As humans, we are all born with a different personality and way of thinking. We spend our lives getting to know ourselves, learning about what makes us tick, what our preferences are, and what comes naturally to us. We can’t avoid the fact that we all have strengths and weaknesses – everyone has them.
For coaches, service-based business owners, and entrepreneurs, their strength often lies in generating many creative ideas. They like to explain their business to many different people, regardless of their complexity. But it is this complexity that can cause them to fall into a rabbit hole, one where they understand, themselves, what they are doing, but where their business is incomprehensible to anyone else, particularly the target audience, and this becomes a problem.
The key to moving forward in business is to remember that: to simplify is to amplify. It is only when you dial down and become known for one thing, that you can truly make the impact that you want. My blog about what makes a great leader also has some great tips.
For many, this is difficult. We are held back by our innate desire to get everything done. We are too busy thinking of all the things we could be doing, all the myriad of possibilities that we are perfectly capable of achieving, that we end up losing that one singular focus. We take on more than we can delve into with that much-needed depth, as a result losing our true uniqueness and selling point.
The truth is that, as a creator, it is easy to fall into creating everything. We can sell training, memberships, events, retreats, thinking that the more variety we have, the greater chances of success, but this is not true. When we do everything, in some ways we don’t allow ourselves to expand; we can’t do what is important to us and what relates to our true purpose. When you are a coach is it much easier to be known for one thing rather than try and be everything to everyone. If you try and do this you will appeal to no one.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, ask yourself: what am I hugely passionate about and what do I want to be known for?
If you could strip back all those excess ideas and focus on one singular thing, what would it be? You may surprise yourself.
To be able to truly move forward in business we must all focus on what actions we need to take to get the result we want. This could be monetary, simply a feeling, or whatever we truly want inside. And we have to let things go – this is inevitable. We shouldn’t feel guilty about letting go of those things that aren’t serving us.
So, let’s take a step back, strip back, and remember to simplify is to amplify. Only then can we create businesses that work on our own terms.
For more tips and inspiration join my Facebook community the Coaching Community – The Coaching Collective.