"Just think abundance and your business will blossom"... Well, I don't think so. I cracked my heart wide open to see something much deeper than just "thinking abundance" and I'm here to share. https://medium.com/@olga.reinholdt/abundant-thinking-is-a-lie-74678fe35e15ben-cliff-230075

I was desperate. I wanted to do what I was good at, and what would make my life meaningful and plain happy. I knew what I had to offer, but marketing didn’t work. I was always hustling with no results, and didn’t even know where to start making my efforts fruitful. Does it sounds familiar? But I’m a smart girl, ok? And smart girls take charge for everything they do by learning what they don’t know. I started looking for information: podcasts, tips, trainings, webinars, and soon enough I was drowning in the sea of knowledge that did the impossible. It had me hustling even more, with results as miserable as before. The impossible part about this was it didn’t make sense. Those people I bought from promised I would have my 10 new clients in the next 30 days, that I would have a thriving business and make 6 figures from scratch. I thoroughly followed every advice and fulfilled every assignment, and I couldn’t even break it even with expenses I had on training and marketing stuff. If you were there you can imagine my emotional devastation. How bad, stupid, worthless one needs to be to fail when everything is so damn simple, and other students become so successful (I read the testimonials). I felt doomed. After I went through serious coaching process and reconnected with who I truly am, I started seeing things differently. I saw that those courses couldn’t do shit for me as long as I was so disconnected from my true value. I’m not saying that knowing marketing is a bad thing. I’m saying that marketing is just marketing, and it doesn’t address what really makes a prosperous brand. YOU. Your true worth, value, message and mission, that are already there. Before I continue the rant, I want us both to take a breath and get a promise: NEVER let ANYTHING make you think you are anything but brilliant and magnificent. Ok? So as I said before I love learning, and I still check out courses, listen to podcasts, read books to keep up with the marketing world. Last night I listened to this new course that were to introduce this new “business trainer for coaches” person. I wanted to just turn it off, but then I realized that it was so timely that I heard it, and that I could really distinguish things that say: “DON’T buy into it”. There are clear symptoms I’m going to share, that warn me off useless information, and I hope they will help you. You feel stupid. You listen to the trainer, and feel like such a fool. The trainer seems so smart, telling you how obvious things are, and how you could even make mistakes like that… You feel like a freaking fool, that isn’t even competent enough to make up you own lines in a conversation, so you’re offered a script. When was the last time you established deep connection with someone talking by a script??? In the last night’s training it was even better. She offered (literally) “a fool-proof script for a successful discovery session”. Wait a minute, who exactly did she call a “fool” there? Somebody is fixing things for you and “easing the pain”. Once you feel so very stupid and incompetent, and just before you embrace the fate of a perpetual loser you are being saved. You are offered a script, a “four step strategy”, “a simple email sequence”, “a webinar model”, “an advertisement copy” that will have it all covered for you. You are being told that whatever you are afraid of (“do you hate selling?”) will be eliminated from the process (“there’s no selling”). Later on you realize that there IS selling: you offer a service for money, it’s called selling. But because things weren’t called their names you get surprised and come to conclusion you failed to implement what you were offered. Business is what it is, there’s no need to mitigate things, there’s nothing wrong with selling, and you are absolutely capable of selling fabulously. Without believing in you one can’t empower you for what’s ahead. Everything seems so simple and straightforward, you can act upon it right now, and become rich and famous tomorrow. This is another great way to make me feel exceptionally sceptical about the offer, and not take it. If promoting your business, establishing your brand, becoming a sought after professional was as easy as “four simple steps”... put in your ending. Service business is NOT simple, straightforward, cookie-cutter-marketing-based thing. I had one client signing up for a 6 months group coaching in 30 minutes of our very first conversation, while with another client it took me a year to send him our first coaching contract. No conversation is like another. No approach is like another. You are unique and every one of your clients is unique. There’s no “fool-proof” pattern in getting my clients that I could repeat. It’s all about showing up and creating relationships, while running your business, becoming really good at what you do, creating strategies, content, and enjoying the ride… It’s not straightforward, you process is unique, and you are totally and entirely capable of it. Running a successful service business is not simple, and you don’t need it simple. Anyone who treats you as if you do, and offers you simple solutions, doesn’t give you enough credit and sets you up for disappointment. If you recognize these three symptoms, please remember who you are and what support you really need. ditch yourelevator pitch-8