Priorities

Here’s a quick casual intro to me and how I work.

Oh! And I also reveal the answer to the burning question, “Is Mary a dog person or a cat person?”

In the hundreds of presentations I’ve done, the subject of social media ALWAYS comes up. And the #1 comment that people make about it?

“I spend way too much time on social media, but I’m not getting any clients from of it.”

Tied for the #2 most frequent comment is, “but everyone says you have to do it” and, “I know I’m missing out if I don’t do it.”

They assume they’re doing it wrong and/or not doing enough.

Let’s cut to the chase here, shall we? If you have a service-based business and you’re not getting clients from social media…

YES, you’re probably using social media the wrong way, and…

NO, doing more is not what you need.

Below are simple steps to take, but here’s the deal: if you truly want to free yourself from stress and frustration, you MUST commit time to stepping away from the busy-ness of your business so you can actually reflect and think it through without interruption.

1.     Realize where your leads come from. Consider two things as you reflect on this:

• Look at your past clients. And to be crystal clear, “clients” are defined as people who have PAID to work with you. What marketing actions did you take that brought them to your door?

• Look at what works in your industry to generate leads. And you have to dig a bit deeper than scrolling through LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok to get the truth about this. What you see on social media and what is actually building businesses are often VERY different things.

2.     Reprioritize social media. The lead generation strategies that you identified in #1 above? Get very specific about what those actions are, and then instead of putting endless Canva designing in your calendar, put the actions that have a proven track record of generating clients into your calendar first.

3.     Redefine social media’s role. Don’t throw away social media completely, but instead put it in its proper place. For the majority* of service-based businesses, social media plays a supporting role to strategies like referrals and speaking. A professional, on-brand post once a week is usually plenty.

4.     Repeat steps 1-3 quarterly. It’s easy to get sucked into old habits as you build new ones, or be lured by a bright shiny sales pitch that gets you off track.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, of course, but I hope that this evaluation lowers your stress level about social media!

* I’d estimate this is true for 9 out of 10 service-based businesses, and 9.9 out of 10 for coaches and consultants. 😊

Lead generation… WOW. If you want to get me woohooing all over the place, just give me an hour to talk about maximizing your lead generation efforts.

Since I realize not everyone gets jazzed about numbers and lead gen, I’ll keep it simple.

Because – love it or hate it – you have to do lead generation. You just don’t want it to take more time than it needs to, right?

Me neither.

So every year, I let my data guide my decisions in order to make my lead gen more effective and streamlined.

A.K.A. mo’ money and clients, less hustle and grind.

Here are a handful of key questions I answered for myself to make sure I’m on the right track as I build my action plan for 2023. I don’t want to repeat past mistakes, and I want to double down on the things that got great results!

1. Where are clients coming from (lead generation activities)?
2. What is my closing ratio?
3. What is the average income per client? 
4. For speakers: which topic results in the most new clients? What groups result in the most new business?
5. What percentage of clients are new, repeat and renewing?

This video goes into more detail about what I’m doing with these numbers to get better results in 2023. (And yes, there is a spreadsheet!)

When I first committed to putting my personal life on my calendar first, I remember the questions that popped into my head:

• What if something comes up?
• How do I know when to go on vacation if I don’t know what my clients need?
• What if I get it wrong?

So much of this came from years of working a job where other people dictated my time off. And here’s the truth about the answers to these questions.

• If something comes up, you can change your schedule.
• Let your clients know when you’re going on vacation.
• You will get it wrong sometimes, but no one besides you will notice.

All good? Ready to start planning your wonderful life?

Here’s what I put on the calendar each year, to get things started:

1. One 3-day weekend per month (last Friday of the month off)

2. One planning day per month (last Monday of the month)

3. Speaking events

4. Travel for work (conferences, speaking)

5. Vacations

One last thing: while I live and die by my google calendar, I highly recommend getting a wall calendar so you can see everything at a glance for the year!

Step 6 – ask your cat for feedback (this step is optional and actually not recommended)