Do you feel like the teacher from Charlie Brown, like the words are coming out of your mouth but all people hear is wa wa wah wah wah?

Face it if you’re not standing out amongst the crowd you’re just another boring sales pitch.

How to Connect More Authentically with Your Clients and Why it Crucial To Your Success

So how to do you engage your clients in this automated,  drive through society where machines have replaced the need for human connection? And why the heck am I standing on a stage with a mop in between my legs?

People are DYING now more than ever for connection …and the mop, well it’s just part of my story, a very compelling story. Here’s why you want to share authentic and compelling stories with your clients and why it’s crucial to your success.

Your clients don’t want more information and they DONT need any more information, they are suffering from information overload – it’s become an epidemic!

With flooded in boxes and mailboxes how do you stand out above the crowd?

Share Stories not Numbers

Tell them a good ol fashioned story. Stories give your clients what they want which is to feel inspired, to feel moved and feel understood.

We were raised on stories, we’ve been hardwired to learn through stories-  everyone knows Goldilocks and the three bears. The more dramatic the story the better – especially if it involves some form of failure. People love to hear about failure! They’re addicted to it, and trained to respond to it from the media.  It’s juicy and engaging!

So instead of trying to cover up your failures, share them with the world, share your stories of struggle. It’s the fastest way to engage your clients attention and connect with them in an authentic way.

I’m always amazed when I survey my coaching clients and ask them “why did you chose to work with me?” the answer is always the same, “because you’re down to earth and real”. Hmmm very interesting. I wouldn’t call a 6″2 inch woman flying around on stage with a mop in between her legs ‘down to earth’  but hey, that’s just me.

“People don’t want more information. They want epiphanies – and they don’t get epiphanies from data; they get it from re-enacted stories. It’s not indulgent to share your personal experiences. On balance, it’s an opportunity to connect in a resonant, relevant way people are yearning for.” – Sam Horne

What stories could you tell your clients about how you climbed the ladder to success? What obstacles did you have to overcome? What’s something you can look back at now and laugh about? What story could you tell about a lesson well learnt?

Post your answers below – I’d love to read and connect with you

If you take into account the lifetime value of this newly secured client it adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Another intention manifested.

My client wanted to attract and work with companies that would continue to use her products and continue ordering her services for life. Done deal!

I love hearing my clients share with me how empowered, confident and happy they are with the results they are creating in their lives. I love it – it gives me a high! It really does.

One of the very first things  I work on with people is helping them get clarity about what they are wanting because clarity is power.

There’s a wonderful book I highly recommend by Dr. Wayne Dyer I read it years ago it’s called “The Power of Intention” and it’s one of my favorite books because he introduces   “intention as a force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place.”

I love Wayne Dyer and I’ve read all his books, and had the pleasure of meeting him last year in person, another intention realized!

Allowing the Act of Creation to Take Place

We are really only here in this world to create and enjoy the results of our creations. ENJOY…

A big mistake I see folks making is getting caught up in whether or not they deserve to have such and such.  It’s amazing how few people give themselves the permission to even engage in the POSSIBILITY of having what it is they want without their mind jumping in and trying to figure out how it will happen.

Do you have a hard time allowing yourself to think about and get clear about what it is you really want?

I always begin my work with clients by helping them get CRYSTAL clear about what exactly it is that they are wanting to experience. I find just the act of getting clarity is often enough to begin the attraction process for them and off to the races they go!

How to Activate the

Power of Intention In Your Day

I share a powerful intention writing process in my book “From Bankrupt to $900 a Day Selling Mops” as a bonus but I will share a condensed version of it here so you can start attracting more of what you want and less of what you don’t want starting right now!

Take 15 minutes ( I do this at the beginning of each day) and write out what you would like to experience in your day. This is a bit different than a regular “to do” list however it’s been proven that people who write to do lists accomplish more in their day – what I’m talking about is creating an experience list.

What are your intentions for the day? How would you like to feel as you do xyz today? Who would you like to spend time with? What kind of people would you like to work with? What would you like to be involved in? What news would you like to receive?

