience has changed. That means my actions have to change. I need to reevaluate my products. I may have to revise or add to my services.

A huge shift came for me when I realized that basically I am a teacher. At the core of what I do is a love of learning and the joy of sharing it to others. That allowed me to make a business plan that schedules more teleclasses to be made into digital products. It allowed me to stop offering services that were pulling me off track. It helped me write stronger copy for my home page and my coaching pages.

And don’t forget to add passive income sources to your business plan. Create home study courses and e-books that can be purchased on line while you’re off doing something else.

Look for what your clients and customers need next and expand your business to accommodate them.

Who is your competition?

When the business plan asked me to list my competition I thought, “there is no such thing as competition, we are each unique.” But the form was asking me to find my uniqueness by looking at what other people in my field did, and write down what made me different, how I stood out, how my products and services were unique. It wanted me to identify what benefits I offered that others did not. With that information I can craft my copy and content to emphasize those unique benefits and appeal more to my target audience.

What makes you stand out from the crowd?

The Umpteenth Business Plan

Each time you complete a business plan it will elicit different answers based on where your awareness is at the time and what circumstances have come up in your business since the last time you wrote one. Sometimes, it’s as simple as finally being ready to hear or pay attention to one aspect that you were not ready for before. That new willingness will draw forth fresh responses from you.

A business plan also helps you expand your vision. Where do you want to be? What do you want your business to look like? How do you plan to get there? Some things in your business plan may not change, but each time you go through the process to complete one you with change your awareness, recommit to your vision and take a giant step forward.

Whether it’s your first, your fifth, or your umpteenth business plan, schedule time each year to see where you are and where you want to be. Then create and adjust for success.


High Branding

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by Cara Lumen

I’ve coined a new phrase, “High Branding” because finding your high branding position makes everything fall easily into place. Let me explain.

As an entrepreneur I can do a lot of things, just like you. As an entrepreneur I have a hard time narrowing my niche to a small enough target audience to be effective. Just like you.

I had all sorts of labels within the structure of my business because I wanted people to know all that I did and I didn’t want to miss any income opportunities. Does this sound familiar? I had different names for my internet marketing coaching, for my copy writing services, for my web content strategy and design, for my expert status development program and for signature product development. As hard as I tried to make my offerings clear, my services page on my web site was a mess. It contained way too many choices for the potential client and it was still only me doing my thing – or my things, if you will.

But less is more. I knew that but I couldn’t find it.

Look without

I began to notice two things: what my clients were asking me to do for them, and what skills and talents I was using to answer their needs. I wanted my niche to find me.

For years I have kept an Acknowledgement List. It helps me see myself as others see me. I began to look over testimonials and acknowledgements people had sent me. I began to see what they saw in me that I might not be seeing in myself. That began to give me some ideas, but it was the conscious look within that helped me find my High Brand.

Look within

I have been gifted with the ability to cut to the core of a concept—to distill from a conversation what is at the heart of the sharing. I found that while I was listening to the myriad of ideas my clients had, I could effortlessly identify and pull forward the essence of their vision. Then I was able to offer them a zillion ideas to bring their vision to life. I began to label myself “The Vision Distiller.” And all that I was doing began to fall easily under that umbrella. It didn’t matter if we were creating web sites, or learning to write articles, or creating signature products, it was all about helping people bring their vision to life and take it out into the world.

What a relief! All my efforting fell away. All need to explain the details of what I do disappeared. My high intention, my overall purpose is to help people express their vision—whatever form it takes.

I created a new web site, changed my tag lines, and came to rest under the umbrella of a High Brand.

How can you find your High Brand? How can you get to the core of what you offer?

Be Patient

It took me three years to arrive at this new awareness, so first of all be patient. And allow it to emerge organically as you go about placing yourself in deep service.

Keep an Acknowledgement List

What started as an Acknowledgement List years ago is now my testimonial collection, but it also contains complimentary emails that people have sent me along the way. I use it regularly to find copy phrases for promoting my products and services. And they usually make me feel good too.

Redo your business plan on a regular basis

Every time I redo my business plan and have to redefine my target audience and describe the problem I solve and the benefits I offer them, my brand gets stronger. I discover new words and phrases that express how I currently feel about my work. Redo your business plan at least once a year as a checkup and an opportunity to reposition yourself. Notice how far you have come, be aware of how you have changed, see if you can narrow your target audience, and identify what your clients are asking for. Then pay attention to what you find and see how you can adjust your business to increase your effectiveness.

