Wow, it's been ages since I wrote a blog!
I was busy delivering my course, which ended up being a great learning experience on both sides, students and teacher. I’m brimming with ideas to enhance the second edition, which will also incorporate the feedback of my first cohort 😀
Then it was the Easter holidays, then the early May bank holiday, and here we go - already a third of the year gone!
I’m writing today to share a few thoughts and some advice about your business/brand visibility and how to develop meaningful relationships with your existing and prospective customers.
I’m grounding my observations in two of my core beliefs:
-the first one is that everything is energy, albeit vibrating at different frequencies
-the second one is that change is the only constant: nothing ever stays the same
I’m once again inspired by two things that take a big place in my life: Mother Nature and Yoga.
If you heard my story already, you know that both have helped me enormously during my recovery from burnout. And they remain an ongoing source of inspiration in my life, and for my business.
So… back to it. How to go about increasing the visibility of your business/brand in the market place?
I was involved in a few conversations lately around the various ways available to us to do this, and how it was quite challenging for some, sometimes really tough even, to get to grips with those techniques.
What sprang to mind is this: “If it ain’t you, don’t sweat it!”
I’ll add a caveat to this though: you have to try it first, and give it a fair chance, especially if such techniques have been widely tried and tested.
I’d like to invite you to reflect on this belief that you may have, in that there are only a handful of ways to grow your audience and your business. This belief will have probably been reinforced by many emails or blogs telling you about THE (often quick!) path to success…
Now think of Mother Nature. Not all the flowers, plants or trees are suited to the soil you live on.
If you like of bit of gardening like me, you’ll have learnt that some prefer chalky soil, others clay.
Grow the shrub in the soil they like and they will thrive, whereas they’ll wither in a soil not suited to them.
Well the same applies to you and your brand.
There will be environments in which you will blossom and be at your best, others that will sap your energy. There will be techniques that you won’t have to think twice about, and methods that will make you feel like a fish out of water.
But wait! What if the stuff that isn’t your cup of tea is - according to your friends / peers / mentors the best thing since sliced bread, and they have the proven results that you can see for yourself?
What do you do??
I invite you to try and experiment - but as in yoga, be mindful. Whenever I practise yoga, I am reminded by my teacher to listen to my body, to be gentle with myself and - rule number one - NEVER hurt myself. It’s not about what the people around me in the room can achieve, it’s not about putting myself in pain. It’s about listening and trying to find that sweet spot where you can feel your body at work, but it’s not painful.
Have you heard of Polarity Management? In a nutshell, it’s recognising that everything has an opposite - light and dark, yin and yang, bitter and sweet etc - and being skilled at finding a balance between both that works for you.
In this case, at one end of the spectrum, you never try anything new and stick to the same old ways of doing stuff (or even more extreme, you do nothing). At the other hand of the spectrum, you throw yourself at whichever new technique or medium that appears on the market.
On one hand you never grow, because you never challenge yourself. It was Einstein who said that ‘the definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results’..
On the other hand, you spread yourself so widely onto all these different ways of increasing your visibility, that you don’t give any of them enough time and energy to produce the results you expected - probably ending up exhausted and skint in the process…
Try to find the balance between these two poles that works for YOU.
I’ll take an example I can talk about from personal experience: Facebook lives.
You’ve heard that like pictures, videos are favoured by the algorithm, so worth having a go at them, especially if your ideal client can be found on Facebook.
I remember my first one.. crikey! It took me the rest of the day to recover, even if I had the opportunity to practise in a safe space 😂.
Fast forward a year or so and now I don’t even think about it when I’m about to press the live button in my FB group. And in the Friday sessions I don’t even prepare what I’m going to say as I can’t, it’s all about drawing a creativity card on the spot and sharing the ideas that spring to mind!
OK, when I do lives in other groups, especially for the first time in a community, my heart beats a bit faster before I get going, but it’s good adrenaline.
Yes it will have demanded more energy from me - to prepare, deliver, follow up and review - yet in return I will have increased the visibility of my business/brand with a new audience. In turn this gives me more chances to connect with like-minded people who may later on want my help with their own brand.
So, to recap:
It’s always worth a try especially if they are proven methods - even if it’s not love at first sight for you. Saying that, if it still gives you night sweats after a few go’s at it, then accept that it’s not for you. Be confident that there will be other ways to increase your visibility and engage meaningfully with your ideal clients, that will be better suited to YOU.
I hope this gives you a fresh perspective on the matter. If you’d like my help to overcome a challenge you’re currently facing with your business/brand, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
We can grab a cuppa and have a chat, in person or on zoom, depending on how far we are from each other.
Until then, remember Flowers and Yoga!
To your wholesome success, Sylvie 🌱💚