The more time energy and focus you spend contemplating and creating your “intentions”, the faster the opportunities show up for you to realize and experience them. Clarity is power so don’t give it away to confusion – use it well.

How have you used the power of intention to create something amazing in your life? Post your comment below I’d love to hear from you!

To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom

It hurts now to even reread what I just wrote but that’s the truth. Starting out I majorly lacked confidence in myself and I  didn’t have what it took to be a successful entrepreneur, meaning …I sucked at marketing and selling myself!

My invitation to you is to stop hiding out and being the best kept secret out there! If you are a holistic practitioner or want to be one some day, a service professional who’s mission it is to transform the world – breaking through your visibility blocks and getting your message out there in a bigger way is possible and necessary! The world needs you, and EVERYONE has some kind of expertise or personal experience they can share that makes a difference and that  people are willing to pay good money for.

So What’s Really Stopping You?

After mentoring and coaching hundreds of clients about this very topic of breaking through self worth issues I’ve discovered there are 3 main problems that holistic practitioners and service professional face when growing their businesses.

#1 – Own Your Value

Have you ever said to yourself – “I just need to take one more course and THEN I’ll be ready!”

Most of the clients I work with are over qualified and suffer from the “I’m not good enough” syndrome which is a major block because it can totally paralyze you. Suffering from low self esteem and self worth can make you constantly compare and judge yourself against others.  Your mind constructs all kinds of excuses for not getting out there and sharing your brilliance in order to keep you “safe”  - because that’s it’s job! Your job in order to expand and grow is to take your mind right out of the equation. So let’s look at the cold hard facts.

Here is a fabulous exercise to help you really own your value and see the tangible benefits of the work that you provide.

Draw 5 circles one inside each other (shown in the image) . In the very center circle write out a list of all of the problems your product or service solves for your clients.

In the second circle write down all of the ways your product or service impacts your clients “MONEY” or finances If you are an investment adviser for example you could write “saves them money, doubles their income, saves them on taxes, builds their retirement fund ect..

In the third circle list all of the ways your product or services impacts your clients  “Health and Wellbeing” in a positive way. Maybe your service is life coaching on how to live without stress and by working with you, your clients “are less stressed and understand the importance of including FUN into their schedules,  they laugh more, are more easy going and stop to smell the flowers and enjoy the simple things in life more often, join a gym and maybe lose weight, have more free time to spend with friends, get better sleep, are more happier” etc.

In the fourth circle list all of the ways your product or services benefits overlap into your clients “Family & Relationships”. Using the last example if your clients take more time for themselves and are happier, laugh often and get better sleep – how will that impact their relationships with their spouses and children? Will they be better mothers and fathers? Will they have more time to play with their kids? Will they plan and take more vacations? Will they be a more romantic and attentive partners?

In the final circle you want to list all the ways working with you will impact their “Future Potential”. This is where you write down all of the ways your work impacts humanity through these people. How will their kids lives be changed, and how will they now go out and interact with the world? Will they model these new behaviors, insights,  income strategies, better health? And how will this effect the generations to come?

Are you starting to see how your work creates a positive ripple effect and transforms the world?

If you haven’t already stopped reading and taken the time to do this simple but PRFOUND excersise do it now. My clients always report feeling SO good after doing this exercise because it really outlines the benefits and VALUE they provide for their clients - immediately!

Think about the answers you came up with in this exercise the next time you are pricing your products and services or having to quote a potential new client. This is a fast way to boost your confidence and own your self worth and VALUE that you provide to your clients.

#2 – Start Making Offers and LOTS of them

Another big problem entrepreneurs struggle with is making money – generating sales and revenue for their business because they are unclear about the benefits their product or service provides and because they aren’t out there making consistent offers.

Now that you have your answers from the previous exercise you can gather all of those TANGIBLE BENEFITS into a list and use those to promote your products and services. Using the right language is key to winning the hearts of your clients. When your potential clients feel that you really understand their pain and problems and can offer solutions to those – you’re in business!