Write a Resource Box

A resource box is added when we submit articles, but the exercise of finding the most compelling words to capture the essence of your business in three lines or so is very revealing. I have about ten resource boxes that I have used along the line and I keep rearranging phrases as my own awareness grows. Keep honing and polishing the words and phrases you use to attract people to your offerings.

Look for the Umbrella

What title can you give yourself that says it all? I helped one of my clients brand herself as “The Unstoppable Confidence Coach” and another has become “The Marketing Mentor”. One client has a product to help people increase their brain power. I suggested she might become “The Brain Coach.” But when she told me her target market was boomers, my suggestion was she become “The Boomer Brain Coach.” That ought to get her some attention.

Look for a memorable title that incorporates who are and what you do. Look for the core service you give, what others continually ask you to provide, the highest benefit others receive and see what emerges. That’s how you discover your own High Branding.

©2007 Cara Lumen

The Joy of Completing

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by Cara Lumen

The only reason I get to talk about the joy of completion is because I took over a year to do the final editing on some teleclasses I had recorded and it is now done and I AM JOYOUS!!!!

Isn’t it amazing how long we can put off something that will give us as much joy and satisfaction as completion? I can’t tell you how many half started (or is it half finished) e-books I have. And when I rediscover them I always find I’m a lot further along than I thought.

I wonder what made me stop. It was probably that something else popped to the top of my completion list, or I found something totally new and exciting to explore. And things pop to the top because they needed. So perhaps it’s simply that their time has come.

But back to the joy of completion. When I finished my first CD cover, and had that jewel case sitting on my desk it was a thrill. When I complete an e-book and make the sales page and post it in my shopping cart I am ecstatic.

Why do we neglect completion? Why do we put it off when it feels so good?

You know, it doesn’t have to be a very big completion in order to count. Hey, taking the notes that are all over my desk and putting them into my Quick List is a win. Listening to a downloaded teleclass I’ve been meaning to get to gives me satisfaction and new knowledge. Taking a moment to organize the files on my hard drive should be properly celebrated. And making a new mind map of my next steps demands a pat on the back.

Yes, I have a “To Do” list. I call it my “Quick List.” It stays open on my computer and every idea I have goes on it. It has a section for article and e-book ideas, things to do to strengthen my web site, phrases I like, links to remember and next steps to take. It holds a calendar with the phone numbers of the teleclasses I plan to take, my coaching schedule and my “Do Today” list. So keeping track is not the problem. But sometimes completing is.

I think it’s time for sticky notes. What if, at the end of each day, I acknowledged myself for something I had completed and write it down? Hopefully the number of sticky notes could become quite decorative. At the end of the week I would read them over and bask in the joy of completion. I would really take time to acknowledge myself and feel how good it is to have moved forward through completion. Then I would clear the decks and start fresh for the upcoming week.

My coaching clients are usually entrepreneurs with a lot of ideas. Part of my job is to get them to focus on one idea, complete it and then choose a next step. Often I meet with resistance. Not intentionally, just because they are excited about so many things and want to do them all. Do you know that feeling?

If you run around with a lot of half completed aspects of your business you will never feel like you are making any forward motion. On your calendar, schedule specific times to work your business. It may be to write articles or research potential radio interviews or it may be to invoice work you have completed. If you don’t set aside time to work your business every week you will stay at exactly the place you are now. And if you don’t complete a few steps each week you are simply dog paddling to stay afloat.

Completion is tied into commitment. And commitment works wonders. Commitment lines up all manner of magical gifts from the universe in the form of tools we need, people we need to speak to, and circumstances that offer new opportunities.

Sometimes I don’t complete because what’s left to do is not very interesting. It’s much more fun to create something new than edit something you’ve already done, or write the thank you page for your web site, or set up a new product in your shopping cart. But it is tying up those final ends that is the icing on the cake. Don’t let a project go uncompleted because of three things on your “To Do” list that will take you 20 minutes to complete. You are robbing yourself of the great pleasure of completion.

I know that part of my non-completion is because of bumping other things to the top of the list. And maybe they do need to be bumped up. Maybe they are more of a priority. Perhaps I can focus on celebrating what I do complete rather than what remains to be done.

What we focus on we attract more of. If I focus on completion, and if I celebrate each success, I know that I will find myself completing more and more…..and more.