April 8, 2015 by Jesse Koren

Behind-the-Scenes Lessons from our BIG Launch

The past month has been amazing, insane and fulfilling all at the same time.

Nearly 25,000 people opted in to see our video series and attend our webinars.

And we welcomed in new clients from 19 different countries and 5 continents. We are so grateful!

If you followed our launch, we hope the experience was valuable, inspiring and beneficial for you. The comments we received were heart-warming.

And Sharla and I (Jesse) feel so fulfilled by this launch, that we have decided to offer you a HUGE gift that we are preparing for you now... look for an email from us next Thursday about this gift. We think you’ll LOVE it!

Why was this launch so amazing, insane and fulfilling?
Sheesh! We knew this launch was going to be a ride, but we didn’t realize how much of a ride it would be.
Behind the scenes, we learned TONS!

Whether you’re planning to launch your business (someday, maybe) or on the verge of launching something REALLY BIG, we hope you can learn from our experience and not repeat our mistakes.

The Top 5 Lessons from our Launch

1) Plan Your Success and Celebrate (no matter what happens)

It’s embarrassing to admit that in our first years of business, we were so busy “working hard” that we never stopped to plan or celebrate. Can you relate?

We prided ourselves on “flying by the seat of our pants,” LOL! Not so funny for our team...
We used to drive them crazy with our last minute changes and never-ending work ethic.

This time, we knew the launch could get really ugly if we didn’t gather our amazing team together to plan our success and to make sure everyone was on the same page.

We met with our team many times throughout the launch, to stay on the same page.

It was so inspiring to feel that our team was genuinely excited for the Thrive Community to grow, even though the launch meant there would be some long days and late nights approaching for them. We are SO lucky to have such an amazing team.

Yesterday we gathered with our team again to celebrate and acknowledge the great work we did together! While it was our biggest launch ever, we were excited to report it was also our smoothest launch ever. And it was really sweet to see how fulfilled our team was to see our Thrive Community double in size, practically overnight...

One of our Thrive Coaches, Erin Delaney, said it was great to hear so many different accents from all over the world, on our teleseminar we led yesterday.

No matter whether you have a team or not, we encourage you to plan your success and then celebrate (even if it doesn’t feel like a success!) You do this enough times, and you’ll need a big team supporting you.

2) Make Your Commitment BIGGER than your circumstances

We set a launch schedule that was barely attainable under the best of conditions. 6 weeks to create 4 value-packed videos, a webinar, 22 emails, and all web pages, etc.

If you read our last blog post, we were on the brink of disaster, you know that our whole family got sick, including nannies, which threw everything off...

Our #1 commitment is to our boys, so Sharla or I stayed with the boys during the day, and we worked late at night to prepare our content for the videos.

Did you see the amazing videos Sharla released? She recorded them with a burning fever, stopping only to quell coughing fits. You might have been able to hear it in her voice. But Sharla’s spirit shines so brightly, that if you watched the videos, you would hardly know she was sick.

This is because Sharla lives what we teach:

When your commitment is BIGGER than your circumstances, you become magnetic.

The world is starving for people who kick the back door shut, and say “I’m in, no matter what happens and no matter how I feel. I’m in!!!” Nothing was going to stop us. “In sickness or in health, ‘til death do us part.”

Many Coaches and Holistic Practitioners are not magnetic because they never fully commit to their business. Or if they do commit, they are committed, unless X happens. Or, unless they feel Y. Then, they back out. Magic happens when your commitment is BIGGER than your circumstances.

3) Don’t Let One Part of You Sabotage Your Entire Effort

This month, I worked harder than I have in a long time. A part of me LOVED it. I felt like I was in my 20’s again, unstoppable, superhuman, and ready to change the world.

But another part of me was not having it. This part wanted to play and rest and roll around in bed with Sharla, and didn’t give a flying *$#@ about the launch. I shoved this part to the side for weeks... finally, during the last week of the launch, this part of me got super pissed off. And very whiney! And made my lower back ache like crazy.

So I took about 15 minutes to journal with this young part of myself. And it wasn’t until I promised him video games, and spaghetti dinners, and long cuddle sessions with Sharla that he finally backed off…and I felt “normal” again. But I’m telling you, had I not done the journaling, my little guy would have ended up sabotaging the whole launch.

So before launching anything, we recommend you gather your “inner team” together and literally get them all on the same page.

What this means is: journal with the various different parts of yourself. Chances are that you have a part of you that is EXCITED to expand. And another part of you that is scared to expand. And another part of you that wants to work really hard. And another part of you that just wants to rest or play. You can add more parts and invite them into the “part-y”. Name these different parts of you, and let them have a conversation on paper... because one part of you who is not on board, can sabotage the whole thing. And, it pays to get everyone on the same page.

