Shifting Focus For The Conscious Entrepreneur

As with everything, my business as a Transition Coach has its ebb and flow. Some days fly by with ease and beauty while other times every distraction seems of paramount importance. Last week I had a lot of those distracting days. It seemed I noticed every detail outside of where my focus was suppose to be. The ceiling fan seemed to be making a little different noise so I went in the sunroom to check it out. Then my daughter came in and I wanted to catch up with her. The dogs wanted to go for another walk. It was hotter than usual for early morning so I decided the horses should come up earlier than scheduled. All of this busy stuff just kept appearing and the more it showed up the greater my sense of guilt became. So I asked myself, “Is this the way to run a conscious business?” You guessed it, even more guilt arose and pretty soon I found myself justifying why I should take the day off and try again tomorrow. Luckily I reined myself back in.

Being perfectly honest I am at a point in my business where it is time for me to push my marketing to a new level and frankly, this always panics me a little. I have never viewed myself as a master of marketing. I am at times, technically challenged and the learning curve for some things has been steep. I even have gone so far as to question my ability to be a successful entrepreneur and transition coach. Even though I am deeply connected to my work and why I do it, the marketing part has been difficult at times. And though I have studied a lot about time management, and being organized there was still been a missing piece to the puzzle until recently.

Don’t get me wrong, time management and being organized ARE vital components of a successful business but I still struggled until I realized something more.

The secret for me in successful marketing was to reframe how I looked at it. Somewhere in the midst of my distractions I found myself curiously asking “What if I could look at marketing in another way?” “What if I shifted my focus to honoring the value of my marketing by promoting a great message full of value?” Then I would be actually doing a service to many of those I want to reach. Marketing is now a way for me to demystify some of what I do and to reassure those searching there are answers to their problems. By getting clear myself on my personal message I am allowing others to do so in return. How awesome is that?

2010 Jennifer Shaw