Posts Tagged ‘money’

Are Your Values Keeping You From Earning More Money?

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Last week, I had the immense pleasure of conducting a coaching training course for the CT Women’s Business Development Council.  I shared the day with an amazing, inspiring group of women who work throughout Connecticut and are heart-committed to helping others get on more solid ground with their finances.  (By the way, if you don’t know about the Women’s Business Development Council, do check them out!).

In the program, we conducted a number of role-play exercises illustrating the power of coaching, and one exercise truly took me by surprise.  In this exercise, each of us explored our intrinsic, heart-felt values – what we care about deeply and what we need in our lives to feel fulfilled and to craft a life worth living. 

After the exercise, we evaluated how these values are supporting us, and also how they may be clashing, in fact, with our desire and need to make more money, and to save and invest wisely. Fascinating discussion…

In doing the internal work of this exercise myself, I was reminded that I value the following traits very highly in my work:

1) Helping people make positive, lasting change (value: making a difference)
2) Authenticity and individuality (value: truth-telling)
3) Offering help and insights based on reality (value: realism)
4) Delivering programs informed by research (value: expertise/diligence)
4) Endeavoring to offer something of value that exceeds what my clients pay (value: service)

When I compare my values and behaviors to those of some other service providers, I see key differences.  A large number (not a majority perhaps, but many) consultants and providers these days seem to value making money over all else, by:

-  Using hard-hitting marketing promises to convince clients about what they can achieve (no matter how likely those outcomes are)
- Accepting clients who are desperate financially, but don’t have the ability to recoup the money they invest in the coach/consultant
- Encouraging clients to put out programs and materials that offer less than high value or strong content
- Making abundant success sound very easy and very accessible to all
- Talking about how they personally made their money, not what the client needs to do in these times to make their own money
- Using fear tactics to scare clients into thinking if they don’t hire the consultant/coach, they’ll fail

On the contrary, when I looked very closely at my own values as well as my outer behaviors, I realized that my intrinsic values have prompted actions that in some ways clashed with my desired outcome of inviting more money into my business. As an example, I tend to give far too much away for free and then feel resentful and angry, and I have a hard time honoring my own boundaries about the type of coaching projects I will and will not accept.

After a long, hard evaluation, I now understand that what I want to change is not my values, but the way in which I express them.  For instance, I’m focused more keenly on being of service to people who are in synch with me about what they value and the outcomes they wish to produce.  I’m also more committed to working with those who are happy and able to pay fairly for the time and support they receive. 

The ultimate goal, I think, is to honor your values fully, while engaging in conscious behaviors that are in alignment with who you really are and what you want in life.

It’s a very powerful exercise to understand exactly what you value, and explore how these values prompt unconscious behaviors that hold you back from achieving core goals such as greater financial success.  I’d recommend doing this exercise today!

Question for the day: What do you value deeply in your life and work?  And how might these values be (unconsciously) promoting behaviors that hold you back from creating a higher level of desired success. Please share what you discover!  

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Posted in Breakthroughs, Careers, Empowerment, Kathy Caprino, Living Real, Marketing Support, Uncategorized, Women in Business | 3 Comments »

Why “Good” Marketing Advice Can Lead You Astray

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

A significant number of my awesome coaching and consulting colleagues and friends across the country have shared with me in the past year that they’ve hired outside marketing help with disappointing (or disastrous) results.  Despite finding “experts” who seem to have good reputations and produce solid results for others, my colleagues found that the marketing advice they received simply wasn’t effective or helpful.

Curious as to deeper reasons behind the lack of efficacy of this marketing  help,  I asked my friends some questions about it:

  1. Did the marketing advice you get “feel” right to you when you got it
  2. Did you feel that the marketing expert really “got” you – understood you and respected where you were coming from, was supportive of you
  3. Was the marketing advice aligned with what you really believe, deep in your heart
  4. Did the advice honor your unique views, perspectives and experiences
  5. Did the copy, products and programs you were led to create feel like a natural outgrowth of you?
  6. Did the new website or program or free gift that you created with the marketing expert make you feel proud and happy with the end result?
  7. Did you feel equal in the relationship, or did you feel that they were the expert and you were the beginner?

