I’m afraid you’re going to lose patience if I keep churning out these “me me me” posts and don’t get back on track with information that would actually be helpful to YOU. But isn’t that one of the problems we flakes always have — fear that others will lose patience with us? And of course, it’s that fear that has led me to procrastinate AGAIN on blogging anything at all. Silly me.
I want to be helpful, I really do. But the daily Bite-Size Tips fell by the wayside pretty quickly because frankly, I just wasn’t into it, and it didn’t seem like anybody else was either. Not that I need comments on every post to feed my ego, but it’s the only way I have to gauge whether I’m going in the right direction. And right now, I’m moving toward a real, honest-to-goodness voice coaching business. I’m starting to believe it’s really going to happen. Which blows my mind.
I’ve given ten free voice coaching sessions already, and have learned a lot in the process. One thing I’ve learned is that even though I don’t have any formal training other than the brief speech class I took in radio school, there’s plenty of good information out there that I’ve been able to use and adapt to my prospective clients’ needs. So far, there’s only been one situation that went beyond my ability to help, and I referred that person to a specialist.
The question is, have I really helped anyone?
They’ve all said nice things about me, but I think I need to create a short survey and ask everyone to fill it out after they’ve had time to put some of my advice into practice, creating audios and videos for their businesses. I want to know what works and what doesn’t. One client actually offered feedback, and it may not all be flattering. That’s a good thing. I’m eager to find out her perspective so I can improve.
Another thing I need to do is set up a mailing list for voice coaching clients, to share tips with them and promote whatever future products and services I come up with in the future.
But here’s where my flakiness gets in the way: I can’t let things get too complex. Some people [coughWendyMaynardcough] seem to be able to manage multiple mailing lists with no problem. I’ve got just one now, and I’m stressing a bit because I’ve only sent out one newsletter so far. I need more input on how people manage more than one mailing list — not to mention websites, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, et al.
I’m also learning what my limits are in terms of how many sessions I can do in a day — or want to do. I’ve learned that three sessions in one day is one or two too many.
Yesterday I got a coaching session of my own with the beautiful @AlexiaPetrakos, who helped me clarify what my goals are and how to get there. Would you like to know what they are? Of course you would.
She asked me where I see myself in 6 to 12 months, and I visualized my dream cabin — and a dog — in the most perfect little town in the world, Pine Valley, California. Lucky me, it’s only 45 minutes away and only somewhat more expensive than where I’m living now. In other words, it’s possible — if I can earn enough money to cover the difference.
And how would that look? I would only need 2-4 voice coaching clients per week, not counting any products I might be able to sell on the site.
Alexia broke it all down for me: assuming a 30% conversion rate, all I need to do is interact with two people a day. She did all the math for me, but now I’m confused on that point. Damn, confused again. I hate that. Anyway, she recommended that I give free 10 or 15-minute voice coaching sessions as a way of promoting longer sessions — pretty much the way she does for her own coaching services [which I highly recommend!]
That sounded pretty good to me yesterday, but today not so much.
We’re back to my problem with too many sessions in a day. And I’m not sure I want to spend that much time on the phone with so many different people. It just brings up all sorts of social anxiety issues for me. [Plus the complexity thing. I signed up for a free trial of a scheduling site called Time Driver. It’s good but it’s supposed to connect with, and update, my Google Calendar. Not working, which means I’m getting all stressed out about making sure I’m not missing any appointments.]
On the other hand — and there is always another hand — what the hell. You don’t get over social anxiety by giving into it, right? If I want to get to Pine Valley, something’s gotta change, and that something is me.
p.s. Went to the doctor today and got an EKG. When I said I wasn’t feeling well a few days ago, I was talking about high blood pressure. It’s not where it should be but it has improved since last time. Anyway, I’ve decided to go vegan, raw as much as possible, in hopes that that will do the trick. Talk about changes!
Photo credit: me
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LaVonne, dear, I've sent you an email that you'll either love or hate me for. :o) All I'll do here is quote a song, 'Slow down, you move too fast; you've gotta make the morning last..'
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and loving comments by email, dear
Jane. I'm going to answer them here, since I didn't think they were too
personal at all. 🙂
I LOVE that Simon & Garfunkel song, and thank you for putting it into my
head! Haven't thought of it in years. 🙂
I am definitely in 'flit-around' mode, but I'm starting to get a handle on
it even though it may not show yet. I think it's part of my response to
anxiety. I need to go through it in order to figure out how to deal with it
next time it happens. And the time after that, etc. So: working on that.
