My Top 3 “Aha!” Moments : Selling from the Heart Live!

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind over here just lately (in a good way!).  Hot on the heels of delivering my Get More Clients Saying Yes! online programme to 105 new participants and 87 “refreshers”, last weekend I spent a magical 2 days with nearly a hundred heart-centred business owners at my annual event, Selling from the Heart Live!

It was the 5th time I had run this event but this year there were quite a few ‘firsts.’ It was the first time I had done this as a two day event (it’s only ever been one day before), it was our first time in a new venue (much nicer than the old one), and – the biggest departure of all – it was the first time I didn’t sell a “high-ticket” group mentoring programme (what I did offer is in “pre-beta” and will be revealed next year).

So in the spirit of “firsts” I’m introducing another first today:    The first ever guest blog on the Selling from the Heart blog!    Sarah Swanton, creator of the Happy Healthy Entrepreneur is sharing her insights from the weekend with those of you who couldn’t join us.

With love,

Catherine x

My Top 3 “Aha!” Moments from Selling from the Heart Live – a guest blog by Sarah Swanton of Happy Healthy Entrepreneur

Just recently, I had the treat of attending Catherine Watkin’s Selling From The Heart Live, an incredibly useful two-day event in London. A room filled with heart centred entrepreneurs, most of whom had completed Catherine’s Get More Clients Saying Yes!, her signature 8-week course, that she runs just once a year.

For me, I had the pleasure of being part of Catherine’s team alongside The Details Director (Maria Watson), VA Sara Louise Fox, and tech superstar Elizabeth Buckley-Goddard; it was certainly an eye-opener as to how much detail goes on behind the scenes to pull together such an event.

I’ve been reflecting on some of the realisations or ‘aha’ moments from all of the great content shared during the weekend, (of which there were many!). If you weren’t able to attend I’m sure you’ll find this useful, and if you were, I’d be interested to know if it links in with some of yours too.

So, here are my top three ‘aha’ moments from Catherine Watkin’s Selling From The Heart Live.

Aha Moment #1: Being in business is a journey

We hear this a lot don’t we, but this one really resonated with me, perhaps because Catherine went deeper than just acknowledging the ‘ups and downs’ of business.

This was about expectations. How many of us go into business, set up our ‘stall’ and expect things to happen immediately? I know I do! Of course, when the clients don’t come as quickly as we would like, we start to feel disappointed, discouraged? We start to think something is wrong with our product/service, we question our pricing model, and we may even consider taking it down and starting again (guilty!).

The truth is, there is probably nothing wrong with the product, the package or even the pricing. We just need to give it time, and that’s why being in business is a journey.

I do remember Catherine saying this on my Happy Healthy Entrepreneur Podcast, and it was a great reminder to hear it again. If you’re heading off on a road trip, from London to Wales, there’s a plan to be made, milestones to pass, you may need to stop for fuel.

In other words, it takes time, and it’s the same with business too, and we can’t expect it to happen any quicker than it takes.  I found myself jotting down these wise words from Catherine, and circling twice!

“It’s supposed to be difficult, and understanding that actually makes it easier”

When your expectations are in line with reality, the more you are likely to enjoy the journey.

Aha Moment #2. Understand where you fit into your client’s journey

As much as we are on our own journey in business, so is everyone else. In the beginning, it’s all about the ‘hustle’ – making it work, bringing in money, finding our way. In fact, as much as 80-90% of our time is given to sales and marketing, and that’s exactly as it should be, according to Catherine. In this phase, we are Stage 1 business owners, in other words, it’s all about the ‘getting going’.

A Stage 2 business owner, on the other hand, has progressively moved through the hustle phase and is coming out the other side. They’ve got clear on their ideal client, and the problems that need solving; they’ve tested and experimented with the best ways to communicate that value to their market. The income is more regular, and they’ve found their groove when it comes to how and when to launch their offer throughout the year. They are all about the ‘get growing’ stage.

Understanding all of this is crucial to us and our marketing, because it allows us to see how the work that we do fits into our client’s journey, and so, allows us to show up at the very moment that it’s needed. I’ll give you an example.

So my work (supporting business owners out of burnout) comes in at Stage 2, at a time when they’ve already been through the hustle and have had some success ‘on paper’, but they’re feeling exhausted by it all, and know they need to find a better way of working otherwise they’re at risk of burning out (and eventually giving up).

My big ‘aha’ moment was that I’d been focusing on startup or new business owners (Stage 1) who are deep into the hustle and focused on making it work and bringing in money. So, the support I can give is a ‘nice to have’ and it resonates for them, but it’s not ‘critical’ or ‘essential’ as it is to those Stage 2 business owners.

What a difference something like that can make! It means I can now design the level of package I really want to deliver, that I think will make the difference, and then feel confident about setting the price I really think it’s worth, knowing that my ideal client (a Stage 2 business owner) will see that as a worthwhile investment, and critical to the stage they’re at in their business.

Aha Moment #3. Joint Ventures are not scary, in fact, they’re quite exciting.

Let me be honest with you, I always thought joint ventures were something only the ‘big guys’ do. I thought you needed to have a massive email list before you could even think about the idea of a joint venture and besides, I had no idea what or how you even went about it. It felt like a mystery to me.

The first thing Catherine did, was reframe the concept from ‘Joint Ventures’ to ‘Collaborations’. Ahh, that felt better already. What heart centred entrepreneur doesn’t like the word collaboration? It’s a whole different energy, isn’t it? This weekend was full of collaborative energy. That feeling you get when you meet someone and you think ooh I like you, we have synergy – and you find yourself saying “I don’t know how and when it will happen, but I feel like we should keep in touch, because we could really do something together further down the line”. Those moments! The words just tumble out, because you feel such alignment.

Well, guess what? That is a joint venture.

As Catherine said, you don’t need a big list to do a joint venture (collaboration), you could both be small and grow together, and in fact that’s how it was for Catherine (whose main marketing strategy is now JVs).  When she and her JV partners started out a lot of them had very small or new businesses, but they have all helped each other grow, and far more quickly than it would take through just relying on content marketing, or social media alone.

So in other words, joint ventures are really just about spending time with amazing business buddies (of which the free Selling From the Heart Community on Facebook has an abundance) and then coming up with exciting plans, and ideas of how you can help each other out.

Catherine promised us ‘fried brains’ by the end of it, and that’s certainly what happened – but in a good way! It was an incredible amount of knowledge and information that she downloaded from her brain to ours. As she frequently says to us “I am passionate about sales and marketing so that you don’t have to be!” For many of us in that room, over the two days, it crystallised so much and gave the much-needed clarity. Reflections from the weekend were coming in plentifully by Monday morning, in the Facebook Group and have been ever since. As one grateful business owner so eloquently concluded:

“I feel like I’ve been holding pieces of a jigsaw for months and people have been giving me more pieces to hold and Catherine has said ‘right where are your corners? Now lay them out and put down the side pieces. That’s it… see now you have your frame and you can fill in the middle.’ The framework has made everything click!” – Samantha Dunnage, creator of the Grow Your Mind, Grow Your Business programme.

See you there next year?

Sarah x

Sarah Swanton is the Founder of Happy Healthy Entrepreneur which supports established business owners to overcome and prevent burnout, so they can fall in love with their business again, and feel excited about what’s next.

Do you struggle to switch off at the end of your day? Download and get instant access to her calming Switch Off & Relax hypnotic meditation, when you sign up her Strategies For Staying Sane newsletter.