93. The 2 Things Keeping You From Creating Clients
If you’ve ever found yourself changing your offer every time you hear “no” or avoiding reaching out because you don’t want to feel pushy, you’re not alone. These two habits might feel logical or polite, but they are quietly killing the momentum in your business.
In this episode, I’m sharing the key takeaways from a recent Mom Entrepreneur’s Circle gathering, where we dug into why these two things are keeping you from creating clients. I talk through the mindset shifts needed to stop constantly rebuilding your business and start building real momentum instead.
By the end, you’ll understand how to stop changing your offer every time you hear “no” and how to show up with energy that attracts clients rather than repels them. If you’ve been feeling stuck or unsure about how to move forward, this episode will give you the clarity you need to start creating clients without hesitation.
If you're looking for the right environment to start your networking journey, look no further than my group, the Mom Entrepreneur’s Circle.
Sign up here for mutual support, advice sharing, and the tools you need for both you and your business to thrive.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
The impact of staying consistent with your offer and how it helps build real momentum.
How to recognize when you're talking to the wrong people and what to do about it.
Why shifting your focus from what you want to get to what you can give makes all the difference.
The key to communicating your offer’s value in a way that resonates with the right clients.
How to stop starting over and start building momentum with every step you take.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
Click here for step-by-step instructions to leave a rating and review to let me know what you think, and don’t forget to share the podcast with others who you think would benefit!
Ready for clarity and a simple action plan to get your business started? Schedule a free 1-hour consultation with me here!
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
Episodes Related to Creating Clients:
53. Your Clients Are Waiting: A Mindset Shift for Confident Visibility
76. Attract Clients Naturally: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything
Full Episode Transcript:
There are two things that quietly kill momentum in your business: changing your offer every time someone says no and assuming you're bothering people when you reach out. Both feel responsible, logical, maybe even polite, and both will keep you from creating clients.
Today I'm going to be breaking down what came up in our most recent Mom Entrepreneur Circle and how to stop constantly rebuilding your business and start building real momentum instead.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hi, Mom friends. This is episode 93 of the How to Quit Your Job podcast, and this week we're doing something a little bit different. We recently had the first Mom Entrepreneur Circle gathering of the year, and this is a group I've had for the last four years. And this year feels a little different. There's a new energy. The first few years were really me soaking in what moms need, noticing the themes, the conversations, the struggles that kept coming up.
But this year I feel really strongly about curating the space so that every single time we meet, which is every other week, moms walk away with inspiration, strategy, and connection. So it's a mix of networking and real coaching. There's moms at all different stages of business, talking about struggles and highs and lows and places we're feeling stuck, and it actually moves you through those things.
And I've talked about it on the podcast before. It's completely free. Of course, it's not free time-wise, and I know time is the most valuable non-renewable resource we have, but the space itself is so open and casual and meaningful, right? You pop in, you meet some amazing moms, talk about real things, motherhood, creating clients, imposter syndrome, offers, confidence, and everything in between.
And it's just such a lovely space. So great. The energy and the people, and it's wonderful. And what I want to do today is pull back the curtain a little bit on what came up in that first gathering because if it's coming up for the moms in that room, it's definitely coming up for you too. I also want to invite you to join Mom Entrepreneur Circle. I'll talk about ways to join at the end. You can always go to the show notes, jenna.coach/93. And I'll share more resources and things at the end, but I want to start with what came up in the room.
So after we wrapped up that first gathering, I felt so inspired. There were breakthroughs, there was strategy, there were honest conversations about what's actually getting in the way of creating clients right now.
And what we really dug into was why changing your offer every time you hear no is killing your momentum. We talked about the subtle ways that you might be talking to the wrong people and making it mean something about you. We talked about why this thought, "I'm bothering people," is one of the most expensive thoughts in your business. And the shift from get energy to give energy that makes us completely magnetic instead of salesy.