If the answer to any of these questions was “no,” it turns out that the marketing advice may have been “sound,” but it wasn’t RIGHT for them.

The process of finding the right marketing support provider is exactly the same as going about finding the right doctor, financial consultant, virtual assistant, or other support professional.   It’s not enough that the individual has helped others, or has a “good reputation,” or seems successful.  There are skillions of folks who fit that bill.

What does matter is that they are the right fit for you – that they are empowered supporters of you, and understand what you want, why you want it, and how you want to go about getting it.  It’s about process here, not just about content. 

Further, it’s critical that you like and trust your helper.  If you follow the advice of someone you don’t like or respect, you subconsciously sabotage yourself and limit your success.  You’re telling yourself that despite this person feeling “off” to you, they must know better than you, and that you don’t know enough.  That core self-message undermines the entire outcome of what you’re trying to achieve – bringing about great, new aligned clients and customers whom you wish to serve.

How to Choose the Right Helper for You

Here are several key criteria that must be met in order for a marketing consultant or coach to be a good fit and to give you more than you pay for.  If you want to be pleased with the outcome, and find enlivening marketing support that helps you achieve the outcomes you want in ways that are aligned with who you are, ask yourself:

Does the provider:

  • Take into account your uniqueness and differences from others in your field
  • Feel  in alignment with you, in terms of aesthetics, values, priorities, authenticity, communication, and style
  • Want you to be happy with their services, and will do what is necessary for you to be more than satisfied?
  • Have proven results with others who are like-minded with you?
  • Have marketing materials, website, programs, and products that you feel are high-quality and high-content and that you’d like to emulate?
  • Price their programs in a way that ensures you’ll generate significantly more money within a year from the outcomes of their support than you’ll pay them?

Finally, does it feel “right” and “good” to work with this individual?  Does s/he empower you, or bring you down?

Spending money wisely is a hallmark of successful individuals and business owners.  Please…think carefully before investing in outside support.  Make sure that your service providers are capable of helping you be all you wish to be in the world.  Feel free to say “no” when it’s not working.  Bring up your concerns and ask for change or resolution.  If you don’t get want you need, be prepared to walk away from the relationship when you sense that this partnership is not for you or for your highest good.  Don’t wait to ask for what you know you need and want.

Are you spending money today in a support relationship that isn’t supportive?  Might today be the day to say “no more?”

 

 

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Posted in Advice, Breakthroughs, Challenges, Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Marketing Support, Small Business, Uncategorized, Women in Business | 4 Comments »

The Top 10 Things Coaching Marketers and Training Schools Won’t Tell You

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

This week, I had a fabulous conversation with Starla Sireno – Founder of www.Fearlessnessinc.com and the Fearless Women Entrepreneur Network – an empowering forum for women entrepreneurs in San Francisco and beyond, providing the knowledge and support women need to become fearless entrepreneurs. 

Starla and I both found so much validation and confirmation in sharing our honest and frank views about the coaching business, entrepreneurship, women’s challenges in launching their ventures to great success, and the onslaught of false information that is damaging to thousands of women today.

I realized in speaking with Starla that I’ve officially had it with the thousands of false and empty promises I keep hearing from hundreds of coaching marketers and product developers for coaches, and organizations that train beginning coaches.  Their talk is SO full of misleading guidance, that it’s time to speak out. 

I’m sharing below what I know to be true about the coaching business, based on not only my personal experience, but also my honest and authentic conversations and connections with hundreds of coaches nationwide and in other countries.

*Note: The following information excludes reference to executive and business coaches who are paid by an organization, not by individuals.  There are exceptions to the statements that follow, but not many, and only under special conditions:

What I know to be true about coaching: 

1) “Coaching” per se doesn’t sell.  People still don’t know what coaching is or what it delivers.  To get new clients and continually fill a pipeline to make a good living, you must promote and market the substantial benefits and outcomes you deliver, not sell “coaching”

2) Your delivered outcomes must be highly compelling.  The benefits and outcomes you deliver through coaching must be compelling and highly valuable in the eyes of your clients, not yours.  For people to part with their money today, you must address a pain point that has to be resolved, or a benefit that is deeply coveted, in the client’s opinion.

