Dawn Barclay

Helping you align all that you do with your core values

Moxie Business: Creative & Courageous Business

Do You Have a Frills and Copycat Business?

It’s just soooo wrong on too many levels. I mean really – cats in frocks?

The email went something like this…

I have a blog for my business. I have readers who like and share what I write, but I feel like a fraud. I want to tell them what life is really like, that the person behind the website isn’t all ‘sorted’ and together like the articles she produces every week. I want to just be myself and I am scared that people will hate what I say and do online. I’ve tried so hard to be the expert, I follow others and I watch what they do and wish I could be more like them. So, yeah, I’m spinning here.

Can you relate?

I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it: you can only maintain a false impression of yourself for so long before the cracks start to show.

The Expert Thing

I hate the word expert, everyone is a fecking expert these days.

Online I’ve heard marketering teachers say ‘call yourself an expert, then people will believe it to be true’ or at the other end there is ‘you don’t call yourself an expert, you wait for your audience to call you it.’

Which is right? I don’t give an arse really.

Expert, World Renowned, The No 1 – it’s not until you do business with the people that use puff-labels will you be able to make a honest judgement. Because let’s face it everyone is only as good as their word.

  • What matters is the results and transformations you get for your clients.
  • What matters is you use your expertise to get your clients from Point A to Point wherever the hell you promised you would take them when they paid you. 

Maybe ask yourself if the people you want to be like are really experts or sensational hotshots?

The Feeling Like a Fraud Thing

Here’s a question for you, would sharing the parts of your life add value and transformation to your readers lives or just serve you?

  • Your potential clients want to know you are real, the simplest and smartest way is to show them how you solve their problems and more. And if you integrate your real life stories with the solving, yes I recommend it.
  • Your potential clients want to know you are trustworthy, the easiest and most effective way is to deliver and serve exactly what you said you would, on time, in the manner you both agreed. Trust requires honesty.
  • Your potential clients want to know who they are doing business with, pay attention to them, listen, respond, communicate, be there, let yourself be reachable. People need to know you are real and with faults, and have solutions.
  • You want to show potential clients that you are real, honest, and will do the best for them: provide at every opportunity your uniqueness, difference, advantage over everyone else out there in your field of expertise. Fact: you cannot do this if you are copying others and trying to be more like them.

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” ~Lao Tzu

The Comparison I-Wanna-Be-Like-You-Hoo-Hoo Thing

The ‘rules of life’ state you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone and be a ‘first class version of yourself’. Yeah well the rules forget that there will be times when you do look upon what others and think ‘I wish I was like that’, because you’re human.

It’s not enough to have a ‘be like them’ or ‘me too’ business. Stop looking, comparing and wanting to be like. Everyone else is doing that.

Mediocre business is doing the same thing as everyone else.

You want to observe what and how others are doing, nothing wrong with watching the competition. But then you have to find your own voice. And that voice has to be comfortable for you.

Frills and copycat businesses are easily spotted.

If you’re faking it, the competition (the one you want to be like) will always be one step ahead of you. While you are playing catch up, they are getting the work done.

Step aside from them, and pay attention to your own house.

What are your values in business? Is everything you’re doing matching these values? If not, change your approach bring your values to the front. You cannot copy another values.

Are those values noticeable to clients and potential customers? If not, tell them, plaster them everywhere, let all systems in your business reflect them. You can’t sustain another’s values.

How does you ‘being real’ benefit your clients and potential customers? How do you really want your business to be spoken about when you aren’t in the room? Are all your current business activities reflecting this?

Is your ‘realness’ the biggest benefit and advantage of your business? Stop comparing and do your business, your way.

How?

Always ask yourself in everything you do ‘is this in my best interest, or the best interests of my clients/readers and potential customers?‘

If it’s the former, ask again.

There Is No Shame In Removing Your Mask…

Who is the mask for? It doesn’t matter if you put it there, or others placed it upon you.

We all are wearing masks, covering up and keeping ourselves ‘safe’ and protected. How dare we reveal what is really going on in our world. How dare we say what we really feel. How dare we ask for help.

When the mask begins to slip the first reaction is to shoot up your hand and put it back in place. 

Did anyone see the real you even for a second? What will people think? How will they react? What will they say? Will they be upset that underneath there is a very different story taking place? Do you feel shame and guilt because you exposed the parts of you you never dreamed others would discover?

Holding on to the mask is exhausting. Tiring. Painful to keep in place.

The thing is, we’re all wearing them:

  • Masks of shame.
  • Masks of guilt.
  • Masks of regret.
  • Masks of struggling.
  • Masks of pain.
  • Masks of fears.
  • Masks of imperfections.
  • Masks of failures.

Let it slip. Let it fall. Remove the layer.

Why?