4) Fail Gracefully

“The more you fail, the more you succeed.” You may have heard this before, but how do you let yourself fail? Especially if you’re a perfectionist and often beat yourself up for not being perfect. And how do you fail gracefully?

Well, one thing that’s helped many of our clients is a distinction we introduce at the beginning of the Client Attraction Summit. When you make a mistake (which is inevitable) instead of saying “I’m so stupid” you can just switch the words to “I’m so Sexy!”

Here’s how it works in real life:

During one of our webinars, the slides that we had spent thousands of dollars to design (and Sharla had personally spent at least ten hours working on) did not upload correctly.

With about 700 people on the webinar, it wasn’t a great time to have a big breakdown like this. And she couldn’t say, “Give us about 10 minutes to fix the slides.” So instead of freaking out, Sharla said “I’m so sexy,” (and then explained what “I’m so sexy” really means) and then did the webinar without slides.

During several of the other webinars, the slides continued to get messed up in the uploading process, but Sharla did not let that stop her from staying in her heart and delivering the content we had planned to deliver. Even if she was super sexy in the process.

5) Make Connection with Your People More Important Than Marketing Advice

Sharla got hundreds of beautiful, positive, inspiring comments on her videos... everything from her clothing selection, to her radiance and beauty, to how valuable the content was. But we also got a surprising number of negative comments about one thing: The timeline! People were frustrated they didn’t know how long the video was and couldn’t rewind if they wanted to hear something again.

Many marketing studies state that video engagement is higher when you don’t have timelines. So we initially defended our decision by saying that we didn’t want people to skip through the videos and consume them fast food style... but the frustrated comments kept coming.

So after releasing video 3, we emailed our launch list with a heartfelt letter, sharing that we finally got it... and we were adding the timelines to the videos.

We got MANY emails and comments thanking us. And funny enough, the engagement with our videos actually increased after we added the timelines!

If we had it to do over again, we would have put the timelines in much sooner.

Okay, that sums up five of our biggest lessons. If this was valuable for you, share it with friends. And, leave us a comment and tell us your thoughts.

Let us know what you think in the comment box below.

March 18, 2015 by Jesse Koren

We’ve been on the brink of disaster...

Whew!! What a ride this last month has been.

We are about to do our biggest online launch ever! We have 38 JV Partners who are going to be sending the people on their email lists over to learn some of our hottest tips on attracting clients.

Together, these partners have a collective reach hundreds of thousands of people. It's VERY exciting!

So, we want to do this launch REALLY well, right?

We plan to lead with generosity, share some of our best content and create an amazing relationship with a whole new group of people...of course!

Well, with our event schedule (and two young boys) it was already going to be nearly impossible to pull this launch off.

And then Zachary, our 3 year old, got sick...Really sick. He didn’t want to leave Sharla’s side for 3 days.

Being the amazing mother that Sharla is, she made Zachary our first priority and I stepped in to help create the launch content.

It was still nearly impossible (but still possible) to prevent this launch from being a disaster...

Until Sharla got sick...Really sick. The day before the first video shoot, she had a fever. She took all the Chinese herbs she knew to take to help kick it out, but she woke up still not feeling great.

But being the amazing woman that Sharla is, she stepped into the recording studio with a burning fever, sweating the whole time...

And she still recorded some incredible videos.

As I looked at the footage, I could not even tell that she was sick (besides her sounding just a teeny bit nasally) because her Spirit shines through so brightly.

How does she do this? I wondered.

She practices what we teach, which is to make your commitment bigger than your circumstances.

We’ll send you Sharla’s first video tomorrow.

But before we launch into the launch, we wanted to acknowledge that you may have been on someone’s email list when they launched something.

We have...Many times.

When a launch is done well, it can be inspiring. And, when it’s done poorly, it can really turn me off to someone I had previously really appreciated.

So we’ve committed to doing our launch in this most generous and inspirational way possible.

If you ever launch anything in your business, it’s a great idea to avoid these mistakes.

Mistake #1: Being stingy with your content

Some mentors we worked with long ago taught us to teach only the "what” and the "why it's important”, but not give away any of the how (in any free content). We have decided to buck this trend.

We will pack as much hot content as we can into the three valuable videos in the series, and also on the webinar. Our intention is to give away so much valuable information that you are blown away.

Because of this, we have decided to give away a few of our most prized templates in this launch. Templates that, up until now, we've only shared in our Client Attraction Mastery Program.

We have done this because we wanted to lead with generosity and value. And from a business standpoint, we trust that when our people get a taste of our templates, they’ll want more.

Mistake #2: Making the short-term sales more important than the long-term relationship.

