Do you feel you’re spending hours on marketing your business but the results just aren’t happening for you?
Are you desperately trying to keep up with the latest marketing tips and tricks, telling yourself the next thing you try “just has to work”?
You can breathe a sigh of relief…you are not alone. I for one have certainly been there (as has every heart-centered solopreneur I have ever spoken with about marketing).
When marketing alone just doesn’t work…
That’s a bold statement, but I’ve come to understand that often the biggest thing that is holding us back in becoming successful business owners are our beliefs…and the scariest thing is often we are completely unaware of them.
You can put all the energy in the world into marketing – from ensuring your website is easily navigable and takes your visitors on a logical journey (if you are not already on my list you can sign up here and get my free guide to help you); to ensuring you can be found on Google (by having your search engine optimization completed); and making your blog posts easily shareable on social media (through installing an effective social share plugin). However, if you don’t believe in yourself (or are holding wrong beliefs) you are building a giant invisible wall between you and your Perfect People.
Confession time…
This is a bit scary but I’m going to use myself as an example, and some deeply held beliefs that I’ve had about money.
Now, I’ve done work on money. I’ve had financial coaching with Simonne Gnessen from Wise Monkey Financial Coaching, got myself completely out of (a fair few thousand pounds) of debt and know exactly where I stand financially with my monthly spreadsheet for income and expenditure.
I’ve read Lynne Twist’s “The Soul of Money”and get the message. I spend my time (mostly) focusing on gratitude for what I have, rather than lack of what I don’t have…
BUT, there has been a small part of me that, at a deep level, was holding on unconsciously to some very limiting beliefs that were OLD (meaning I’d carried them around with me for years and years).
How to change your beliefs in 3 steps
Carrie Green, from the Female Entrepreneur Association has a brilliant 3 Step Process to shift these money beliefs once and for all, and I wanted to share how I have used this process in case your own heart-centered business is suffering because of them.
1. What blocks do you have around money?
The first step was to take a pen and paper (or laptop in my case) and start writing. I just let my thoughts flow, didn’t censor them, just wrote freeform until I felt there was nothing else left to put down.
I wanted to get rid of these beliefs so the next part was to do something about it!
Slowly, I read aloud each belief. (I did this on Skype with the help of my lovely colleague Kay Gillard as I wanted someone to witness my letting go of these thoughts. I Imagined them disappearing completely from my consciousness (flying into the sea to break up in the waves).
I really believed they had left me, and that I could simply no longer hold these thoughts in my mind.
2. Re-programme your mind for financial abundance
If you are like me, you may have a few negative thoughts about affirmations! Well, I’m inviting you to open your mind, as the next step is to create a powerful visulisation for yourself. (Carrie’s video explains how, and she even has a downloadable script that you can adapt to suit yourself).
I recorded this on my iPhone using the Voice Memo app (as I found the free recording software Audacity a bit more complicated). You can even do this over music, simply by playing your favourite relaxing tune on your computer at the same time as speaking.
Then I started a daily practice of visualisation – using the recording on my phone.
3. Take the right action
Visualisation is great but you ALSO need to take action. I already have a list of Inspired Actions that I implement on a weekly basis to make myself and my work more visiable and connect with more people like you. What steps can you start taking right now?
Over to you
What negative money beliefs (or any other limiting beliefs) are stopping your heart-centered business from flourishing?
The first step to getting rid of beliefs that are holding us back is to identify them. So take a deep breath and share your thoughts in the Comments below…
Rebuilding your website (or starting from scratch) and not sure what’s the right action to take to ensure your website works effectively and connects you with your Perfect People?
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By the end of the call we will have a plan of action for your new online home – the what, where, why, and how it’s all going to come together smoothly.
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Photo credit: Death to the Stock Photo
Hi Kate, what a journey you’ve been on! And what a great place you must be in now as a result.
So many people do not understand the power of affirmations, or dismiss them as ‘mumbo-jumbo’. And may be until 10 years or so ago you could either choose to believe or not.
There’s no excuse now. I have an interest in the chemistry of the brain and how this relates to every-day living.
When we visualise, we start to change our brain chemistry, but as you say, this has to be coupled with ACTION.
I really enjoyed reading this blog Kate and hearing about your progress in an area that no longer holds you back.