3) Don’t count on workshops for your living. You won’t make any money running workshops, selling passive income products, or engaging in affiliate relationships if you don’t have a large enough community (in the multiple thousands) to sell to.

4) The strength of your brand matters. With the massive influx of data and information today, you need a compelling brand and powerful unique positioning, website and other marketing materials that work, to stand out and help you attract new clients and customers — unless you only want to work only through word-of-mouth.

5) You need a large platform or community in order to sell books. Creating books and e-books in general won’t make you money either – again unless you have thousands of potential customers within your reach.  Books (and only well-developed ones that offer something of value) will, however, generate other benefits for you (credibility, recognition, exposure, a new affordable way to reach people, etc.).

6) Hundreds of coaches nationwide are not making it.  The median annual salary for a life coach is $30,000 – and many more coaches make much less than that.  If you want a bigger income, you must embrace a different business model that includes not just one-on-one coaching but also other high-quality and useful services, products and programs.

7) Publishers will be interested in your book only when you command significant attention. Publishers won’t consider publishing your book unless you have a sizable platform and community (in the many multiple thousands) and can command attention, through traditional or social media, or through others means.

 8) Publicity doesn’t have the financial impact you think it does.  National publicity is awesome to get, but it doesn’t necessarily move any important needle in your business financials – including in your revenue, clients, customers or speaking fees.  Don’t chase publicity for publicity’s sake.

9) Paid speaking gigs don’t come easy. If you want to be a paid speaker, it takes a great deal of training, powerfully-crafted programs, credibility, in-depth experience, and hard-earned knowledge about how to engage, inform, and enliven an audience.  All of that takes years.  Don’t expect high fees (or fees at all) as a beginning speaker.

10) Coaching is NOT a quick and lucrative way out to your corporate job. 
DON’T engage in a coaching practice if you think it’s an easy, profitable way to run from your corporate life.  And please don’t launch a coaching or consulting practice (or other business) if you aren’t ready to focus on and continually attend to the business-building and marketing actions essential to creating a thriving business.  If it’s contrary to your personality to go out and pursue business opportunities daily and promote your business with gusto and energy – then definitely think again.

*  *  *  *

Coaching can be a very rewarding and exciting profession, but it takes time, energy, business and marketing know-how, sound investment, and an ongoing commitment to making it work.  False promises about how easy it is to earn six figures, create compelling information products that sell, or attract clients who’ll flock to your door, are misleading at best, destructive at worst. 

Some helpful TO-DO tips:

1) If you’re building a coaching practice, seek out reliable and highly respected coaching marketers and business-builders who understand the realities of the business and will share with you the core strategies they’ve used to overcome the inherent challenges. 

2) Please be judicious in what you invest in outside help to develop your business. Don’t spend thousands of dollars on outside marketing help if there’s no way you can recoup that money within the year. 

3) Find helpers who are strong role models whom you respect, and whose products and programs are of high quality.

4) Believe only the advice of people who want you to succeed as much as — if not more than – they want to fill their own pipelines.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for real-life stories of successful coaches who have navigated powerfully through each of the above realities.

I’d love to hear from you.  What else do coaching marketers and schools NOT tell you? Leave a comment!

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Posted in Advice, Breakthroughs, Careers, Challenges, Kathy Caprino, Living Real, Marketing Support, Powerful Self-Marketing, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Why Asking for Money Is So Hard

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

I’ve been watching my clients – and myself – this past year around the experience of charging fees, asking for payment, suggesting folks re-enroll in our programs, etc., and here’s what I’ve found…

Very few people like asking for money, and no one finds it easy – we universally hate it.

Why? 

Because asking for money brings up thousands of insecurities and doubts.  We’re scared to look money in the face, and to put ourselves out there, formally stating where we stand in a value equation.  And we’re unsure of our worthiness.

Folks tell me that when they ask for money from clients or customers, questions swim inside their heads about value, impact, and “appeal.”  They fear that asking for money is the opposite of being “pleasing” to people, and will be a huge turn-off.  (For a fascinating discussion around if we should worry about what other people think of us, see Jonathan Fields’s recent post “What Other People Think IS Your Business.”)

In tough times like these, consultants, coaches, practitioners and entrepreneurs struggle hard to stand up for what they want/deserve in compensation or fees, fearing no one will pay.  And in the end, many aren’t sure themselves what their services are worth.

