Hate technology but still want clients?

Do the words social media elicit a sneer from you? Have you set up your LinkedIn profile out of guilt and never logged in again? If your passport picture is more recent than your Facebook profile shot, you might just be a tad opposed to using technology and social media to get clients.

There is hope

Yes, there is a world out there for you—the tech challenged-wanna stay in the old world entrepreneur. You too have many potential clients who feel exactly as you do and shun the internet.

Your personality and skill set is exactly perfect for the right kind of client who is looking to meet you face to face or by the good old fashioned phone. There is no stigma to that, it still works!

What you do need

As a small business growth coach, I’ll give you a pass on having to market yourself on social media but there are a few rules you still need to follow so you can get clients:

Fish where your fish are

If you’re not speaking, networking or reaching out in some way to your target audience, you are missing the client boat in a big way. How are they supposed to know they need your help if they don’t know you?

Have a clearly defined niche

If you help everyone and offer them every service, you don’t have a defined niche. Ruthlessly focusing on a specific segment of the population (ie. I help service based solopreneurs) and talking about only one thing that you can offer them (ie. I offer them marketing coaching) will ease the crease between the eyebrows (ie. confusion) of those who were kind enough to ask “So what is it that you do?”

Speak to your target’s pain

If the minute you open your mouth and your ideal client thinks “this guy gets me and can help me”, then you’re probably talking about your client’s pain and how you can help relieve it instead of just talking about yourself. I don’t care if you’re not on social media but if you’re not talking about your client’s pain, you’re just using up air.

Be visible

Social media and technology allows us more access to people’s lives, so if you’re going to cut off this channel for your visibility, make up for it by being everywhere that your target is—on the radio show they listen to, in the magazine they read and in the trade show they attend. Be ubiquitous.

If you’ve got all these above bases covered, I’m sure you’ll find that even tech haters and nay sayers can have a thriving and booming business and will put those bloggers and tweeters who never come out from behind their computers to shame.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let's talk!

Bio:Chala's mission is to help entrepreneurs overcome fear and embrace the joy of marketing themselves to share their gifts with the world. Chala is the person you go to if you want to jump quickly to the next level of your business potential. A certified business coach, she cut her corporate teeth as a marketer at companies such as Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Frito Lay, Diageo, Playtex and lastly BIC Inc. With a lifelong desire to use her corporate experiences to help managers and business professionals to increase their productivity, Chala has a practice supporting small business owners who want to get more clients through marketing and branding more effectively

Getting my weight under control has come from a process of treating myself as well as I treat others in every way. -Oprah Winfrey

 

Why Weight? Diets Don’t Work

You can’t turn on the TV, drive down the road or go to a party without being confronted with America’s hottest obsession: weight. Diets are a billion-dollar industry; companies spend millions and millions luring you to try the latest diet (low carb, high protein, low fat, no fat, you name it) with promises that this will (finally!) be the solution—your shortcut to a thinner body. Advertising efforts also deeply affect our children, who develop distorted body images and are often on diets as early as nine or 10 years of age. 

 Photo Credit to Stuart Miles

Our culture touts diet pills, celebrity workouts, convenience foods and trendy diets to help us achieve our desired weight, but these quick-fix solutions have backfired. America’s populace has reached its highest weight in history. About half of Americans are overweight; one-third are obese. Diets steer us away from our common sense and dip deeply into our pocketbooks while eliciting few, if any, lasting results. Why?

• Diets don’t work because each person is unique, with different needs based on gender, age, ancestry and lifestyle; how could one diet be right for everyone?
• Diets don’t work because they are extreme solutions. As in physics, if a pendulum swings to one extreme, it has to swing equally to the other. A diet might work for a short amount of time, but research shows that almost all diets result in a 10-pound gain once off the diet.
• Diets don’t work because they are too restrictive. People who fail on diet plans are not flawed or weak. Diets by nature require discipline and restriction at levels that are unsustainable by a healthy human body.
• Most people are disconnected from why they gain weight and see diet as the only culprit. For example, ignoring or discounting emotions is often the first thing to cause weight imbalances.

In our fast-paced world, we have lost sight of many aspects of life that truly nourish and balance our bodies, such as slowing down, eating a home-cooked meal and spending quality time with loving people. Eating consciously and making simple lifestyle changes will create positive results and release you from the endless cycle of dieting.