Yeah, we covered a lot in that one hour. We talked about even more than I'm going to go into on this episode, but these were the themes that I thought were most powerful and most appropriate to dig into and share. So I'm going to be sharing a few of the most important takeaways from that call on this episode and also a few thoughts I've had since that call to really drive some of these strategies and mindset shifts home.
But before I dig into the strategies that we discussed and some of the most pertinent takeaways, I want you to think about something. And this is something that came up in that gathering. I want you to think about what would change about your business and going for your business if you believed two things. The two things being, people want to hear from me, and people have been waiting for the value I offer. They just don't know I exist yet.
I want you to think about how your approach would change, how would your language change? How often would you be following up with people and making offers if you believe those two things? People want to hear from me and people have been waiting for the value I offer. They just don't know I exist yet. If you really believed they were waiting for you, you'd feel energized to make sure they could find you. I have an entire episode on this concept, episode 53. So if you want to dig into this even further, please check that one out.
The reality is that so many of us walk around assuming we're bothering people. This was one of the biggest things that came up in the Mom Entrepreneurs Circle gathering, right? This feeling of, when am I pushing too hard? When am I bothering people? I don't want to bother people. I don't want to sound salesy. I want to make sure that I'm being professional and I don't want to push.
We walk around assuming we're bothering people when in reality, we're providing value. And that thought, "I'm providing value," changes everything. I've never met a mom who started a business because she didn't care about anyone else and she only cared about herself. Every single mom wants to help. We're built for that for better or worse. We are caretakers, we are givers, we are selfless. It's annoying. And it comes in really handy with our businesses.
Every single mom wants to create impact, but when we're focusing on, "Am I bothering them? Am I bothering people?" we actually become really awkward and bothersome. I've seen it so many times. It's painful. Okay? When we obsess over whether we're annoying, we show up from that energy and it's annoying. But when we focus on what we can say and do to provide value and change lives, that energy attracts people.
That's a little prologue. Now let's get into some of the strategies and takeaways from that call. The first one is about changing our offer. Okay? One of the questions in the room came from a mom who just started her business. She hasn't signed a paying client yet. She just started. She's networking. She's building partnerships and collaboration in her industry. She has a very specific niche within nutrition. She's a registered dietitian. She has her LLC. She's doing it part-time.
And her question was really around, "When do I know if I should change my offer when I keep hearing nos?" And I have very strong opinions about this. If you change your offer every time someone says no, you are operating from a really problematic place. You're chasing a perfect offer. You're chasing an offer that everyone says yes to. The reality is there's no perfect offer.
No matter what offer you come up with, you will hear nos. No matter what you sell, no matter how incredible you are, if you tried to mold your offer based on every piece of feedback, it sounds smart on the surface, and I 100% have talked about collecting data and learning from things, but this is one place where you don't immediately jump to changing the offer.
Because the second you change your offer, you are back at square one of learning how to talk about your offer. You have to figure out how to talk about this new offer all over again, how to sell it again. And that creates a lot of confusion and kills momentum. There is no right offer. There is only the offer you make right. That's something my coach told me years ago, and it is just so powerful.
Now, there's a quick caveat to this. If you're still in exploration mode, and I have a few clients in this space, yes, you experiment, you shape your offer, you test pricing, you figure out what people need. But if you already have an offer, if you know what people need, you know the results you can get people, and doubt is creeping in, that's completely different. So instead of changing your offer every time you hear no, I want you to try changing other levers.
When you hear a no, I want you to ask yourself, "Was that really my ideal client?" Sometimes it's obvious, right? I talked to a lot of men, and I'm like, "That's not really my ideal client," after the fact. But sometimes it's sneaky. If you're consistently hearing, "It's too expensive," you have to think to yourself, are you attracting people with no disposable income? If your service is a high-ticket or high-cost service, your ideal client likely has disposable income. By likely, I mean they definitely have disposable income.
So for this dietitian, she was also debating whether to go through insurance. That's a hefty process as well, right? A lot of hurdles to be able to go through insurance, a lot of hurdles then to operate under insurance. I've had clients who are approved through insurance, and it is a headache any way you slice it.
