Amazing Things to Learn From a “Do It Yourself Jigsaw from Hell
By Margaret Gill
Audio version here
Have you ever tried to assemble a flat pack desk or shelf?
This week in a frenzy of de-cluttering I realised more shelves were in order at International Headquarters if I was ever going to have a back office that matched the same sense of order that my front of house business has.
These apparently “easy to assemble” flat packs are a nightmare of tiny bags of nuts and screws, instructions written by someone with any language other than English and more parts to hold together than hands to hold them.
Flat packs require a good repertoire of swear words if you ever hope to complete the task. Luckily my days in a rock and roll band, where bad language is the universal language, stood me in good stead for the task.
In the process of completing this “Do It Yourself Jigsaw from Hell” I was reminded of a valuable coaching concept I learnt years ago:
The difference between commitment and trying
The big thing you need to know about me is that I’m not at this time, nor ever do I seek to be, a Domestic Goddess and or DIY Warrior. But I’m always up for having a go at something new.
As I unpacked the boxes and gingerly set my pieces in place I started to only partly hammer the pieces into their respective slots.
I thought I was being clever by leaving space for me to easily fix an error if I’d inadvertently locked the wrong pieces together. In the end I found I got less than satisfactory results with this tactic.
My first attempt was very wonky. In fact in a loud clatter of metal on carpet, the whole thing fell apart the minute I let go.
After I picked up all the pieces and bent them back into shape, I changed tactic and attacked the thing with gusto. I hammered the pieces together like it was never going to need pulling apart and guess what! I got the desired results.
What was different? The first time I was “trying” to get it right. I doubted myself and my ability and I hesitated.
When I got “committed” and was prepared to go and buy a whole new flat pack if I did stuff it up – the thing came together almost with the ease quoted on the brochure.
I see so many natural therapists “trying” to build a business.
They are “trying” to get clients and they are “trying” to put themselves in places that they might get clients and they are “trying” to find a WHO and WHAT or niche that will make the difference to their business.
They are often thinking about signing up for a course but never quite getting there, or procrastinate so long that they find someone else has beaten them into the workshop that will change their life.
Committed people however attack their business head on.
They take committed action and get tangible results.
They turn up at workshops happy if they only take one new piece of information home with them because they know the value of turning up.
So are you committed or just trying?
In these new energy times where we are being asked to turn up 100% in our purpose and as ourselves, we have no room to sit on the fence anymore.
“The magic happens outside your discomfort zone”
Margaret Gill
If we want clients we need to find out where they hang out together and go to those places. We need to get into our discomfort zone and talk to people about what we do and in some instances YES we need to market and sell to people so they can work with us.
These types of action take a high level of commitment but they get results.
I’ve found the best and easiest way to get clients is to interact personally with them by using small workshops and talks to grow your business BUT that is not always possible. You could be limited by distance, time, confidence or the funds to start your first live workshop. Your message might still be too murky to speak in public, but what I’ve found is that everyone knows something about something.
So the second best way is to run a workshop or course that interacts with people on the phone.
They are called teleclasses and are basically “learning on the phone”.
Teleclasses take a lot of the pressure off because they are usually done at low cost which lowers the expectations of participants. So it makes it easy to dazzle your participants, add value to the call and have them leave with a really positive experience. It’s those positive experiences that convince people to work with you.
To do a teleclass you really only need a heap of enthusiasm and something you are confident presenting. We all have something we do well – so why not encourage someone who is thinking of learning that thing you do well and teach them how to do it on a teleclass. You can even do the first few without participants until you feel confident enough to invite attendees.
The great news is that you never have to leave home to do teleclasses. They are low cost, short in duration, you don’t need to download anything and you probably have all the resources and equipment you need right now. Like anything else you have had to master in your business, teleclasses are really easy to do once you have been given the right information and have done the first one in a supportive environment.
The great thing is that if you know anything about any topic you can run a teleclass and they are a great way to promote your live events and talks.
You can also use the technology to record your newsletters which will allow you to give your customers the option to listen to your newsletter on an mp3 they can download to their ipod.
Teleclasses also give you the confidence to speak and mastering the teleclass format (ie learning to talk into a void) also sets you up very nicely to start recording product. I can’t tell you how much teleclasses changed my business.
There is a big buzz around webinars at present but I just find there is way too much technology for most people to manage first up and I recommend you start with simple teleclasses that have far less to go wrong.
So to sum up:
Having a small business is a lot like assembling DIY products from hell:
- You have to implement all the parts or it just won’t work
- There are a lot of small pieces that make up the whole
- The instructions you give people have to be clear or it won’t work
- Just using one part of the puzzle won’t get the overall results you desire
- If you don’t get all the right parts in all the right places, then the thing won’t function correctly.
- There will always be a couple of left over screws you have no idea what to do with – but it was worth the effort to have them in mix, if only to find out they weren’t for you.
Speaking and teleclasses are only one of the small pieces that go into the small business jigsaw puzzle but the sooner you commit to at least trying new things and finding new ways to promote your business – you are going to spend less time swearing and picking pieces up off the floor and more time doing something that supports you and your business growth.
Many of you have been asking about how to teach teleclasses so I’ve decided to run a teleclass on that exact subject. There are more details on my website so get committed and click here
