Laurie Foley | Online Business Coach

Happy Birthday #3

January 14, 2012 · 6 comments

It’s my blog’s birthday! This month makes three years that I’ve been blogging steadily, and happily it’s still one of my favorite things to do. While I’ve been doing tech and marketing consulting since 1995, this is also my third birthday as a business coach. Woo hoo! Pass the cupcakes!

Mostly, year three was exciting. I felt like I was hitting my stride. I felt confident, I enjoyed the experience I had gained, and I had the wonderful fun of meeting new people in the most random of ways through social media and referrals. It’s a strange feeling when someone writes or calls with whom I’ve never had a personal contact, but I welcome those contacts as a sign of a healthy, growing business. My introverted nature got stretched.

Sometimes I felt like Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory. The pace would pick up and before I knew it, things were a bit ragged around the edges. I learned a lot about focus and identifying what matters. I learned that, more than ever, my inner lizard thinking feeds on distractions. I got help from a strategic coach or two who understand how to help me stay focused so that things get good and truly done. I was happy that this culminated in creating The Planning Kitchen, a program that guides entrepreneurs through a learning and planning process that helps them find their own right focus.

My biggest lesson of the year: putting down is as important as picking up. It’s always been my inclination to keep adding things to my plate, personally and professionally. I kept trying to add things, but this year I’ve started experimenting with putting some things down and the results are teaching me a lot. Big plans are brewing for an even clearer expression of what I want my business to be. My priority this year is on making it sustainable and scalable – while answering a deep desire to do something worthy of legacy.

Most of all, I was thrilled to be of service to people who are doing compelling work and answering their own calling to be of service. I loved hearing client stories, and I did a lot of happy booty shaking when they came back with good news of new clients of their own. I midwifed strong brands, and celebrated when clients launched successful programs with confidence.

I’d say those are all good reasons for a party. Want a cupcake?

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What’s Love Got To Do With It?

January 5, 2012 · 7 comments

One of my favorite questions to ask service entrepreneurs is “What are you NOT willing to do in your marketing?” (It’s one of the juicy questions in The Inner Brandifesto. You’ve got that right? No? Well, mozy over and get it here.)

The number one answer is, by far, anything that makes them feel pushy. And with a little poking beneath the surface, it’s usually something that has been “done to them” in marketing that they didn’t like, like a super long ugly sales letter or zillions of repetitive “Buy me! Buy me! Buy me!” emails.

When someone tells me what they don’t like, they are actually telling me everything about what they DO like. If they don’t like harsh, then they do like soft. If they don’t like being hammered with repetitive messages, then they do like having their time and their inbox respected.

So if you don’t want to be pushy – if you like soft, respectful marketing – can you be successful? If you look around the world of online marketing, you might seriously wonder.

Happily, the answer is yes.

Even better, it’s based on something that you already know how to do: love. You didn’t marry the pick up artist; you married the one who courted you. Sure, you may have had a fling with a bad boy (or girl) or two (or bought a product or three), but you didn’t seal the deal and build a long, happy life with Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am.

Online marketing is the same. Relationships take time to build, time to nurture and time to evolve. No, this isn’t the dominant view online. No, this isn’t the get rich quick method. But it is the way to build a healthy, sustainable business. And, even more importantly, it’s full of love for the people who authentically need what you have to offer.

So why is that other yucky stuff out there at all? Because it does make sales – for a while. But it requires you to hang out in the equivalent of seedy bars online to pick up new hook ups. It’s what’s called “churn and burn.” The churn is continually adding people to a mailing list and the burn is, yep, burning them (and probably losing their attention forever) with pushy tactics.

Are you feeling even ickier when I call it what it is? Why would *anyone* run their business this way?

In the always reliable wisdom of Tina Turner: “Who needs a heart, if a heart can be broken?”

That’s my hunch: these churn and burn marketers have been hurt. They’re afraid to put their heart on the line. They’re cut off from their feelings, and they don’t mind hurting others because their heart isn’t in the game. Their measure of success is “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Where is their client in that?

It makes me want to cry to see marketing that is, in fact, full of someone’s pain.

So, and I’m assuming you’re NOT that wounded-so-I’ll-wound-others person, what can you do if you want to grow your business?

Back to Tina’s marketing genius, let’s ask “What’s love got to do with it?”

Love takes a risk. Love offers but doesn’t grasp. Love comforts without smothering. Love brings its best. Love learns all that it can so that it can meet a need.

Or, from that other soul great, Al Green, the other side of love says: Here I am. Come and take me. Take me by the hand. Show me. Teach me.

That’s what your clients want to say to you as they fall in love with what you offer. They are saying “Take me by the hand, show me, teach me.”

What if that’s enough in your marketing? Extend your hand. Show them. Teach them. Take the risk.

With love.

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Three (or Four) Words for 2012

January 1, 2012 · 14 comments

One of the people who has most influenced me to dig deep and bring my best to my online adventures is Chris Brogan. I love his annual three words post – and I love that he asks his community to contribute. As T.S. Eliot said, “Talent imitates, genius steals.” So with an unabashed desire to channel Chris’s genius, I’m once again stealing his idea to share the three words that represent my intentions for 2012, and this year, I’m including those from colleagues who want to play along, too.

Invite is inviting people into discussion, community, classes, and deeper inquiry. It’s the opposite of “push” in marketing.

Value is helping others find and reveal their value in the world, too. It’s providing value in my programs and services. It’s valuing myself and my time.

Ease is doing what feels like ease and asking for help with what doesn’t (or dropping it altogether). Ease into, ease out of. It’s about allowing ease to be powerful *and* enough.

I noticed that if I put a fourth word on the front of these, the initials would form the basis of all of this: GIVE. That fourth word? Grace. That’s my constant prayer: to know grace, feel grace, live in grace… and to give gracefully.

It’s all about intention. Those are mine for 2012.

And now, it’s my great joy to share many from friends and colleagues in The Planning Kitchen, who are committing to their own intentions in 2012.

Martha Jo Atkins: shine

Lisa Bourdon: receive, fly, mine

Lesley Reid Cross: euphoria, movement, play

Mary Welty-Dapkus: destiny, daring, delight

Cheryl Dolan: perspicuous, perspicacity, perspiration

Diane Hunter: listen, lead, love

Christie Inge: resonance, intuition, love

Sue Kasson: ease, connection, warmth

C. A. Kobu: breakthrough, connect, flourish

Melani Marx: receptive, constancy, belonging