And what I offered to her was, because really the wondering when and how she should get approved and go through the credentialing process with insurance, and I offered maybe her ideal client is someone who pays out of pocket. And I could tell that this was something that she hadn't really considered, but trust me, those people exist. There are people out there who will pay out of pocket for a health coach or for a nutritionist or a dietitian or something that maybe sometimes is covered by insurance, there are people who will and are willing to pay for it out of pocket if they see the results as valuable.
So first you ask yourself, "Was that my person?" Right? Sometimes people say no and we can really see that just wasn't my person. If not, if that person's not your person, you got to change where you're networking. You got to change where you're showing up. Luxury real estate agents network at country clubs, not community centers. You go where your people are, whatever that means for you. If you work with moms, you show up at moms' groups or in mom chats or anywhere that kids are, right?
If you work with runners, you're going to go to running events and conferences. You're going to go to maybe trails or meetups with runners. You go where your people are. I will say that I 100% advocate and support us going and just networking to get used to networking, meeting people. I always say that if the person you're meeting is not your ideal client, they know your ideal client. I know that everybody has a mom or knows a mom, so even if I'm talking to somebody who's not a mom, I know they know a mom in their life.
So there's spaces that maybe are not your ideal client that are still worth spending energy in, expanding your network, but when we get to a space where we're hearing nos, I want you to make sure that you don't take nos personal if they are just not your client and you make an effort strategically to go where your people are, okay? You don't want to spend so much time and energy with people who aren't your clients. You want to get strategic as you grow and learn and become better at networking.
If it was your ideal client that said no, then we want to look at how you're explaining the value of what you offer. In most cases, especially with ideal clients, it's not that they don't have money, it’s that they don't see the value yet. They'd rather spend that money on a vacation or intramural sports for their kids or a renovation in the kitchen.
But your job is to get better at articulating the transformation. Why should somebody spend money on a dietitian versus maybe that kitchen renovation? You have to really understand how you talk about the value and the outcomes and the results that your services or product will offer, why it's important to choose that over the renovation.
And here's the thing, if you don't see the value, you don't think it's more important that somebody gets their diet and exercise and nutrition and their health in order, well, then you really have to coach yourself and figure out why that's more valuable than the renovation. There's always going to be reasons and you have to know your value and you have to be able to explain it to yourself and sell yourself on that value in order to be able to cleanly and clearly explain that to a client.
Your job is to get better at articulating the transformation. With enough conversations and enough nos, you get really good at that. But if you keep changing the offer, you're going to be starting from scratch every time. So don't do that.
Okay, the second thing, let's talk about the salesy fear, not wanting to feel pushy, not wanting to bother people, because this comes up in 80% of my conversations. And this is such a simple shift, but not always an easy one. Instead of focusing on what you want from them, you got to focus on what you're giving. Like I said, simple but not easy.
I did an entire episode on this, episode 76, about give energy versus get energy. So check that out as well after this if you are interested in digging deeper into this, but when we're worried about bothering people, it's usually because we're focused on what we want.
We want them to become a client. We want them to say yes. We want the result. We want them to connect us with somebody. We want something from them, and that's why we feel like we're bothering them. And that wanting or that desperation, people can feel it. And if there's stickiness in the message, they can feel it. If there's this get energy in the message, they can feel it.
The shift is to focus on the value you're providing, like I talked about a few minutes ago on the episode. Focusing on the value, this applies to potential clients and to networking and to following up and expanding your network and meeting one-on-one with someone that you met at an event.
A client recently asked me, "Is there a general rule for following up? I want to be persistent but not desperate." And my answer was, there are no right answers. You have to be honest with yourself about your energy and intention. If you're reaching out from love and abundance and generosity and give energy, it will be received that way.
If you're reaching out because you want something from that person and you don't want to bother them, but you really want them to help you, whether that's creating revenue for your business or connecting you with someone or getting you something in any sort of way, they will feel that too. It will be received that way.