At the root of this money challenge are shame, doubt and insecurity:  Am I good enough? How can I put a value on what I offer?  Will there be enough people to pay this?  Will they come back?  Did they think my work was a good value?  How do I fare against the competition?  Did I give them great results?

While I continue to struggle with asking for money, I’ve found greater success this year only after figuring out beyond a reasonable doubt what I feel my services are worth.  I didn’t make the numbers up – I did the work of obtaining valid information and feedback.  I conducted diligent, open-hearted research – with clients, competition, experts, role models, the marketplace, etc.  I asked my clients how they assessed the value of our work together, and the impact it made in their lives.  And I left my ego at the door when these conversations occurred. 

Asking for money IS hard, but it gets easier when we become crystal clear about what our services/products are worth to those we serve.  Once we know in our hearts and minds what to charge, then it’s time to speak up and ask for it. 

Curious about your thoughts – Do you find asking for money hard, and what makes it easier?

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Posted in Challenges, Empowerment, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Marketing Support, Women in Business, success | No Comments »

7 Signs You’re In Denial About Your Money Situation

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

In the past year, I’ve spoken and worked directly with hundreds of women entrepreneurs, executives, consultants and small business owners who are, as I was at one time, in complete denial about their money situation.  They know they’re not earning nearly enough or they’re spending too much, and money is slipping through their hands, but that’s as far as their recognition of the problem goes. 

In short, their heads are deep in the sand about their money relationship.  They’re working hard to ignore the obvious – the inevitable misery that will come unless they change directions, and fast.

How can you tell if you’re in denial about your money situation? 

Here are 7 glaring signs that you’re in money trouble:

1.    You can’t pay your monthly mortgage or your rent without tapping into savings, retirement, home equity loans or other funds.

2.   You are using your credit cards each month to buy essentials such as food, clothes, and gas.

3.   Your small business, consultancy or private practice is losing money each and every month, and despite your valiant efforts, nothing you do is changing that fact.

4.    All the ways you’ve made money in the past don’t work now.

5.    You don’t have a Plan B in the event your Plan A fails, and you don’t have the necessary benchmarks and signposts to tell you it’s time to change course.

6.   You’re hanging on by a thread to your “Build it and They Will Come” mentality, but they’re not coming.

7.  Someone you love and respect has been telling you over and over that you’re in denial and things must change, but you’ve ignored them or argued against them bitterly

Do any of the above sound like your situation?  If so, PLEASE act now. Don’t wait another day.  Your money situation simply will not improve unless you do things very differently, starting today.

What should you do differently?

I’ve just read a terrific book called Life! by Design (highly recommended) by Tom Ferry– a well-known success coach and motivational leader — and he outlines 6 steps to changing your life and “living by design” which I think apply perfectly to changing your money situation.  These are steps I explore with all my clients as well.

These six vital steps are:

1.         Wake up from your coma – be aware of the key areas in your life that need attention today

2.         Make the choice to change your life

3.         Create your life by Design

4.         Do the things that bring you power

5.         Practice visualizing yourself already there, in possession of what you want

6.         Create structure and accountability by telling others around you about your plans and goals

I know from experience that in order for your money situation to change you must wake up to the severity of it, and commit to changing your situation by taking new empowered actions that will change your course.  To do things differently, you need a new, fresh perspective that includes concrete, practical, and effective support, know-how, and help.

And yes, you can do this, despite the negative stories you’ve told yourself that you don’t have what it takes.  I know you do have what it takes to revise your money situation — you wouldn’t be reading this information if you didn’t have access to the necessary resources, courage, faith and resolve to make this important life change.  The energy of money is pervasive in our culture – there’s no escaping it.  In this lifetime, you’re being called to empower yourself so that money will flow in your life, and support you as you flow with it.

The problem of money breakdown in women is so enormous today that I’ve committed myself to be an active part of the solution.  I’m excited to share that I’m launching this Fall a new marketing and communications consultancy branch to my business Ellia Communications, designed to help women entrepreneurs, executives, consultants and private practitioners step up to their highest visions in their work by find the right marketing, communications, and business planning strategies to support their empowered goals.  Stay tuned for more on that!