Hi Shari, thanks for starting the conversation. I must say I do feel like I’m still a “work in progress” and haven’t entirely cracked my limiting money beliefs.
Happy that I have an open mind about the power of affirmations, my understanding and practice of Buddhism has definitely helped with this – especially realising how we completely create our world and experiences with our own mind.
I imagine your interest in brain chemistry bears this out?
Oh, what a wonderful post. I am looking at all your references and excited that I have The Soul of Money on my shelf (unread, of course). Thanks for all those wonderful connections. Who doesn’t have money or marketing issues? I do!
What I love especially about you is how generous you are in connecting people who do good work to each other. A beautiful way of sharing, caring and marketing. You help us all out so kindly. Thanks. (Subscribed to those sites already.)
Thanks Miriam. I’m always concerned not to “take” anyone else’s content, so try to be careful to credit the originator. Glad you see it as connecting people doing good work to each other – that’s lovely!
I honestly think that the biggest obstacle we have as solopreneurs are our “dodgy” beliefs – if we don’t think we can do something, then we are right we won’t be able to. (Nod to Henry Ford I believe). I think Linda Anderson is doing great work in this area: http://www.tapintoyoursuccess.co.uk – and I’m looking forward to doing a Discovery Session with her this month.
Thanks for this post! I honestly feel that the limiting beliefs you mention hold most of us back in our business… I don’t know about you, but I just got used to the money/marketing sorting itself out when I was working for a large organisation…then Bam!!! You in your own business and suddenly have to do everything and often do not reveal those underlying beliefs until you are running the show and wondering why you sabbotaging…so thank you for highlighting this important point and yes it is such a lifelong work in progress 😉
Hi Lisa
Oh yes, I know what you mean – finally at the end of my full time career in the corporate world I’d got myself sorted with monthly budgeting etc. which seems a whole lot easier when you know you have a monthly salary coming in.
I guess it’s not surprising that many of us solopreneurs become a bit fearful around money when we strike out on our own. I think it’s essential to build up a support network around ourselves (as Corrina Gordon-Barnes says: “it’s not by yourself employment”) so that we can encourage each other, and challenge our negative thinking when it pops up.
I’m also going to remember that I had no thought of “I can’t do it” at the acroyoga workshop I went to on Sunday, and was trying out new partner yoga/acrobatic tricks without a second though. Now…just to bring that same attitude of open curiosity with me in my business!
Hi Kate, this is such an important topic! I also see that most people who are into helping others somehow have an issue around money – I defenitely have! Will look into those resources you so generously shared – thankyou 🙂
Thanks for commenting Ann-Sofi. Money is such an emotive issue, much of which we learn in when we are really young I think. There is so much negativity around it – think of all the sayings “money is the root of all evil” being one for starters!
Good luck with the resources and let me know how you get on.
Hello Kate
I love this post! Such honesty combined with great suggestions and I feel really inspired now to use affirmations to help me move past some blocks I have about success! I have used affirmations for years but somehow I ‘forget’ to actually do them!
I also like the idea that more action is needed at the same time – even just small steps in the right direction are telling the universe (or whoever is in charge up there) that we really are ready to move now to the place we want to be. For example I want more readers – so I need to comment more on other blogs. (that’s not why I am commenting here btw :)) I need to find places that people who would be interested in my blog hang out, and make myself visible there.
And lastly I loved the idea of writing down all the flow of ideas and beliefs. Again this is something I believe in and have done in the past but how strange that we often ‘forget’ those very things that work.
Love the photo on the blog too – is this a new one?
Good luck with your own journey of letting go of limiting beliefs
Kate x
Hi Kate
Thanks so much for joining the conversation. I’m glad this week’s post resonated with you. I’m still working on my love/hate relationship with affirmations, it’s not something that sits easily with me. Still, since it’s easy to be hard on myself, I’m looking at affirmations as just giving myself some encouragement instead!
Action is definitely the key – we can have all the positive beliefs in the world, but if we don’t DO something to get our businesses out there we will never be found. Sounds like you have a good plan in place to find the right places where your readers might hang out elsewhere online and connect with them there.
The photo is (yet another) from the wonderful http://deathtothestockphoto.com site – full of free images that look nothing like the bland stock images you often find online.
Good luck and do let me know how you get on.
Kate x