I met Eddy a few years back in a coaching community.
He was loud with a thick New Jersey accent. He talked a lot. Honestly, he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box.
Eddy would come on our community calls and tell his story. Repeatedly.
He was a drug addict, even living on the streets for a time, until he found salvation through Narcotics Anonymous. Now he was a recovery coach.
If we’d had a betting pool – we didn’t, just for the record – about which coaches in the group actually had paying clients ,my money would NOT have been on Eddy.
But here’s the interesting thing:
Eddy did have clients, and they loved him.
He knew what it was like to go through withdrawal, try to get sober, and fail, because he’d been there. He knew the tricks they’d try to pull, because he’d done them himself.
Eddy’s clients felt the authenticity, and they hired him.
So when I hear coaches say, “I’m just not smart enough to do this business thing,” I think of Eddy.
Because Eddy was more than a little bit crispy in the brains department. If anyone could prove that you don’t need to be smart to get clients, it was him. (Sorry, Eddy.)
But Eddy had something even better going for him. Something you have, too, if you dare to unleash it.
He was himself, and he let people see it.
He swore and used city slang. He talked louder and longer than necessary. And his heart was as big as the ocean. He’d move himself to tears talking about the difference he’d made for a client.
The guy was real.
Being yourself in your business is the best “marketing” strategy you can get – and it’s not a strategy. It’s natural.
Most entrepreneurs are hiding their best stuff. The opinions they think are too edgy for the public. The pieces of their story that feel too raw and vulnerable to share.
The truth is, there’s always going to be a learning curve in business.
The experts will sell you a “proven” system on the promise that if you follow the steps, you can avoid the mistakes they made and skip to the results. But you can’t skip your own learning curve.
As expressed in the book Love Money, Money Loves You by Sara Mccrum:
“You can’t do any of this on a formula. You actually have to reflect, and feel, and sense deeply, and experiment, and make mistakes, and correct them, and make more mistakes, and be patient, and clarify what you really really want over and over again.”
Being smart doesn’t help with that part. In fact, reliance on your intellect is an impediment for most coaches. They’re so busy trying to get it perfect that they falter. They think themselves out of taking action.
What always helps is being your genuine, authentic self.
It attracts the people who get you, and repels the ones who don’t. When you stick with what you really know, like Eddy did, it’s actually helpful. People trust you and are more likely to hire you.
Bonus: there’s no learning curve to being you. It comes with the package.
And it feels so much easier than trying to imitate someone else.
In the IMPACT Creators’ membership, we forge our own way of being in business. You get to make it up your way and discover how simple and rewarding it can be to follow your own path.
So bring your smarts, but don’t worry about being at the top of the class. I’ll show you how to leverage the brilliance of you to create a business that feels good and profits.
https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/impactinvite
Yours in love and play,
Steph
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