Next you’ve got to get out there and start making more offer to your ideal target market.

The secret to my success on the mop stage and the reason I was able to generate some huge profit days of $900 and more was because I made consistent offers. When I was working in Sears and Canadian Tires across the country I would get up on my stage and make 6-9 x20 minute shows everyday. This helped me iron out my show – and all of the kinks in my talk and master making offers. And that’s what I suggest you do too.

Find a community of your ideal clients and find a way to offer a signature talk, or workshop or even a free gift to them that allows you to begin a relationship with them.  Notice I didn’t say SELL them. The first step is really for people to get to know like and trust you – to taste test you.

Educate and inspire your new community about what is possible for them through working with you and then make them an irresistible offer they can’t refuse.

#3 Make a Plan & and Take Action!

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

Don’t let the fear of failure or the fear of being visible or any other fear stop you from getting started and getting your message out there.

Becoming visible, marketing and promoting yourself  and getting the word out there about your business is the fast track to success.

My clients often tell me that they feel like they are caught in a catch 22 because putting themselves out there in a bigger way terrifies them AND they also know they need to be doing it in order to attract more clients.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking “I’ll get out there are start promoting myself when I have more confidence”. Remember confidence comes from action. The more action you take the more mistakes you make the faster you learn.

I can pin point the exact date when I turned the tables in my business and went from farting around and having a hobby business to successfully self employed. That moment was when I decided to commit to my success and that meant investing in my business and coming up with a plan to grow it and action steps to take in order to reach those goals.  I hired a mentor who was able to guide me in accomplishing my goals because she had already accomplished them herself.

So if you are tired of struggling to grow your business invest in yourself.

I was having a conversation this morning at a networking event with a guy who was sheepishly telling me about the $20,000 he invested in a personal development program he did few years back. Here was an investment broker telling me that the best way to invest money your money is in your own education. I agreed. When you invest in yourself you can NEVER lose out.

So if you’re tired of hiding out – get mentored or coached. Find someone who is doing what you want to do and model them. Make sure you hire someone who you resonate with and who “gets” you and your work.

When you believe and invest in yourself and others will believe and invest in you too!

To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom

If you enjoyed this article check out my 2 part “Sales Attraction Secrets” teleclass series starting on May 8^th 2012 where you’ll learn 3 proven way to attract a flood of clients, how to master the inner game of sales attraction and my legendary “How to Attract Your Ideal Client Using the Law of Attraction” step by step system. See how one of my clients used it to hit her $30,000 a week sales goal – 5 weeks in a row using the exact same system!

 www.SalesAttractionSecrets.com

• Are you tired and fed up of feeling fed up and spinning in circles?
• Are you committed to finding out what’s stopping you from moving forward?
• And are you ready to invest in yourself and your success?

If so I want to help you by offering you a “Breakthrough Your Inner Blocks” – 30 Minute Session valued at $250 FREE – limited time sensitive offer for the first 20 people.

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To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom

Photo by DesiComments.com

Wouldn’t you love to find a way to banish your FEAR forever and live with unbridled joy, inner peace and happiness?

IMAGINE what would happen to your business if you didn’t allow fear to hold you back!

The truth about fear is that…

“Everyone has fears. Not everyone makes a big deal out of them.

Some people learn to cope with fear, and others embrace fear.

Fear is an illusion, a distortion of reality.

Most fear is about a future event. Most fears never materialize.

Fears are stories and beliefs your ego would have you believe.

Don’t believe them.” ~ Tess Marshall

Don’t Mistake Your Feelings For WHO YOU ARE

I spend a great deal of time working with my clients to UNDO their inner blocks to success. A BIG block that trumps all others is the “F” word. FEAR.

To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another. ~Katherine Paterson

Don’t make the mistake of believing you are your feelings. You are not your feelings. You may be experiencing fear but you are not a fearful person. The key to getting rid of fear is learning how to manage and deal with your emotions.

Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.
~ Karl Augustus Menninger
 

Top 5 Fears That Keep Entrepreneurs Struggling

• Fear of taking risks – fear of the Unknown
• Fear of being visible
• Fear of being criticized
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of public speaking

The #1 way to overcome fear is by facing it. When you face your fears you realize that it was all an illusion, that in your mind you had made them out to be bigger than they really were.
That is the nature of fear – an illusion.

False Evidence
Appearing Real

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” ~ Dale Carnegie

What is The Cost of Living in FEAR?
Take This Quick Test

Ask yourself this question:

If you knew you couldn’t fail, and money was not an option, and no one would judge you and no one depended on you….what would you do?

Take some time to answer this question with your heart. The answer will show you EXACTLY what FEAR has robbing you of.
 

How to Get Rid of Fear Once and For All

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” ~ E Hubbard

Decide to OVERCOME yours fears – it all starts with a decision, a commitment. When your good and fed up and your back is against the wall the pain and discomfort of staying the same will outweigh the fear of the unknown and then you will take action to change.

My recommendation is NOT to wait for that day when your back is against the wall. If your struggling to grow your business and attract more sales and know your fear is the culprit holding you back from success than I invite to you check out my “Sales Attraction Secrets” 2 part teleclass series about where I’ll be delving in deep to help you get rid of fear once and for all and get into profitable action so you can attract more clients, make more money and be free!

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.” ~ Unknown

To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom
Vanessa Simpkins

Transformational Money Mentor and Sales Attraction
Coach for Heart Centered Women Entrepreneurs
www.FullPowerGrowth.com

Would you love to know how to blast through fear and those inner blocks so you can reach more people with your message, make more money and achieve true FREEDOM for yourself?

One of the biggest blocks to success I notice A LOT of entrepreneurs making is allowing the fear of failure to stop them from getting started. Let me share a personal story from Costa Rica…

I go boogie boarding every morning, Some people, just getting started stay safe, close to the shore. They barely wet their toes. They hold their fear close AND they’re missing out on the BEST ride of their life!

Amazingly, some young kids just jump in with both feet and do it! NO fear. Sure sometimes the wave takes you, sometimes it whomps you bad, and you come stuffing up for air looking like a wet rat, sputtering with snot drooling down your face…but guess what?

You learn. You learn how to duck the waves, how to catch the right, best, and most FUN waves and when to go out in between sets. It just keeps getting easier.

Same thing with your business. The trick is to GET into action! It’ the only way you’re going to learn.

Do you know what the actual word FAIL stands for?

FAIL – First. Action. In. Learning.

Don’t let the fear of failure rob you of your success –it’s the most common inner block I notice entrepreneurs struggling with and it literally stops them dead in their tracks… so, start making mistakes.

HECK even CELEBRATE them! Because if you are making mistakes it means you are learning! The old adage “practice makes perfect” is so true.

How to Stop Spinning &  Get Into Action

Tip: Where has ‘fear of failure’ delayed your taking action in your business?

Do this simple exercise right now.

1. Write down the next 3 steps you can take right now and START! This is so simple and it’s the same thing I teach my most successful coaching clients!

2. CELEBRATE each step accomplished ~ VERY IMPORTANT ~ so you continue to keep the momentum and do the next step!

I’ll let you in on a personal secret – I became the top sales person for a company selling mops, which you can read all about it in my book “From Bankrupt to $900 a Day Selling Mops,” because I failed miserably!! MANY, MANY, MANY times over!

In fact each time I opened a new store run (which would last 10 days or so) I had to come right back to the drawing board to figure out these new clients and what motivated them to buy from me. EACH new store! It would take me 2 – 3 days of making offers 6-7 times per day to figure it out. Then once I did – it was a piece of cake. What would have happened if I gave up on the first failure?

Allow yourself the space to LEARN and make a few mistakes – it won’t kill you I promise BUT the FEAR of making mistakes will prevent you from ever learning.

