This week, I would like to invite you to think back to your favorite teachers and professors. (Before you read any further, write down what you loved about them.) My English teachers influenced me the most. They showed me how language could touch, move, and inspire people into action. I also respected my Property Law professor for not letting us “off-the-hook” and teaching us how to think for ourselves. They were all patient in their own way, I suppose.

Where am I going with this? Consider that marketing and sales are a form of higher education. It’s your responsibility to educate your people on the value of working with you. Taking it one step further, you’ll also want to educate them on how they may be harming themselves by not working with you. Decision-making is made on an emotional level. Human beings move towards pleasure or they move away from pain – and sometimes both at once!

Those suffering from lack, scarcity, and limitation of imagination will come up with a multitude of reasons and justifications for not investing in your services right now. These are “thought-errors” – errors in thinking and excuses that are not going to get them their desired results. You’ll want to deal with these objections HEAD-ON. Today’s climate is asking us to STEP UP our game more than ever. It is asking us to SHOW UP, educate, empower, and serve our audience at a higher level.

What IS in your ideal clients’ best interests right now? What would serve them MOST? Is it in their best interest to represent themselves in a lawsuit? Is it in their best interest to sell their own home? Are they going to have that bikini body faster with or without your training services? In all likelihood, the DIY approach is NOT likely in their best interests – under any circumstances. In fact, the longer they go without your services, the greater the likelihood of harm. They risk staying stuck and languishing into the rabbit hole of self-loathing and despair. Indecision wastes a lot of time and energy and keeps people stuck. They will continue to suffer and not get the best results. It is our responsibility to talk them through to the other side of fear.

Here is a power tip: For them to believe that working with you is the best solution, YOU have to believe that working with you is the best solution. Your CERTAINTY has to overcome their doubts and fears. Here are some questions that will help you gain clarity: 1 )What will they gain from working with you? 2) How will your services change their lives? 3) How will your services have a positive ripple effect in their lives? 4) How are they harming themselves by NOT working with you? 5) Using the qualities of your favorite professors, how will you show up to educate them on the value of your services starting today?

Et now, Cherie. Here is where I address how you are harming yourself by not working with me. It is very likely that if you are settling with these piece-meal nibbles, you are settling elsewhere in your life–in your love life, career, health, finances, etc. Settling is a bad habit. It is the energy of “dabbling” vs. “committed.” Do you see the distinction? It is staying in your comfort-zone and you don’t grow in your comfort-zone. When you have the courage to go ALL IN, you show up differently. That’s when things change. The moment you hold yourself accountable to what you want and what you are capable of is the moment that your life will change.  When you stop settling, you take a stand for thriving. “Settling” is kicking back, feet-up, lounging. “Invested” is standing up, head high, shoulders back, taking back control of your life. Which scenario is going to give you the best results?