And if you're not sure how you're feeling at any given moment when you are in this type of interaction, I'd like to suggest that you just wait until you do understand, until you are sure how you're feeling. And sometimes that might mean before a call or a meeting or sending an email, you also may want to just do an energy check-in.
And if that's a foreign concept to you, it's definitely a skill that will pay dividends in your business. This is a skill you absolutely want to tap into, you want to learn, and you want to be able to notice and be aware of. If your clients are more aware that you are in get energy than you are, that's a problem.
So doing that energy work before you go into a scenario where you might be shifting into get energy or before you send an email where you might want something from the person, you got to be able to get yourself to a space and it happens instantly. You can go from get energy to give energy in an instant, and you need to be able to make that shift before you're communicating with your network, before you're communicating with potential clients.
But what I told her too was, before sending that email to follow up for the third time with that person that you met at a networking event, let something organic pop up so that you can follow up with true value. Maybe they recommended a book and you read it, tell them what you thought. Believe me, that's valuable.
I love when people come back to me and say, "Hey, I read that book that you recommended," and they want to talk about it. I feel so valued. I feel so important when people come back to me. Maybe they shared advice and you applied it, tell them. 100% tell them.
I always make it a point like my mentors and the people who invest time in me, I know how good it feels when somebody takes my recommendations or takes my advice. I've made it a point to always follow up with the person to show them how I've applied it, to show them the outcome of it. People love to hear that. It's valuable. It's showing them that they matter and that their expertise was spot on.
The same with potential clients. If they're a busy mom, maybe what's loving is following up multiple times to remind them that their goals matter. You can follow up multiple times and be bothersome, and you can follow up multiple times and be loving and generous.
I recently reached out to someone who's been in my world for three years. She is what I would describe a potential client. She had a consultation with me, she wasn't ready for coaching. She's still not ready for coaching three years later and we talk every now and then. And when I recently followed up in the new year, she told me that her mom was sick and that she's been in this caregiver role with her mom and it's been stressful.
So I sent her the book, When Things Fall Apart, not because I wanted to get anything from her, but because it felt like the most loving thing to do in that moment. And that's give energy. And when you operate from give energy, I promise you are not creepy, you are not salesy, you are not bothersome. Okay? You are generous.
Another example or another quick story on this is I had a networking call recently with someone who I met a couple years ago and she popped into my mind and I reached out and I said, "Let's connect," and it took us forever to find time, but we did it. And it was great to hear updates about her business, all these things. And she's not a mom, but I enjoy her company and I liked meeting her and talking to her. And at the end she asked, "So how can I help you?"
And it was so clear to me that she was so used to people setting up those conversations having an ask. I didn't have one. I was truly just curious about her. And ironically, I ended up connecting her with other people who would benefit her business at the end of the call. It's easy to think that sometimes those things are a waste of time, a waste of energy, but it's good practice to be in give energy and to always be thinking about how can I give value.
And sometimes just learning and being interested in people is a way that you give value. When you focus on what you can give, everything shifts. No one is ever bothered by someone bringing value.
That's a little taste of what we discussed in the first Mom Entrepreneur Circle gathering. So I'd love for you to join if you are wanting to be part of these conversations. Of course, me recounting them on here is fabulous, but I also am sure I'm missing so many aha moments and so much of the powerful nature of being in community for these conversations. So, definitely want you to join, make time for it on your schedule.
If you've been changing your offer every time someone says no, if you've been avoiding reaching out to people because you don't want to feel pushy, if you've been questioning whether anyone wants what you're building, if you've been wasting time trying to perfect instead of selling, maybe trying to come up with the perfect offer, maybe trying to perfect your sales page, maybe trying to perfect your website, trying to perfect how you talk about what you do, you need to be in that room.
I want you in that room. Come with your doubts, come with your imposter syndrome, come with those little whispers in your head that are saying, "What do you think you're doing? And this will never work." And we do our best to turn those into strategy and confidence.
