GET BIGGER…

Whether you own your own business, or you’re a freelancer, or a contractor, or would simply like to start moving in that direction, let’s take a look at what determines how money flows in exchange for a product or service. Let’s look at the person who is selling a service or a product, or has a Patreon account and is asking for your money. They are asking for your energy in exchange for some of their energy. What determines whether you give your energy to that person, or to some other person instead?

You can describe the product, or you can describe the service, you can describe what the person will receive, all the features and details – and this is all good information. But what determines whether the person actually purchases, is not the features of the product or service, it is how they FEEL about you or the experience you’re offering:

• Do I feel confident in you and believe that you will deliver what you are promising?
• Does your stuff look elegant, or beautiful, or edgy, or funky or cool? Or is it ugly or boring?
• Does the energy you hold and put forth make me trust you? Or does your energy feel off, incongruent, or like you care more about the sale than me?
• How do I feel about your story – the story of your product or service or journey? Do I emotionally buy into to your story?

Sell the story not the features

Apple gives a brilliant demonstration of this concept in the simplest way. When MP3 players were invented, many other companies offered the technology long before Apple. But those companies were all focused on describing the features, or giving information about the product/technology.

Apple bypassed all of that and went straight to the emotional experience – they went straight to how this product could change people’s life, or experience of life.

Other companies said:
Wow! 5 MB storage, 6 hour battery life

Apple said:
1000 songs in your pocket

Ah. Yes. Apple communicated in one tagline how the iPod would change and improve your experience of life. And so people immediately understood what was being offered and said, yes, that’s for me!

So you can spend hours or weeks brainstorming and coming up with your sales copy to elegantly encapsulate the emotion of the experience you are offering. Or you can simply tell the truth about who you are and what you offer, and how your stuff can change someone’s experience of life for the better.

And yes, of course you have to actually deliver what you are promising. And you have to do a decent job of listening and responding to your customers, and all of the other Business 101 foundational tasks.

Lean in and do your work

But if you have done your work on yourself, if all the elements of yourself and your offering are congruent with each other, if you have looked for and removed your blocks and saboteurs to joy and ease and worthiness – then your story will flow. Your tribe will find you and buy into you. The exact same process will occur whether you are generating $1000/month or $10,000/month. Because money IS an energy.

And whether you generate $1000 or $10,000 or $1 million depends on how thoroughly you’ve done your inner/energy work. That’s part of the fun of it – making money is like a biofeedback system.

If money is not flowing to you it is likely because you are incongruent, or you are blocking the flow, or your fears are choking the flow, or you are subconsciously sabotaging the flow. Or perhaps you don’t even realize that money is a circle that flows in and flows out and you are stopping or interfering with that natural cycle.

Define success for YOU

Here’s another aspect: How do you define success? Is making lots of money the same thing as being successful? If you are rich, does that mean you are a successful human being? It depends on your definition of success.

For myself, I have a holistic definition of success. So I have many other goals, rather than just money. Money is an important part of my desired matrix, but it is certainly not the only component. There have been many times in my life where I have generated much less money, or no money, in exchange for things that were more important at that time.

For example, my husband and I made a conscious decision to go into debt to raise our children ourselves, rather than sending them to daycare. Parenting our own children was a value that was very important to us. So we put our money where our mouth was.

For us, it was not logistically possible to raise our children the way we wanted (attachment parenting, extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc) and have enough time and energy to also be full-time in our businesses. So we took a massive drop in revenue, and our businesses did not grow much during those early child-raising years, until the kids were in school. Our focus and energy was on other important things (parenting, nurturing) that were part of our success picture.

I don’t know about you, but I have talked to a lot of people in their senior years, or those getting close to death. And I have yet to hear even one of them, no matter how wealthy they are, say, “I sure wish I had spent more of my time making money/working.” No! They almost always say, “I wish I had spent more time with my kids.”

Success & business ethics

Here’s another aspect of success: In running my health business, we don’t care if we have to pay more for biodegradable or recyclable packaging. The difference in cost and the effect on our profit margin are of zero consideration. Because another one of our core values and our definition of success, is how we impact this planet.

It has always mystified me the way political parties separate business and environmental considerations. For me there is no separation between the two. If people could view things more holistically, then whichever political party was elected could institute incentives for businesses to protect and nurture the environment. Government could also institute severe penalties for businesses that harmed the planet. I am amazed that this has never happened.

But in the spirit of BE the change, there are now a lot of holistically-minded people running businesses and so they have formed their own organizations to oversee and reward businesses for environmentally-responsible behavior. Also, charitable contributions, or the company’s ’giving story’ is now almost an expected component of corporate culture (and good marketing practice).

Did you download my free gift?

If you missed my previous post, where I talked about money as energy, and what it means if you don’t have enough money, or if money is not flowing in your life… and you did not download the free mini-Workbook I offered you: Mapping Your Money Blocks & Saboteurs, then head over there now!

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