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You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in.
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Hello. Welcome to episode 151. We're going to talk about why you are waiting to feel established. And this is a version of some coaching that I gave to one of my students last week inside of the localpreneur Academy. And I just think it's going to hit home for so many of you. That's why I wanted to bring it to the podcast. So this student that I was coaching, she's absolutely incredible. She runs after school programs and summer programs and schools out programs for young girls in her community. And she, she's just amazing at what she does. And she already has really strong client retention. Like the parents keep bringing their daughters back. Her classes are steadily filling and she's just built something like really special. So the issue here that we were coaching on is not that like nobody knows who she is or it's not that her programs aren't filling or that um, people don't see the value in what she offers or anything like that. What we've been working on is really helping her expand her reach out further into the community because her, her clients keep coming back. We just need her now to reach even more people, like to get in front of even more people who don't know her and to speed up the process of filling her classes even quicker so she can become fully booked faster. Right now, one of the main challenges that she's running into is the parents are waiting until kind of the last minute to sign up. So one thing we've been cleaning up her follow up process, like her timeline for kind of launching and promoting the classes and really her mindset around sending more emails and just creative ways to get parents to, to book sooner and just different ways to market herself differently from the programs in her area. She already has such different things that she does, but underneath all of that, when we were coaching the other day, she thought we were just digging into the strategy, but underneath all of it, there was one sneaky thought that we realized was keeping her stuck. One thought, and this is what coaching does. Like this is the power of coaching or of having a coach. Sometimes the thing keeping you where you are or keeping you from not having the result that you want or keeping you having, getting the same result over and over, sometimes it is not the strategy. It's not your offer, it's not your audience, it's a thought that you are having. It's a belief you have that feels so true and you don't even realize that you have it sometimes or you don't really see how it's showing up and affecting how you're going out in marketing. So her thought was I'm not established. And because she was thinking that she was feeling like an imposter and she said at times she even felt embarrassed when she was trying to go out and collaborate with other business owners. So once we dug into it, we could see that this was actually showing up in so many different places. So it was keeping her from, from reaching out to the other business owners. Even though she had like really good ideas, it was keeping her from, from reaching out to him, from following up with him, from following up with them. It was keeping her from just showing up like that local go to program like she wants to be. And what was so interesting is of course like our brains do is she had all sorts of evidence as to why she wasn't established yet. So when I asked her I was like, okay, like when, like what, what are your reasons now as to like why you aren't established? And she was like, okay, well I don't have like my own location yet. So she actually rents out spaces around town and the school bus will bring kids to her, which I think is really cool. But she's been in business I believe around a year. She isn't quite fully booked yet, even though she is consistently filling up her classes. Her parents are waiting until the last minute to signed up instead of booking further in advance like she wants them to. So she was looking at all of these circumstances and using them to tell herself like, see, I'm not established. But if you're thinking I'm not established, you're going to go out and market and show up in the community as someone who isn't established. So it's like you're going to hold back in your marketing. You're going to second guess yourself, you're going to not send the emails, you're not going to follow up, not pitch the collaborations, like not fully put yourself out there. And then what ends up happening is you create more and more evidence that you're not established because our thoughts always create our results. And if you think you're not established, you will act like you're not established and then you'll just keep proving that thought true. That is why this matters so much. So what I coached her on Is that established is a feeling? Established is not having your own physical location. It's not a certain number of years that you've been in business. It's not having every single class fully booked. It's not parents signing up three weeks early. It's not whether or not people are reaching out to you for collaborations. It's not all the circumstances. Established is a feeling. And I asked her, actually, I was like, at what point will you feel established? And of course the answer is like, oh, you know, like out in the future, like once I'm fully booked, once parents start booking earlier, once I have my own space, once people know me, once other business owners are reaching out to collaborate. And that's how so many of us operate. We put the feeling that we want on the other side of a result that we don't have yet. So we say, like, I'll feel confident once I have more clients. I'll feel credible once more people know who I am. I'll feel established once I hit this certain milestone. I'll feel legit once I have this circumstance. But that's backwards because circumstances do not create our feelings. Our thoughts create our feelings. So she could wait on all of those things to happen and then in the future be like, okay, now check, check, check. I am established. But I told her, I was like, why wait on that? If established is just a feeling, then you can start thinking thoughts now that help you feel established now. And what's such a fun way to operate from every day? And this matters because feeling established now is what will drive the actions that create the results that she wants. Feeling established now is what's going to help you send the emails to follow up, to pitch the collaboration, to show up bigger in your marketing to talk about your business like it matters, to present yourself as that local, go to person in your community. Because right now, thinking I'm not established is creating imposter syndrome and it's keeping you small. So we need to do the opposite. We need thoughts that help you feel established now so you can go create the results that you want. And here's the other thing I said on the coaching call. I was like, established is subjective. If I asked 10 business owners to define what established means, we would for sure get 10 different answers. Like, some people would say it's a certain number of years in business. Some people would say it's a revenue level, some would say it's having a physical location, some would say it's being fully booked. And some people would say it's just the Day you open your doors, like, you see that on signs like, or on logos. Like, this business established this day, that's literally just the day they opened, right? I mean, why not? I love that definition. Like if you, if you can help someone get a result or a transformation and you are open for business, you are established. Like, that's, that's my definition. It's not about waiting for certain results, certain circumstances for the stars to align. It's not about waiting to become legit like you already are. Now, do you want to keep growing? Of course. Do you want to keep refining your marketing? Of course. Do you want better systems? Do you want better follow ups? Do you want more visibility, more demand? Of course you do. But none of that means that you have to tell yourself that you're not good enough now, or that you're not established now, or that you have to think of yourself as small now until you get the results you want. The version of you who gets the results that you want has to be thinking the way that version of you who has the results would be thinking. So you don't have to wait on all the evidence, on all the proof around you to feel established. You can just think thoughts now that make you feel established and then you go out and create the results. So if you haven't been sending the emails, if you haven't been following up, if you haven't been pitching yourself, if you haven't been trying to collaborate, if you haven't been increasing your visibility or showing up bigger in your marketing, just ask yourself, like, what am I believing right now that's keeping me small? Maybe it's your version of I'm not established or I'm too new, I don't have enough proof yet, I'm not big enough. So and so down the street is bigger than me. Who am I to do this? People won't take me seriously. Like, this is the work. Because once you can identify the thought, then you can work to change it. And the new thought doesn't have to be, I'm the most established person in my city. Maybe it's just I have something real, I have something amazing to offer. I am an established business. I am a legitimate business. I know I can help people get results like that. One shift changes everything because the actions you take from those thoughts, from that energy, that is completely different. And that shows up in your marketing. That shows up when you're talking to people. And that's what ends up creating a fully booked business. That's what creates stronger demand. That's what creates the reputation and the growth that you want. So that's what I want to leave you with today. Like, stop waiting for the outside evidence, for the circumstances to change, to feel the way you want to feel. The feeling can come first. And if you want a different result in your business, there is a good chance there is a sneaky thought underneath right now that needs to change. And that is the power of coaching. That's the power of getting out of your own blind spots. And that's the work we do inside the localpreneur Academy. So come check us out. I'm going to link it up in the show notes. So I hope that gave you something to think about today. But just ask yourself, what am I? Where am I waiting for a circumstance to happen before I let myself feel a certain way, believe a certain thing or feel established? Because that's the very thing that's keeping you from going out and creating it right now. All right, my friends, I'll talk to you next week.
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Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesleypressnell.com and I'll see you inside.