Diet: I should have made it clear that I've already [and very slowly, over
several years] made the transition from the Standard American Diet [talk
about SAD!] to: dairy-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free, gluten-free,
unprocessed, organic, whole foods. So making the switch to vegan is only
another small step. Also, I've been a vegetarian before but did it wrong
[lots of packaged convenience foods back when I didn't have a clue about how
to cook and enjoy simple whole foods] and got in trouble, protein-wise. I've
been vegan & gluten-free [the hardest one for me to kick] for several days
now and already feel a LOT better — more energy, more mental clarity, WAY
less fibro pain. Frankly, I don't think I would be able to follow through on
all the business stuff without making this change. I've been in pretty bad
shape due to fibromyalgia, migraines and brain fog for a LONG time. It's
starting to look like diet is a major piece of that puzzle. [Aaand… I'm
thinking there's a blog post in this. Win-win!]
Newsletter: I promised a weekly newsletter, which could be as simple as a
round-up of the week's blog posts, but I've only blogged once this week and
most of the subscirbers probably already read the blog, so I want to give
them something extra. The main stressor, I think, is that I don't have a
reminder system in place to tell me when to work on the newsletter and send
it out. Same is true for blog posts. I need to set a schedule and stick to
it, duh. One thing Alexia suggested is to have a different task for each day
of the week: Monday – marketing, Tuesday – blog posts, etc. That should help
a lot, and I can set up Google Calendar to send me reminders. Did I mention
I'm forgetful?
Lists: Thanks for the tips. I use AWeber too, after trying out MailChimp and
realizing it would actually cost $20/mo more once you get over a certain
number of subscribers — 500 or 2500? Can't remember.
Bite-size tips: You're right, I didn't give them enough time. That was
definitely a flake-out on my part. I shouldn't have promised to post them
daily, so I'm going to take that back right now. I will keep posting them,
when I think of them or come across good ones. Or maybe just tweet them?
What do you think? I do need to start tweeting useful stuff for flakes.
Alexia's advice: I didn't make it clear enough. She said that in order to
get 2-4 clients per week, I need to *interact with about 3x that number*,
assuming a 30% conversion rate. And by interact, I believe she meant the
short, free voice coaching sessions — thus we're talking about potentially
a dozen coaching sessions per week. I'll ask Alexia to clear that up for me
and then I'll post it.
My anxiety: Yes, I'm anxious but not panicked any more. It's getting better.
And I know that the anxiety will wax and wane. It doesn't scare me any more.
I know that I am on the right path. All I have to do is keep moving forward,
and not give up.
Feels so good to know. 🙂
Hi LaVonne, Starting an online business…actually any business…is a hell of a lot of work. And an incredible learning curve. I just don't think there is any way to make that piece any easier. But, from everything I've seen of you – you really, really want this.
What I can tell you is this: the fear, the confusion, the anxiety, the overwhelm, the “why I am I doing this?” and all of the other stuff that comes up is all part of an entrepreneur's journey. From my observations, the people who succeed as business owners are not the smartest or the luckiest or the most privileged or the most educated or the bravest. The one thing that every successful person I have observed has in common is just downright utter stubbornness. It's the tenacity and resilience that gets them through. They fall down and get back up. They fail and keep trying. They lose money and start over from 0. But they keep putting one foot in front of the other (or sometimes drag themselves forward).
I'm certainly not offering you any pie-in-the-sky, it's all going to be ok kind of advice. But if you want this, you can absolutely have it. And all of the things you are feeling are what we all feel. And at the end of the day, stubbornness wins.
Thank you, Wendy. Very good point. I'm stubborn but I'm also flaky, in that
obstacles really knock me for a loop and it takes me a long time to recover
from perceived failures. I should have said that in the past tense, because
that WAS me. Not any more.
Hmm, wonder if there are any exercises to build our stubbornness muscle…
OMG!! The comments alone are as good as the blog itself. You are amazing my friend!! How can I help you get to Pine Valley??
Love me
PS Thanks for the RTs today. You're a gem.
OMG!! The comments alone are as good as the blog itself. You are amazing my friend!! How can I help you get to Pine Valley??