Fear is hostile. It will keep you locked in, stagnant, frustrated and, more importantly, in a constant state of procrastination. Making mistakes is the way to progress and MASTERY!

When I was riding horses as a teenager and taking lessons and had my own horse, my coach used to tell me whenever I fell off that it takes 100 falls to become a great rider…. “Just think Vanessa you only have 97 more times to go!” Back then I wanted to smack him for saying that but in hindsight he was absolutely right!

How to BLAST Through Procrastination and Overwhelm and Into Profitable Action

To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom
Vanessa Simpkins

Transformational Money Mentor and Sales Attraction
Coach for Heart Centered Women Entrepreneurs
www.FullPowerGrowth.com

I’m so excited to be speaking with 12 other world renowned speakers in May at the let’s “Spread Success” and inspiration TEDx conference in Westmount – Montreal! Whoo hooo it will be so much fun!

JOIN US SATURDAY, MAY 12th, 2012,

FOR A FULL DAY OF INSPIRATION AND HOPE TO CELEBRATE, DISCUSS, UNDERSTAND,

&

 SPREAD SUCCESS!

An impressive lineup of world renowned

speakers have been booked for the

TEDxWestmount

Let’s Spread Success Conference

For more information about the speakers and event, please visit:

www.TEDxWestmount.com

The first TEDx to be held in Montreal

uniquely about the inspiring subject of

SUCCESS

• Come and listen to world class speakers share their experiences about success and failure!
• Speakers will share their incredible journeys of self-discovery and self-development.
• Presenters will also share their understanding of accomplishments in the professional world – how they achieved the level of success they currently enjoy.
• Discussions on failure and its dynamic in the context of success will bring new light to the definition of both failure and success.
• Certain speakers will talk about how they measured success as small businesses surrounded by large corporations, as women in male-dominated professions, and as new immigrants that had to adjust to so many different circumstances in order to realize their goals.

A day full of inspiration and hope dedicated to elevate your spirits to new heights and open your horizons to endless and promising possibilities!

For more information:

www.TEDxWestmount.com

To contact us:

hicham.amrani@tedxwestmount.com

aisha.hussain@tedxwestmount.com

I feel in love with this place immediately!

I also fell for an experience that I want to share with you because it is a classic teaching example on how you can “create an experience that sells” and attract more clients to your business.

Half way to the beach we drove past a restaurant called “El Avion” with, you guessed it…. an AIRPLANE in it! Ouuuuu how curious that made me, I wanted to go and check it out.

The restaurant sat a top the mountain side with a sweeping view of the blue blue ocean. I invited my friends to stop for lunch there. Now this is a pretty tourista town with at least 100 resto’s to chose from, but it was the airplane restaurant that won our wallet that day.

The food was alright, nothing extravagant really except the prices!

And here in lies the lesson… this restaurant beautifully “created an experience that sells” and was able to CHARGE MORE for that experience. Same food you can get anywhere else really but the EXPERIENCE is what let’s them get away with charging more for it. AND to tell you the truth I was MORE than happy to pay for that experience.

• 1- They piqued my curiosity with an airplane, I just HAD to see it!
• 2- Offered a once in a lifetime experience of having lunch overlooking this sweeping gorgeous view of the ocean.

In truth we decided to eat there just for the experience of being able to overlook the ocean while we ate, the airplane was what drew us in.

So I hope this story illustrates the key teaching points on how you can create an experience that sells.

How can you illicit CURIOSITY from your potential clients?

Perhaps it is a special sale that you offer, a bold statement about a promise only YOU can deliver, something for FREE that is really really juicy, or a story about something wild and new.

The saying goes – curiosity killed the cat!

How can you create a “once in a lifetime” experience for your client? What kind of products and services can you deliver or OVER deliver on value so that they feel blown away or awed and “special”.

Everyone LOVES to feel special!

The restaurant was also perfectly set up in the flow of day in and day out traffic of it’s ideal clients - tourists with money to spend on having “the once in a lifetime experience” to go home and show off about”. Hence ahem….my photo’s.