Here you go…

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.” Singer, Jim Morrision

 

You’ve been walking the ocean’s edge, holding up your robes to keep them dry. You must dive naked under, and deeper under, a thousand times deeper. Rumi

 

“…be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” Henry David Thoreau

 

“Vulnerability is the only authentic state. Being vulnerable means being open, for wounding, but also for pleasure. Being open to the wounds of life means also being open to the bounty and beauty. Don’t mask or deny your vulnerability: it is your greatest asset. Be vulnerable: quake and shake in your boots with it. the new goodness that is coming to you, in the form of people, situations, and things can only come to you when you are vulnerable, i.e. open.” Stephen Russell

Read the last quote again please.

Dawn xxx

Scared to Market Yourself? I Did This

In the early days of business (when dinosaurs ruled the earth) I hated marketing or more accurately I wasn’t that hot on asking people for payment of services.

In hindsight, a lot of it had to do with the usual mindset bullplop:

  • What if I’m not good enough?
  • Why should people buy from me, I’m not unique?
  • What if I can’t deliver what I promised?
  • What gives me the right to ask for money?
  • Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.

This was a big issue. Because unless you get paid, you don’t have a business and you can’t buy new underwear and the dogs don’t get new balls, so I took some sparkly drastic action.

Soooooooo…

I bought some costume jewellery from a wholesalers, got a free market stall from Gumtree (like Craigs List) and for 5 weeks during the summer I got up at 4am to drag my butt to local markets. With the one goal, to sell and feel comfortable doing it. I kinda like the ‘expose yourself to your fears’ approach to personal growth!

I learned far more than I expected, and no book could have given me this learning experience on real-time.

Here they are…

Don’t rush connection and relationship.

  • How much time do you give each individual customer?
  • Do you ask for engagement but don’t engage back?
  • Do you treat people as $ signs, or potential long-term relationships?
  • Do you value everyone who has connected with you and your business?
  • When did you last let them know?

Every person has the right to browse and say no.

If you aren’t selling or offering what people want, need or desire then you can still thank them for stopping anyway, then let them leave with no bitterness (or mental torture on our part.)

Engage. Engage. Engage.

Do you have multiple ways you can engage with a potential customer?

Asking for the sale.

The exchange of money, is just that, an exchange. If you’re ethically offering what people want, there is no need to fear the process.

The little things do matter. Make experiences for people (positive ones)

I went all out and made my market stall the prettiest on the block. Fairy lights, the lot.

The comments ‘your stall is so pretty’ helped with the relationship and the engagement. I even had posh little bags and tissue paper for purchases (if you’ve ever been to a market, bags are few and far between.)

  • Have you ever looked at your business through the eyes of potential customer?
  • What little details can you bring into the mix that no-one else in your field really bothers about?
  • An element of surprise and small gestures to say ‘you matter’ isn’t forgotten.

Take for example a local dog walker I worked with, on first meeting with a potential customer they arrived with their free gift: doggy biscuits, a little toy and a packet of poop bags, a chocolate from their pet to their owner, plus all the forms in a neat little reuseable little bag with doggy paw prints.

Naff? Maybe. Unless you’re a doggy owner who doesn’t really want a ‘dog walker’ you want someone to ‘love your dog as much as you do, and walk them’.

Their competition arrived with a form and a sheet with their Terms and Conditions on it, who would you hire?

Your Turn

Where has your BIGGEST little biz learning not from a book?

 

Scared to Promote Your Business … You’re Not Alone


Here’s how I know…

There will be times when you feel totally confident in sharing, then there will be moments when you step into an imaginary closet because you’re terrified to show you’re art to the rest of the world.

From the closet you will make assumptions that nobody else feels the same way as you.

In these moments you may start to question your commitment to creating your great work.

And that makes it painful, as well as lonely.

Whilst you remain in the closest shaking at the prospect of being yourself (promotion), throwing up at the thought of telling people about your message/art (marketing) and shirk away at asking people to buy the results you can help them achieve in their life, if they take action with you (selling), you’ll observe your world and wonder how others are finding their courage.

Peeking out from the doors you stand behind: you’ll ask, ‘How do they do that? What have they got that I haven’t got?’ And I have no doubt you will begin to question you’re ability, gifts and talents.

On the really dark days you’ll convince yourself that you’re the only person that is totally overwhelmed, fearing your own passion and battling with the ‘am I good enough’ question.  

These you may find are the darkest of days, only to be made worse by never answering the questions yourself with ‘yes, I’m good enough for what I choose to create today’.

You may start to believe that others have a ‘secret’ that you haven’t been told.

You may think that someone else has the key to the push open the door, and when you learn that everything will be easy. You may get so distracted by those convincing you there is a ‘secret, technique or unknown tool’ that you won’t be able to see that in your hands you already possess that what you seek.

Somebody one day, maybe even today, will say to you that the key you already have may not be easy but it’s the easiest route to your success (whatever that means to you). 