Love me
PS Thanks for the RTs today. You're a gem.
No, YOU'RE a gem! LOL.
Re Pine Valley [like that pic at the top? I took it. If I ever move
there, that will be my daily walk. With my future dog.]: I guess the
best way you can help is what you're doing already, commenting,
tweeting, and making me feel like I have something worthwhile to say.
I can't express how much that means to me. 🙂
Such a love fest in so many blog comments today! Isn't it wonderful?
Btw, one thing I love about Disqus is that I can reply to comments
right from my email, which really saves time/effort when you're
commenting on multiple sites. My social media guru, @WendyMaynard,
says we should be commenting on lots of blogs and building
relationships, which also helps build backlinks that Google likes. But
there's only so much TIME, gah!
No, YOU'RE a gem! LOL.
Re Pine Valley [like that pic at the top? I took it. If I ever move
there, that will be my daily walk. With my future dog.]: I guess the
best way you can help is what you're doing already, commenting,
tweeting, and making me feel like I have something worthwhile to say.
I can't express how much that means to me. 🙂
Such a love fest in so many blog comments today! Isn't it wonderful?
Btw, one thing I love about Disqus is that I can reply to comments
right from my email, which really saves time/effort when you're
commenting on multiple sites. My social media guru, @WendyMaynard,
says we should be commenting on lots of blogs and building
relationships, which also helps build backlinks that Google likes. But
there's only so much TIME, gah!
I'm glad the email was kindly received :o) I didn't realise you had fibro – if I had I would have understood more about the diet and that you'd already tried stuff. I don't have fibro but a lot of the pain I get is very similar, same with the fatigue.
Newsletter: you'd be an ideal candidate for my new project, coming soon! In fact you've given me an idea. I'll get working on it so it's ready asap and I can use you as a guinea pig!
Alexia's advice: ahh right, again I don't always think things through. I hadn't thought of how you got the clients. I don't know that you'll have to catch them by offering lots of free sessions. You could try 2 or 3 and encourage them to tell friends/acquaintances etc, so that they do some of the work for you. It all comes down to the list – build a list of people who would happily share your talents for you. Actually, the proper name for this would be Affiliates. :o)
Love, as always :o)
You're absolutely right Wendy, and I've got stubbornness in spades; it's how I got this far in life. I forget that, in psite of my problems, I'm actually very lucky, because the circumstances gave me the opportunity to grow in persistence.
Yes, there is one that works: one step daily until it becomes second nature. Then two steps daily until that becomes second nature… and so on.
I know it works because it's how I live every day.
And I should not have been fighting against sharing it for the last year. But that's gone, and at least I'm on the right path now. 🙂
I didn't know I could reply from email! I'll have to check that out.
I've got a trick for the commenting on blogs, and it seems to be working for me because I've got a page rank of 2, and I've not been at this much longer than a couple of weeks – well, not in this form anyway.
Find the highest page rank sites you feel you can comment on and do so regularly. It's a gentle way of building links. You can also see who other top commenters are and follow them too.
No, you don't *have* to offer a gazillion free sessions to get a few clients. That's just one marketing path, and one that usually is pretty successful. Other marketing activities like twitter, a mailing list, etc will also work but high-touch (in-person, phone calls) will always yield higher conversions. 😉
But that exercise I did with LaVonne was to let her know that you NEED to tell people about what you do, and a lot of them, because no one will know what you do unless you tell them, and even fewer will take you up on your offers.
No, you don't *have* to offer a gazillion free sessions to get a few clients. That's just one marketing path, and one that usually is pretty successful. Other marketing activities like twitter, a mailing list, etc will also work but high-touch (in-person, phone calls) will always yield higher conversions. 😉
But that exercise I did with LaVonne was to let her know that you NEED to tell people about what you do, and a lot of them, because no one will know what you do unless you tell them, and even fewer will take you up on your offers.
Yep, and thanks for explaining again how it works in your email. Not quite so scary now. Working out a plan for marketing now…
You're absolutely right. From what LaVonne wrote interacting with upwards of 12 people for a 30% conversion rate seemed daunting; I thought breaking it down into a smaller step might help, that's all. :o)
You're absolutely right. From what LaVonne wrote interacting with upwards of 12 people for a 30% conversion rate seemed daunting; I thought breaking it down into a smaller step might help, that's all. :o)