You can join and come check us out at jenna.coach/93. That's the show notes for this episode, and there will also be a link to sign up or you can go straight to the sign up page, which is mom.jenna.coach/circle. We meet every other week, twice a month. I'd love for you to set aside one hour and be in that room, and we will build this in a way that feels intentional and abundant and fun.
Our next gathering is tomorrow. So if you're catching this live, that's February 26th. Definitely check us out, sign up, I'll get you added to all the information and reminder emails. We meet every other week, twice a month. So no matter when you're catching this, you can join our next gathering and hang out with some pretty awesome and inspiring moms.
And if you're feeling inspired and want to get started in this community right now, what better timing than tomorrow? Hope to see some of you in that space tomorrow. I look forward to bringing more of these themes and more of these transformations to you so that you can benefit even if you are not in the room.
I'll see you there or I'll see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
Today I'm going to be breaking down what came up in our most recent Mom Entrepreneur Circle and how to stop constantly rebuilding your business and start building real momentum instead.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hi, Mom friends. This is episode 93 of the How to Quit Your Job podcast, and this week we're doing something a little bit different. We recently had the first Mom Entrepreneur Circle gathering of the year, and this is a group I've had for the last four years. And this year feels a little different. There's a new energy. The first few years were really me soaking in what moms need, noticing the themes, the conversations, the struggles that kept coming up.
But this year I feel really strongly about curating the space so that every single time we meet, which is every other week, moms walk away with inspiration, strategy, and connection. So it's a mix of networking and real coaching. There's moms at all different stages of business, talking about struggles and highs and lows and places we're feeling stuck, and it actually moves you through those things.
And I've talked about it on the podcast before. It's completely free. Of course, it's not free time-wise, and I know time is the most valuable non-renewable resource we have, but the space itself is so open and casual and meaningful, right? You pop in, you meet some amazing moms, talk about real things, motherhood, creating clients, imposter syndrome, offers, confidence, and everything in between.
And it's just such a lovely space. So great. The energy and the people, and it's wonderful. And what I want to do today is pull back the curtain a little bit on what came up in that first gathering because if it's coming up for the moms in that room, it's definitely coming up for you too. I also want to invite you to join Mom Entrepreneur Circle. I'll talk about ways to join at the end. You can always go to the show notes, jenna.coach/93. And I'll share more resources and things at the end, but I want to start with what came up in the room.
So after we wrapped up that first gathering, I felt so inspired. There were breakthroughs, there was strategy, there were honest conversations about what's actually getting in the way of creating clients right now.
And what we really dug into was why changing your offer every time you hear no is killing your momentum. We talked about the subtle ways that you might be talking to the wrong people and making it mean something about you. We talked about why this thought, "I'm bothering people," is one of the most expensive thoughts in your business. And the shift from get energy to give energy that makes us completely magnetic instead of salesy.
Yeah, we covered a lot in that one hour. We talked about even more than I'm going to go into on this episode, but these were the themes that I thought were most powerful and most appropriate to dig into and share. So I'm going to be sharing a few of the most important takeaways from that call on this episode and also a few thoughts I've had since that call to really drive some of these strategies and mindset shifts home.
But before I dig into the strategies that we discussed and some of the most pertinent takeaways, I want you to think about something. And this is something that came up in that gathering. I want you to think about what would change about your business and going for your business if you believed two things. The two things being, people want to hear from me, and people have been waiting for the value I offer. They just don't know I exist yet.
I want you to think about how your approach would change, how would your language change? How often would you be following up with people and making offers if you believe those two things? People want to hear from me and people have been waiting for the value I offer. They just don't know I exist yet. If you really believed they were waiting for you, you'd feel energized to make sure they could find you. I have an entire episode on this concept, episode 53. So if you want to dig into this even further, please check that one out.
