On some days, it doesn’t feel like it, does it?
You step into your office and check your email. No new inquiries. You pop over and check your social accounts. Two likes trickled in overnight to your post. Your open rate to your last newsletter was in the mid-thirties; your click rate barely registers on the chart. You look at your calendar for the week. Not much going on at all.
You need to find clients, and you seem to be doing all the things you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.
But still you wonder: Can I make my business work?
It’s a question that plagues many newer coaches, healers or creatives. And the answer is…I don’t know. I wish I did. While I do sometimes get a strong intuitive sense about some of the people I work with, the reality is, no one knows for sure.
When a gardener plants a seed, she doesn’t know if it’s going to germinate. In reality, there are many things that could go wrong. Maybe the seed wasn’t dried correctly, or it’s carrying some type of pathogen, like a virus or bacteria, that would stop it from germinating correctly. Or it could end up being eaten by an insect or a bird and never growing.
What if the gardener focused her efforts on wanting to know if the seed is growing, even when it seems it might not be?
Well, she might spend all her time checking for signs of growth, digging around the planting site, obsessively hovering over the dirt. Maybe she checks and rechecks the recommended water amounts or runs out to buy the latest artificial light filters.
Some of these things might help, but doing so in the long run is exhausting and unsustainable. Plus it puts her focus on the wrong things.
I see the same thing in business and marketing.
So many people rebel against the not knowing if their business will succeed. The not knowing is uncomfortable, so they spend time so much time looking for assurances their marketing is working. They look in their inboxes, website analytics, client rosters, Instagram accounts. They want clicks, likes, engagement! - proof their business is going to be successful.
Looking for promises of a future when none exist can be agonizing and draining.
What would happen if you accepted the fact that you don’t know? That you don’t know if you can make your business work?
What would that mean?
Gardeners don’t know if their seed will germinate, but they act on faith that it will.
They buy the seed, and then set about doing all the things that give it the best chance of growing. They plant it properly and at the right depth. They give it the recommended amounts of light and water. They tend it consistently and with care. And, if they do these things regularly, they have good reason to believe it will grow.
In the same way, if you allow space for the fact that, in this moment, you don’t know that your business can make it, you can then choose to show up for your business and marketing in a way that gives it the best chance to succeed.
You show up with a clear picture of your ideal clients and a concise and compelling way to express what you are offering to help them with. From there, you build core messages and a simple plan to start reaching out and engaging in the marketplace in a way that feels good and builds on your gifts and natural strengths.
In short, you don’t spend your time and energy looking for guarantees where there are none to be had. Instead, you show up for your business consistently with authenticity and love.
If you feel called to offer your transformative, healing or creative work to the world, then put the time and effort into learning how to effectively market your business. Show up with curiosity, tenderness, and heart. You might just be surprised one day to see beautiful blooms have arisen outside, when for so long it seemed nothing was growing at all.