You see it isn’t the PRICE of something that sells it’s the EXPERIENCE.

So …what kind of experience are you selling? What story’s are you sharing with your clients? What messages does your business speak to your clients?

I leave you with some thoughts to ponder from sunny Costa Rica! And if you want to read a fabulous book on the art of persuasion I highly recommend a book by Robert Cialdini called the “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” very interesting read.

Pick it up here on Amazon.com

To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom,
Vanessa

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To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom

Vanessa

The trip got off to a great start – both flights I manifested extra leg room emergency exit row seating ~ sweet! I’m very tall 6”2 so that just made my trip! And then…I heard guy the sitting next to me talk about a sermon he was giving. We got to chatting and he told me about his brush with depression, how it nearly killed him and how he overcame it, wrote a book about it and was here in Costa Rica with a group of missionaries over the next 10 days to speak and empower people to embrace God into their lives.

I told him I was an author as well and he gave me his book. I met his friends who were all fabulous open and warm spiritual people who instantly embraced me and we travelled through the airport together. They invited me to their hotel, a bus with a tour guide picked us up from the airport and we laughed our way to a great hotel in San Jose where I got my own room. I woke up in the morning and had breakfast with my new friends and spent the ENTIRE morning immersed in great company exploring spiritual ideas, stories and spontaneous healing. Oh and the bus station I had to get to in order to make my way up north that same day was situated only a 10 minute taxi drive from my hotel… I LOVE MY LIFE~ can it get any better than this?

At the Heart of True Success is Grace

This experience of divine synchronicity coming in to guide me was a beautiful way to start off my trip and talking with my new friends got me thinking just how little room we make in our lives for The Universe – or God to come in and “surprise us” with grace.

You know what I mean, these amazing connections and synchronicites, when things just pop in almost delivered to you on a silver platter ( my friend Anita gave me this idea I liked it so much I now teach the “Silver Platter Method” in my workshops.)

Think about it, just how jammed packed is your schedule? With all the meetings, appointments, clients, networking events, writing, proposals ect when was the last time you scheduled in some time to just EXPLORE what life has in store for you?

Robert Holden in his book “Authentic Success” calls this mad dash for success the “Manic Society”. We feel guilty taking any time for ourselves, everything we do is about being effective and productive and then we wonder why we sabotage our days or evenings in front of mindless TV shows or gulp down whole litres of ice cream to “reward” ourselves for all our hard work. Work then actually becomes work, tedious, and exhausting. Life becomes so controlled and routine there is little if any room for serendipity to delight your day with meaningful presence, guidance, and wonder.

It’s not Selfish its SMART

Schedule time for yourself to just BE, to be at the mercy of life, to let go of the reigns a bit and I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised. Look at your calendar and block some “ME” time out. If you don’t block it out I guarantee your work and business will. The most common complaint I hear from my clients is that there is NEVER enough time. You have to make time, that’s the whole illusion of time.
Julia Cameron the author of “The Artists Way” encourages people to take “artist walks” a day to explore your creativity and explore what life has to gift you with.

I really had no other plan for my 5 week trip to Costa Rica other than teaching a workshop here in Monte Verde near the rainforest reserve up at the Rio Shanti Yoga Studio. I said YES to life…I was invited by a client of mine who purchased my book last year when it came out, my very first international speaking engagement! I love how my international speaking career has me starting in a country where my toes get to delight in wearing flip flops! And get this a year ago to the date EXACTLY on March 8th when my client Mary received my book in the mail last year, I arrived in here Costa Rica this year…March 8th. Love the synchronicity!

And it keeps getting better – so my message for you today my breakthrough to success tip is to create some space in your schedule to allow grace to show up and surprise you. I promise you won’t die if you let go of control. Who knows where life might take you, you might even wind up on a beach somewhere sipping lemonade in the sun. The universe has a perfect plan for you if you will only allow it to unfold.

To Your Love, Expansion and Freedom
Vanessa