The reality is that so many of us walk around assuming we're bothering people. This was one of the biggest things that came up in the Mom Entrepreneurs Circle gathering, right? This feeling of, when am I pushing too hard? When am I bothering people? I don't want to bother people. I don't want to sound salesy. I want to make sure that I'm being professional and I don't want to push.
We walk around assuming we're bothering people when in reality, we're providing value. And that thought, "I'm providing value," changes everything. I've never met a mom who started a business because she didn't care about anyone else and she only cared about herself. Every single mom wants to help. We're built for that for better or worse. We are caretakers, we are givers, we are selfless. It's annoying. And it comes in really handy with our businesses.
Every single mom wants to create impact, but when we're focusing on, "Am I bothering them? Am I bothering people?" we actually become really awkward and bothersome. I've seen it so many times. It's painful. Okay? When we obsess over whether we're annoying, we show up from that energy and it's annoying. But when we focus on what we can say and do to provide value and change lives, that energy attracts people.
That's a little prologue. Now let's get into some of the strategies and takeaways from that call. The first one is about changing our offer. Okay? One of the questions in the room came from a mom who just started her business. She hasn't signed a paying client yet. She just started. She's networking. She's building partnerships and collaboration in her industry. She has a very specific niche within nutrition. She's a registered dietitian. She has her LLC. She's doing it part-time.
And her question was really around, "When do I know if I should change my offer when I keep hearing nos?" And I have very strong opinions about this. If you change your offer every time someone says no, you are operating from a really problematic place. You're chasing a perfect offer. You're chasing an offer that everyone says yes to. The reality is there's no perfect offer.
No matter what offer you come up with, you will hear nos. No matter what you sell, no matter how incredible you are, if you tried to mold your offer based on every piece of feedback, it sounds smart on the surface, and I 100% have talked about collecting data and learning from things, but this is one place where you don't immediately jump to changing the offer.
Because the second you change your offer, you are back at square one of learning how to talk about your offer. You have to figure out how to talk about this new offer all over again, how to sell it again. And that creates a lot of confusion and kills momentum. There is no right offer. There is only the offer you make right. That's something my coach told me years ago, and it is just so powerful.
Now, there's a quick caveat to this. If you're still in exploration mode, and I have a few clients in this space, yes, you experiment, you shape your offer, you test pricing, you figure out what people need. But if you already have an offer, if you know what people need, you know the results you can get people, and doubt is creeping in, that's completely different. So instead of changing your offer every time you hear no, I want you to try changing other levers.
When you hear a no, I want you to ask yourself, "Was that really my ideal client?" Sometimes it's obvious, right? I talked to a lot of men, and I'm like, "That's not really my ideal client," after the fact. But sometimes it's sneaky. If you're consistently hearing, "It's too expensive," you have to think to yourself, are you attracting people with no disposable income? If your service is a high-ticket or high-cost service, your ideal client likely has disposable income. By likely, I mean they definitely have disposable income.
So for this dietitian, she was also debating whether to go through insurance. That's a hefty process as well, right? A lot of hurdles to be able to go through insurance, a lot of hurdles then to operate under insurance. I've had clients who are approved through insurance, and it is a headache any way you slice it.
And what I offered to her was, because really the wondering when and how she should get approved and go through the credentialing process with insurance, and I offered maybe her ideal client is someone who pays out of pocket. And I could tell that this was something that she hadn't really considered, but trust me, those people exist. There are people out there who will pay out of pocket for a health coach or for a nutritionist or a dietitian or something that maybe sometimes is covered by insurance, there are people who will and are willing to pay for it out of pocket if they see the results as valuable.
So first you ask yourself, "Was that my person?" Right? Sometimes people say no and we can really see that just wasn't my person. If not, if that person's not your person, you got to change where you're networking. You got to change where you're showing up. Luxury real estate agents network at country clubs, not community centers. You go where your people are, whatever that means for you. If you work with moms, you show up at moms' groups or in mom chats or anywhere that kids are, right?