They may say to you that one of the keys is to give yourself permission to be you and be remarkable when everything and everyone else says ‘play safe’. See, some things are so simplistic we refuse to believe that the easy answer is the obvious.

Some days you’ll get so lost you’ll wander off in different directions: down avenues you know don’t feel right. Instead of focusing on focus, you go searching for validation that you’re ‘good enough’ maybe one day someone will hear your thoughts.

You’re good enough.

You may think that the dreams you’re creating are stuck on the ground, and begin to ask, ‘When is this ever going to take off for me?’ forgetting that the day you stepped into creating your great work, you turned the ignition and began down the runway.

That’s the day you took off.

You are already piloting.

Up there with the millions of others steering their own course.

Wave to me when you pass.

I want to look you in the eye, wink and say ‘told you weren’t alone’.

That’s how I know.

110 ‘Quick’ Little Biz Tips for New-ish Solo Business Owners

Woa! Before you scan down the page.

This little list is my list. These are my thoughts based on my experiences.

I hope you have a very different list, you do don’t you? Go ahead and share them in the comments,when you get there.

Or if you’re just starting out, ask a question, please.  Anything on the list that makes you go ‘huh?’

Remember to subscribe the comments, so you get an answer.

‘Nuff said.

Onwards.

110 ‘Quick’ Little Biz Tips for New-ish Solo Business Owners

0.5 (Just thought of this after hitting publish.) Don’t sign up for anything unless you’re prepared to do the work.

1. Love your customers and clients.

2. Marketing is not a dirty word. It’s just (or can be if you let it) as creative as the fun stuff. Don’t let anyone fear you into thinking it is. ALL it is is telling people over, and over, and over, and over what you do, how you do it, how they can get it – in a language that they understand. 

3. Never get paid on outcome based work. Always get paid for the work you deliver.

4. Never, ever, ever take your business to bed with untrustworthy peeps. If it doesn’t feel right, you’re probably spot on.