Given half a chance, your body will balance out by itself, but this is only possible by getting out of the diet mentality and listening to what you truly need. Imagine taking all of the outward energy you expend on diets, fads and gimmicks and turning it inward, so that you can listen to your heart and inner wisdom. There is no such thing as a quick fix; you already have everything you need within you. With careful thought and loving reflection, you can feed yourself in a nourishing way. Working with your body rather than against it will bring you increased energy, stabilized weight and sustainable health.

Food Focus: Asparagus

Now that spring is finally here, it is a perfect time to add some asparagus to your diet!  Here are some wonderful ways in which asparagus can benefit you:

Detoxifies our bodies

Anti-aging functions

Cancer-fighting qualities

Reduces pain and inflammation

Can prevent osteoporosis

Reduces the risk of heart disease

Reduces the risk of birth defects

Recipe of the Month: Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan       

Ingredients

2 bunches of asparagus

1 tablespoon olive oil

Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

2 -3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Trim the tough ends off of the asparagus.

On a baking sheet, toss the asparagus with the olive oil, salt and pepper.  Spread the asparagus on the sheet, side by side.  Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.

Roast the asparagus until tender and the cheese is melted, about 10-15 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Milissa Harding is a Certified Holistic Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She works with busy women who struggle to maintain healthy energy levels.  Milissa creates personalized coaching programs integrating both a nutrition and lifestyle focus to enable busy women to:  increase energy levels, reduce stress, improve eating habits and prioritize self-care. Request your FREE 25-page copy of “Feeding the Busy Mom: Nourishing Yourself from the Inside Out” and schedule an Energy Strategy Session by visiting www.healthystartcoaching.ca.

Happy Being Me

One of the steps that I coach my clients through in my program is called “Your Health and You Time”. As a mother, it is sometimes very difficult to take the time to take care of ourselves. If we have also left an abusive relationship, sometimes our mind cannot even wrap around that concept initially. We forget how it is to be “Happy Being Me“. We feel like we are being selfish.
 But, who determines selfishness? I would say that it is usually an outside source. Now, I’m not talking about buying a Gucci purse and not buying groceries for our kids~that is negligence. I mean doing something really nice for yourself.
Let’s examine something simple like getting your nails done, for instance. A manicure with a massage is $20-$30 tops. Perhaps you could push back on the grocery money by $5 without having a really noticeable difference in the whole budget. In five or so weeks, you can have a manicure with a hand massage. I am almost certain that your children will love the mother that comes home that evening! I call that “Cheap You Time”!
As Moms, we often don’t take care of our health, either. Although I am “Happy Being Me” in many ways, my weight is not one of them. I have been overweight for most of my life. At the beginning of January, I cut out sugar and simple carbs from my diet. I also had a colon hydrotherapy session to remove the crud from my system. I feel fabulous, but I now need to address my eating habits.
This time, I decided that I am going to use an accountability method. I have been on countless eating plans (aka diets), and have never been successful. There was no accountability for what I was doing, so whenever I felt challenged, I reverted back to my old habits. I have decided that I need to splurge on this for ME. What good am I to my kids if I cannot keep up with them? What example am I showing them if I am overweight? If I want them to eat properly and be healthy, I have to do the same.
To be “Happy Being Me“, I believe that we have to take care of ourselves. We need to put the correct food into our system, and give our bodies the exercise necessary to keep us fit and alert. But, we need a little pampering as well, because sometimes, we have been through a lot, and we deserve it.
May you have Water for Your Journey,
Stephanie, Emerging Princess

The moment we give up our excuses and fully accept responsibility for our own health and happiness, is the moment we harness our true power to change. ~Bill Phillips

Stephanie Titus-Andrews is a Speaker, Author and Recovery Coach to women who are going through divorce, especially if there was abuse.  Her mandate is to give women an injection of hope, direction and strength to help them thrive.  She has appeared on The Small Business, Big Ideas Show, That Channel, and in ShimmerZine Magazine.  Presently, she is working with the Canadian Women's Foundation Shelter From the Storm Campaign.  Her first book is expected to be released in September, 2012.  Stephanie can be reached at www.CreatedToExcel.ca or 6447.928.4728. Stephanie is also a member of Entrepreneurial Moms of Toronto.