If you work with runners, you're going to go to running events and conferences. You're going to go to maybe trails or meetups with runners. You go where your people are. I will say that I 100% advocate and support us going and just networking to get used to networking, meeting people. I always say that if the person you're meeting is not your ideal client, they know your ideal client. I know that everybody has a mom or knows a mom, so even if I'm talking to somebody who's not a mom, I know they know a mom in their life.
So there's spaces that maybe are not your ideal client that are still worth spending energy in, expanding your network, but when we get to a space where we're hearing nos, I want you to make sure that you don't take nos personal if they are just not your client and you make an effort strategically to go where your people are, okay? You don't want to spend so much time and energy with people who aren't your clients. You want to get strategic as you grow and learn and become better at networking.
If it was your ideal client that said no, then we want to look at how you're explaining the value of what you offer. In most cases, especially with ideal clients, it's not that they don't have money, it’s that they don't see the value yet. They'd rather spend that money on a vacation or intramural sports for their kids or a renovation in the kitchen.
But your job is to get better at articulating the transformation. Why should somebody spend money on a dietitian versus maybe that kitchen renovation? You have to really understand how you talk about the value and the outcomes and the results that your services or product will offer, why it's important to choose that over the renovation.
And here's the thing, if you don't see the value, you don't think it's more important that somebody gets their diet and exercise and nutrition and their health in order, well, then you really have to coach yourself and figure out why that's more valuable than the renovation. There's always going to be reasons and you have to know your value and you have to be able to explain it to yourself and sell yourself on that value in order to be able to cleanly and clearly explain that to a client.
Your job is to get better at articulating the transformation. With enough conversations and enough nos, you get really good at that. But if you keep changing the offer, you're going to be starting from scratch every time. So don't do that.
Okay, the second thing, let's talk about the salesy fear, not wanting to feel pushy, not wanting to bother people, because this comes up in 80% of my conversations. And this is such a simple shift, but not always an easy one. Instead of focusing on what you want from them, you got to focus on what you're giving. Like I said, simple but not easy.
I did an entire episode on this, episode 76, about give energy versus get energy. So check that out as well after this if you are interested in digging deeper into this, but when we're worried about bothering people, it's usually because we're focused on what we want.
We want them to become a client. We want them to say yes. We want the result. We want them to connect us with somebody. We want something from them, and that's why we feel like we're bothering them. And that wanting or that desperation, people can feel it. And if there's stickiness in the message, they can feel it. If there's this get energy in the message, they can feel it.
The shift is to focus on the value you're providing, like I talked about a few minutes ago on the episode. Focusing on the value, this applies to potential clients and to networking and to following up and expanding your network and meeting one-on-one with someone that you met at an event.
A client recently asked me, "Is there a general rule for following up? I want to be persistent but not desperate." And my answer was, there are no right answers. You have to be honest with yourself about your energy and intention. If you're reaching out from love and abundance and generosity and give energy, it will be received that way.
If you're reaching out because you want something from that person and you don't want to bother them, but you really want them to help you, whether that's creating revenue for your business or connecting you with someone or getting you something in any sort of way, they will feel that too. It will be received that way.
And if you're not sure how you're feeling at any given moment when you are in this type of interaction, I'd like to suggest that you just wait until you do understand, until you are sure how you're feeling. And sometimes that might mean before a call or a meeting or sending an email, you also may want to just do an energy check-in.
And if that's a foreign concept to you, it's definitely a skill that will pay dividends in your business. This is a skill you absolutely want to tap into, you want to learn, and you want to be able to notice and be aware of. If your clients are more aware that you are in get energy than you are, that's a problem.
So doing that energy work before you go into a scenario where you might be shifting into get energy or before you send an email where you might want something from the person, you got to be able to get yourself to a space and it happens instantly. You can go from get energy to give energy in an instant, and you need to be able to make that shift before you're communicating with your network, before you're communicating with potential clients.
But what I told her too was, before sending that email to follow up for the third time with that person that you met at a networking event, let something organic pop up so that you can follow up with true value. Maybe they recommended a book and you read it, tell them what you thought. Believe me, that's valuable.