We expect tens of thousands of new people to join our email list in the next two weeks. This means that we get to make a difference in the lives of a small city of people.

Of course we want to make money (we are running a business, after all), but we have consciously decided to put money in the back seat and let our true intention drive us.

Our intention is to equip this new community of Coaches and Holistic Practitioners with the tools, inspiration, and confidence to attract the people who are truly waiting for them.

Because we know that when your people fail, more people suffer.

Mistake #3: Not letting them opt out of the launch list

We know that some people will get clear that the program we will eventually offer is the next logical step to have them attract more clients and make 2015 their best financial year ever.

Others will know that this program is not right for them right now. And they won’t want to get a handful of emails about a program they’ve already decided not to do this year.

Usually, the choice is to:

A. Get a bunch of emails that are no longer relevant or
B: Opt out

But when people opt out, they lose out on all the valuable articles and blog posts we’ll send after the launch is over.

So we’re providing a third option which is to opt out of the launch list, but stay on our regular email list so they can continue to get valuable articles and videos from us.

We hope you join us for our launch and take a front seat as we do our best to inspire you and deliver the best content we can to your inbox.

Let us know what you think in the comment box below.

March 5, 2015 by Sharla Jacobs

Transition into a Heartselling Conversation (without being salesy)

Has this ever happened to you?

You’re at a live event and you’re hoping you’ll meet someone who would be a good client.

You strike up a conversation and it becomes obvious to you this person might be a good match for the work you do. And you want to gracefully transition from just a social conversation into a Heartselling™ conversation, without seeming intrusive or pushy…

So how do you make this transition without it feeling awkward?

It might go something like this: you’ve just met Jane at a live event and you’re having a friendly conversation during one of the breaks. She’s tells you a little about herself, including how she knows the host and what she does for a living. You’re both feeling pretty connected with each other. You acknowledge her and you see her brighten even more.

She asks you what you do and you share your What Do You Do Statement.

Then, you position yourself as an expert, while sharing your humanity vulnerably. If you’d like support with positioning yourself, see our last two blog posts entitled: Why Clients Cancel (and What To Do About It) and How to Position Yourself (If You Don’t Feel Successful Yet)…

When you have a hot what do you do statement and position yourself well, they will want to know more about your services (if they have the problem you solve).

If they ask you more about what you do, we recommend that you resist the temptation to tell them about your process or your title. Instead, you can share your story about why you’re so passionate about this work.

Share your story in a way that both positions you and lets them know that you understand their pain because you’ve lived through the worst of it and transformed your pain into an amazing life.

This is where the magic transition phase comes in:

If they are still leaning in, you can ask:

Do you have anyone in your life who struggles with _______(problem) and might want _________ (solution)?

This gives them the opportunity to say, “Yes, I have this problem.” Or, “I don’t have this problem, but I know someone who does.” This is so essential, because if they have the problem you solve, it can feel very vulnerable to admit it. This question gives them plenty of space to choose to trust you (or to wait until later to give you their trust).

Either way, you can congratulate yourself, because you have successfully transitioned from a social conversation to a Heartselling Conversation, without being pushy or sales-y.

We share more at the Client Attraction Summit about how to continue the conversation without ending up in the “sales box.”

In the meantime, we’d love to hear what you think about this...

Let us know what you think in the comment box below.

February 11, 2015 by Jesse Koren

How to Position Yourself as an Expert without Being Arrogant

When you were growing up, did you receive any of these messages?
Don’t be arrogant.

Be humble.

Be modest.
Don’t say anything that will make someone else feel bad about themselves.

Don’t get a big head.
Let go of your ego.
Don’t brag about yourself.
Don’t take yourself so seriously.

I heard these messages a lot. In fact, so many times that I started to believe that being modest (and hiding my greatness) is what actually made me a good person. I was an AWESOME soccer player, but when people asked if I was good at soccer I’d say, “I’m okay.”

I spent many years dimming down my greatness and playing modest.

And it worked. Nobody could say I was arrogant!

But when I first started my coaching business, my "be modest, hide my greatness, don’t take myself too seriously" gig didn’t work so well.

I couldn’t get even one paying private client. I couldn’t even almost get a client. Why? Nobody was taking me seriously as a life coach because I wasn’t taking myself seriously.

And so, after a year of trying, I gave up.

The bummer was that I was just missing one skill...

Had I mastered this skill, my potential clients would have taken me seriously and I would have had a full thriving business.

What's that one skill?

It's the skill of Positioning yourself. In our Client Attraction Mastery Program, we call “Positioning” the 6th Element.

Like it or not, every time you meet someone new, they are judging you.

Are you a potential mentor? A potential friend? A potential client? A potential date? 🙂

You may feel that you are subject to the whim of their judgments, but you actually co-create their judgments.

