Show Notes:

There is a saying that goes, “You are what you attract.” People might think it only applies to relationships, but surprisingly, it is also applicable to businesses.

If you want to have an amazing client, then you need to have the same energy as that client. You need to work on yourself as much as you work on your business. You need to achieve balance in your personal and work life for you to be an effective entrepreneur or an effective coach.

Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I want to talk about being your own worst client. Imagine that you had a coaching client who consistently failed to complete their tasks on every week, or every month. Or, every time that you talked to them they couldn't find the time to get their opt-in page completed, or they were too busy to write the next chapter of their book. They were basically just working too hard and completely forgot to put together a webinar, or a presentation, or something really important.

It wouldn't take too long before you sat them down and had a serious talk about the future of your coaching relationship and their business. Coaching a client such as that is frustrating, and it's also a waste of both of your times. So, why is it that so many people continue to accept these and other excuses for themselves? Why is it that you might have a lack of business developmental growth which will allow you to continue and do better, even when you know it's important that these tasks, for the future for your growth, why do you still make excuses to not do them?

It doesn't make any sense, and I know you might think I'm being hard or weird, but all entrepreneurs struggle with this same issue. We all put our clients, our family, our friends, and even the neighbor we barely know, before ourselves. And sometimes it's even worse for introverts, and especially in this day and age where we're always on, or available 24/7, or want to be responsive in case something else happens, or our client goes to somebody else. It's really hard, but you need to think about this. I'm giving you permission right now to stop doing that.

You need to treat yourself like your VIP client, you need to put yourself, your needs, your introvert balance and your business growth ahead of your clients, because by doing that, and by learning how to grow your business you can then help your clients do that. You'll be able to reach a larger audience, help more people, and achieve the goals you set for yourself. So you need to put your business growth and your introvert balance ahead of everything else.

The simplest way to do that is make appointments with yourself. I started doing this on my calendar, you know, that hour or two you have free on Thursday afternoon, make sure it's free. Make sure you can't have a client call booked in that spot, book it for yourself. What I've had to do recently is put in blocks of time, one or two hours a day where it is just work on my business not in my business. Put it in your calendar, make it a funky color, make it stand out, but it has to come first and you need to treat it as an unbreakable appointment, just as you would with an appointment with a client, or a doctor, or somebody else. You need to set those barriers as well.

And, spend the time working on things that are important to the continued growth of your business. It could be, develop a new coaching program, or develop a new product, write a chapter in your upcoming book, write emails for your autoresponders, reach out to partners, think about a summit that you want to do. Just get everything in line. Maybe it could be, just get your acuity up and running, maybe you've had it up but you need to tweak it, or make sure that the emails that go out to your clients are fully understandable. In short, do the things you tell your clients to do, you know, the things that your own coach, if you have one, is probably telling you to do. Don't push them aside for later, or after I get this client worked out, or after I put out this fire.

Evaluate yourself and think about it, is it really worth putting all your client work first if you can't pull in the new business? You need to be constantly pulling in new business to keep things going, and the only way to do that is to concentrate on your business growth. Elevate yourself to VIP client status and start putting yourself first. You, and your business, and your bank balance will thank you for it, and it's a lesson that you need to repeat to yourself, because you might start off well for a month or so, and then stuff happens. The client has a fire that needs putting out, you go on vacation and things happen, and then you come back and you stop doing it.

This is why you need to sit down and block out time, maybe for the next six months, maybe for the next year. You can always move times if stuff happens, and yes, you are allowed to take vacation, but putting these times in your calendar and making them a non negotiable is the first stage to growing your business.

Thank you for listening. If you have any questions please email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. I look forward to helping you grow your business and your career in line with your introversion.