I love when people come back to me and say, "Hey, I read that book that you recommended," and they want to talk about it. I feel so valued. I feel so important when people come back to me. Maybe they shared advice and you applied it, tell them. 100% tell them.
I always make it a point like my mentors and the people who invest time in me, I know how good it feels when somebody takes my recommendations or takes my advice. I've made it a point to always follow up with the person to show them how I've applied it, to show them the outcome of it. People love to hear that. It's valuable. It's showing them that they matter and that their expertise was spot on.
The same with potential clients. If they're a busy mom, maybe what's loving is following up multiple times to remind them that their goals matter. You can follow up multiple times and be bothersome, and you can follow up multiple times and be loving and generous.
I recently reached out to someone who's been in my world for three years. She is what I would describe a potential client. She had a consultation with me, she wasn't ready for coaching. She's still not ready for coaching three years later and we talk every now and then. And when I recently followed up in the new year, she told me that her mom was sick and that she's been in this caregiver role with her mom and it's been stressful.
So I sent her the book, When Things Fall Apart, not because I wanted to get anything from her, but because it felt like the most loving thing to do in that moment. And that's give energy. And when you operate from give energy, I promise you are not creepy, you are not salesy, you are not bothersome. Okay? You are generous.
Another example or another quick story on this is I had a networking call recently with someone who I met a couple years ago and she popped into my mind and I reached out and I said, "Let's connect," and it took us forever to find time, but we did it. And it was great to hear updates about her business, all these things. And she's not a mom, but I enjoy her company and I liked meeting her and talking to her. And at the end she asked, "So how can I help you?"
And it was so clear to me that she was so used to people setting up those conversations having an ask. I didn't have one. I was truly just curious about her. And ironically, I ended up connecting her with other people who would benefit her business at the end of the call. It's easy to think that sometimes those things are a waste of time, a waste of energy, but it's good practice to be in give energy and to always be thinking about how can I give value.
And sometimes just learning and being interested in people is a way that you give value. When you focus on what you can give, everything shifts. No one is ever bothered by someone bringing value.
That's a little taste of what we discussed in the first Mom Entrepreneur Circle gathering. So I'd love for you to join if you are wanting to be part of these conversations. Of course, me recounting them on here is fabulous, but I also am sure I'm missing so many aha moments and so much of the powerful nature of being in community for these conversations. So, definitely want you to join, make time for it on your schedule.
If you've been changing your offer every time someone says no, if you've been avoiding reaching out to people because you don't want to feel pushy, if you've been questioning whether anyone wants what you're building, if you've been wasting time trying to perfect instead of selling, maybe trying to come up with the perfect offer, maybe trying to perfect your sales page, maybe trying to perfect your website, trying to perfect how you talk about what you do, you need to be in that room.
I want you in that room. Come with your doubts, come with your imposter syndrome, come with those little whispers in your head that are saying, "What do you think you're doing? And this will never work." And we do our best to turn those into strategy and confidence.
You can join and come check us out at jenna.coach/93. That's the show notes for this episode, and there will also be a link to sign up or you can go straight to the sign up page, which is mom.jenna.coach/circle. We meet every other week, twice a month. I'd love for you to set aside one hour and be in that room, and we will build this in a way that feels intentional and abundant and fun.
Our next gathering is tomorrow. So if you're catching this live, that's February 26th. Definitely check us out, sign up, I'll get you added to all the information and reminder emails. We meet every other week, twice a month. So no matter when you're catching this, you can join our next gathering and hang out with some pretty awesome and inspiring moms.
And if you're feeling inspired and want to get started in this community right now, what better timing than tomorrow? Hope to see some of you in that space tomorrow. I look forward to bringing more of these themes and more of these transformations to you so that you can benefit even if you are not in the room.
I'll see you there or I'll see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
Enjoy the Show?
Don’t miss an episode, follow the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or RSS.
Next
Next