In the meantime, come for a specialized reading about your financial situation as it pertains to your career, small business or practice.  Call me for a Private Career Consultation.  I’ll help you see where you’re blocked around money, and support you to begin taking new steps that will release you from your financial traps.  Also, check out my book Breakdown Breakthrough, Chapter 10: Escaping Financial Traps (or write me at kathy@elliacommunications.com for a free chapter download). 

I’d love nothing better than to help you emerge from your financial woes so you can be all you wish to be in this life and in your work.

You’re ready for this new step, and so is your life!

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Posted in Advice, Breakthroughs, Careers, Challenges, Empowerment, Featured, Living Real, Support for Change, Tips for Empowerment | No Comments »

Is Your Attitude Keeping You Broke?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

As we move into a time of planting new seeds and cultivating what we truly wish to create, it’s time also to weed our gardens – discard old remnants from past plantings that thwart our growth, and cease to be beneficial as we evolve.

 This Spring, I’m doing a great deal of emotional weeding.  Truth be told (and so many people do not tell the truth about their real-life problems, so here we go), I’ve been extremely challenged by financial mistakes of my past.  I don’t regret these “mistakes,” as they are fodder for learning, but that doesn’t make them any easier to resolve.  And boy, has there been learning!

 

What are these serious financial mistakes? 

I’ve realized that I’ve been held hostage by old “structures of knowing” around money formed years ago. 

These mental models of how things work were not fully in my awareness until now — and they include my believing that:

1. It will be virtually impossible to make fantastic money if I’m doing what I love in my heart and soul

2. If I work for someone else, I’ll be terribly hurt, as I was in my past corporate career

3. I have to work incredibly hard to be successful

4. When abundant money flows again from my work (as it did in my corporate career), I’ll misuse the power that comes with it (as I did before)

5. To make great money, I’ll lose the precious family time I’ve worked so hard to achieve

6. I can’t admit out loud that I’m not having the financial success I want, because then I won’t be a strong role model for other women

7. I can “affirm” away scarcity

These structures of knowing have wreaked havoc on my financial health, and I’m taking powerful action to revise each and every one, and its working!

(For help about uncovering your limiting “structures of knowing,” see Dr. Maria Nemeth’s book The Energy of Money).

Unearthing these limiting mental models is a vital step to shedding behaviors (financial and otherwise) that keep you from the joy and success you long for.

And by the way, I have seen with hundreds of people I work with and in my own life that knowing about the Law of Attraction and practicing abundance principles is often not an effective enough guidance system to shift you into a prosperous state, when you’re really stuck around money.

I’ve found that what truly WORKS in shifting you out of your money lack is to 1) release old beliefs and behaviors (I call these your “Breakdown Myths”) that sabotage your success, 2) connect with your true intentions  and life purpose, 3) gain awareness of your standards of integrity and use them to guide your life, 4) infuse your life with new energy of money, time, creativity, vitality, enjoyment and support, and finally 5) create a S.M.A.R.T. plan with doable goals and steps that move you forward to what you deeply want.

So if you’re stuck around money…

 

1) Read my latest newsletter and the featured article called “Is Your Attitude Keeping You Broke” written by my friend and colleague, holistic financial consultant Denise Hughes. 

 2) Join my Breakthrough Women’s Circle

Denise will be holding an hour-long teleseminar on “Achieving the Financial Success You Dream Of: 6 Steps to Financial Growth” for my Breakthrough Women’s Circle members only on Wednesday April 14th 1pm to 2pm EST.  She’ll also be available next month on the BW Circle forum to answer your specific financial questions! 

 If you’re not a member of the circle, join now and don’t miss it.

3) Reach out to get help and build your success support community today

Get help today.  Don’t wait.  Find a coach, join a support community, take a workshop or seminar.  For live support in Connecticut, join me on May 15th in Norwalk, CT for my Breakthrough to Abundant Success! Seminar.  (Register by April 15th and save $50). 

My friends, your reality can change in a blink of an eye – I can attest to this.  But it takes a new and different kind of inner and outer work to achieve it.

Is there any better time than now?

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Posted in Advice, Breakthroughs, Empowerment, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Living Real, Resources, Support for Change, Tips for Empowerment, Yes I Can Thinking | 2 Comments »