5. Get a contract signed if you’re in a partnership.

6. Stand for something much bigger than you.

7. Be remarkable or go home.

8. Work with your ideal client, you’ll have a heck of a lot more fun.

9. Write your business materials as you talk, not corporate woowoo trite.

10. It’s quicker, easier and less hassle to pay someone to teach you what you want to know.

11. You don’t need to know any HTML is a complete lie. You do.

12. Never put off showing who you really are.

13. Your family and friends will never really understand you’re business baby, seek support from those who do.

14. Never, ever, ever, work for free, ever. Trade if you have to.

15. Run your business as a business, have fun but get serious.

16. You cannot copy another business, be unique and you will find your place.

17. You will get tired and emotional. Take more breaks.

18. It’s hard work, get used to it. 18 hour days aren’t for everyone.

19. Ask for help. Ask. Ask. Ask. Reach out to people.

20. Get in there, get dirty, make plenty mistakes as quickly as possible.

21. Step out your own area of expertise to learn what you need.

22. Smell BS before you’re covered in it.

23. You cannot do it ALL alone. Ever.

24. When success happens. Be ready for it.

25. Don’t ever stop marketing, even if you’re delivering.

26. Be authentic from Day 1.

27. Say no if you don’t have the time.

28. Always remain true to your core values. Always. Can’t decide? Go back to them.

29. Learn to take feedback.

30. If you aren’t excited about what you, sure bet you’re customers are bored too.

31. Don’t appeal to everyone. It doesn’t work.

32. Decide who the buck stops with.

33. Nothing is perfect 1st time round. Get  it out there.

34. Be vulnerable. Don’t seek approval from others.

35. Plan as much as can be planned. Then let your clients decide.

36. Deal with your money crap (if you have any) sooner rather than later.

37. Don’t ignore the problems, they aren’t going away.

38. You are a business owner from Day 1. Act it.

39. Focus. Don’t get distracted by the next shiny new thing.

40. Give 100x more than a client expects.

41. Don’t argue in public (even online.)

42. If cash flow is an issue, take the shortest route to paying your mortgage. Create after the rush.

43. Never build your property on someone else’s land. (i.e. Facebook is not yours, neither are free websites.)

44. Commit yourself to your ideas.

45. Prepare to make sacrifices. Does that washing really need done?

46. Always be willing to help others.

47. Never forget to thank.

48. Resources is not all about money, what else do you have?

49. Speak well of your business. Always.

50. No one is born a business owner, everyone begins at the same place (usually from scratch!)

51. Inspire. Inform. Ignite. Before you do anything else.

52. Never spam, it’s just wrong.

53. Turn up on time, everytime and be willing to learn also.

54. Treat customers with the same respect you give your loved ones.

55. There are no instant overnight success secrets. None. You may be duped into buying it one day. Shut down the noise.

56. Only buy what you need at start up, not what looks shiny.

57. Speak to people who have been there, done that, got the T-shirt and can prove their achievements.

58. Find out if people need and want your product first before you create it.

59. Start marketing/networking/building meaningful relationships before your service/product is ready.

60. Get out the work that’s wanted, not what you think is needed, make amendments later.

61. Create the culture you want from Day 1.

62. The business you start, won’t look the same in 2 years, it won’t. Get over analysis paralysis.

63. Would you buy what you offer? Don’t sell it if you wouldn’t.

64. You need a strategy, not necessarily a business plan.

65. Always add to your own learning.

66. What works for that other little business, may work in yours.

67. Focus your business, not the failure statistics.

68. If you want to change routes, do it, don’t flog a dead horse (horrible expression!)

69. Some stuff (even the boring work) needs to be done by you. Get over it. Get it done.

70. Don’t expect complete freedom, not at first. That is a massive myth.

71. Tell people you’re busy and shut the door.

72. You can take risks, but you aren’t a stunt person (unless you are!)

73. Fall in love with your customers (have I said that already?)

74. Working harder is not working smarter. Think about what you’re working on.

75. Work hard, but never on the work that’s wrong.

76. It’s up to you to tell people the value of working with you. They can’t guess.

77. Build it (website) and they will come is complete hoohaa.

78. Build a website that works. Minus comic bloody sans.

79. Don’t dare ignore your clients until you want something.

80. You are your boss. Would you hire you? Get serious if the answer is no.

81. Celebrate your achievements, even if you have to go to a pub on your own.

82. If it’s not out there, expect no return.

83. Follow a handful of people who are doing what they say, watch what they do.

84. Never try and replicate another, but if you like a strategy someone else has, use it. If it works for you, thank them.

85. Do your research. Find out what people want.

86. Keep your credit card at home at free seminars and courses.

87. Unless your Amazon, don’t act like Amazon.

88. Show up as you, always. Not a fake version of you.

89. You have full accountability, ownership and control. Accept it, it’s awesome!

90. Love your customers and clients (oh, again!)

91. You will fail. Lots. Mistooks will be made. Own up, move forward, don’t dwell.

92. The small things do matter, make them happen and create a red carpet experience for your clients.

93. Your customers aren’t in your home office, get out the house.

94. If it’s not fun, what are you doing it for?

95. Somethings take longer than others to implement.

96. Don’t let someone else’s ‘rags to riches’ story become yours.

97. Speak to someone about your fears.

98. Information should never have you in overwhelm, not if it’s good information.

99. Be honest about your finances.

100. Take one full day off a week. No excuses. Yes, you can.

101. Step out your business and see what’s happening in the business next door.

102. Don’t ever be shy to accept a kind gesture. Never falter in giving them away.

103. The people who have requested to hear from you (your sign up list) are more important than Social Media.

104. Never got to a networking event to see what ‘you can get‘.

105. Never turn up online asking ‘what can I take’. Give first.

106. Be there for your customers and clients, not Google.

107. Take care of your health. If you aren’t there, your business stops.

108. Know your ideal client. Write her/him a letter. Talk about their fears.

109. Share what can be shared. Expect nothing in return.

110. To be continued…

Invitation: Thursday 12th July 8pm (GMT) Marketing Is Not a Dirty Word. How To Market Your Little Biz Without Selling Your Values + Your Soul

This event is over.

If You Haven’t Done it Yet, Are You Ever Going To?

 

This baffled me for a long time.

Let’s say two people wish to make massive changes in their life.

Both talented, both passionate, both exceptional. Both have all the resources they need. Both have the acquired the learning, got the information, both have the ability, the experience and skills. Both are on equal footing.

One goes for it.

The other hasn’t. They say.

‘I haven’t done it yet?’

‘I want to but I’m not ready for that, yet.‘

‘I want to start that but I’m not sure how, yet.’

‘I’ve not got round to doing that yet.’

Are they?

  • Waiting for perfection
  • Scared and won’t admit it.
  • Information gathers and not appliers.
  • Getting bogged down in the detail.
  • Full of the talk, but no action.
  • Stuck in analysis paralysis.
  • Waiting for permission.
  • Waiting to until conditions are perfect.
  • Using yet to cover up something else.
  • And millions of other excuses.

The other person is:

  • Making mistakes and amending as they go.
  • Scared but asking for help.
  • Making decisions
  • Taking action
  • Seeking others.
  • Embracing risks.
  • Exposing their vulnerabilties.
  • Making the best choice at the time.
  • Seeing the big picture and the end result.
  • Not waiting for anyone else.
  • Accepting they are unique and showing it.
  • See ‘not yet’ as an excuse.

What are you not doing yet?

What’s really going on with you?

What would your life be like if you choose ‘it’s done’ over ‘not yet’?