If in the first couple of minutes of the conversation, you say something impressive about yourself, your potential client will look up to you and respect you.

If you don’t share anything impressive about yourself or even share something unimpressive about yourself, they will not view you as a potential mentor, no matter how great you actually are.

Now this sharing something impressive about yourself crap may bring up a lot of your old conditioning...

Be modest. Be humble. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Don’t say anything great about yourself and risk making your potential client feel bad about herself, right?

Wrong.

If you are trying to help someone get to the top of a mountain, would you rather get underneath them and push them up? Or stand above them and pull them up?

It’s a LOT easier to stand above them and pull them up to your level.

When you share your impressiveness and then--- wait for it--- acknowledge them for their greatness, your acknowledgment goes in much deeper because they are being acknowledged by someone they have classified as impressive. You become the best kind of potential mentor. A great person who is committed to helping your potential clients see themselves as great.

If on the other hand, in the first few minutes of the conversation you withhold your impressiveness and even share things that "de-position" you or have you look bad in their eyes, they will not see you as a potential mentor and you’ll have to exert a LOT more work to get them as a client and you'll almost certainly fail.
Does this mean you have to hide all of your insecurities?
NO!!!!

Your insecurities make you human. They make you likable. They make you approachable.
In order to position yourself without sounding arrogant, you share your Expertise AND your Humanity.

But the time to share your humanity is AFTER you’ve positioned yourself in a way that makes your potential client say “WOW!”

Here’s a short positioning template:
Even though I ______________(share something impressive about yourself) I still ____________(share a vulnerable insecurity you have.)

For example:
"Even though Sharla and I have led about 200 events and have taught over 25,000 people how to attract more clients, I still get nervous before I first walk on stage at one of our events."

You may be wondering what to say about yourself that would position yourself as an expert.

Next week, we’ll share with you 3 ways you can position yourself (information that we have never shared before except in our Client Attraction Mastery Program).

In the meantime, leave us a comment and let us know how you feel about Positioning.
And please share this article if you think it would support a friend or colleague who is looking to attract more clients.

Let us know what you think!

December 23, 2014 by Jesse Koren

How to Make the Internal Shifts Necessary to Achieve Your Vision

We hope you've enjoyed this mini-course on how to make sure 2015 is the best year yet.

We want to end this series with some serious inspiration. This will be especially powerful for you if you're feeling stuck in your business or your life.

Jacob and Zach meet Santa on the train to Christmas Town

Here is a story from my own life on the external shifts I made to achieve my 2003 Vision to have a full coaching practice...and how you can do the same:

It was February of 2003...I (Jesse) was stuck in a dead end job I hated. I knew that I was supposed to help LOTS of people (just as an acorn is meant to become an oak tree).

I just didn't know HOW to do it. In fact, I had tried to get coaching clients for an entire year, but I couldn't get one private client to pay me a dime. And that's why I was stuck at this dead end job.
Eating a lot of cake and cookies and pizza to try to stuff down this gnawing emptiness.

Until I had an awakening. It came in the unlikeliest of places... from my girlfriend (now wife) Sharla. I had watched Sharla struggle to get clients, and wasn't surprised because I knew how hard it was.

But then she hired a business coach. Within three months, she filled her practice to the brim with clients. My awakening came when I realized there was nothing wrong with me... I just never learned the skill of attracting clients.

In that moment, I went from feeling sorry for myself and jealous of Sharla's success to... competitive! I told myself, "If Sharla can be successful, I can too." Three months later, I got five new clients.

How did I go from seriously depressed to five coaching clients and on fire?

In order to go from zero to 5 new clients in my first month of business, I changed four things:

1) I Became a Student of How to Attract Clients.

I realized that I was not the first person in the world who had ever struggled to get clients, so I started to look for a mentor. I discovered that I could do it gracefully and with heart (which was SO different than what my mind told me about sales and marketing).

I watched Sharla and how she attracted clients with ease. I modeled the questions she was asking potential clients. And I breathed into her confidence. And I invested in an expensive business training program. I wasn't used to paying thousands of dollars for a seminar, but I knew that I wasn't going to get results until I learned how to become a master of attracting clients.

2) I Created a Physical Reminder to Keep Me Motivated.

This is a little strange, but I hung 15 postcards with pictures of animals and people all over my office. The postcards told a secret story of who I had to become and what I wanted to accomplish in one month. I looked at the postcards constantly and smiled to myself as I envisioned telling my boss that I was going to quit. I didn't tell anyone what the postcards meant to me. It was my little secret that kept me inspired and excited.

3) I Let My Dead-End Job Fuel My Hunger to Be Free.

Instead of continuing to get drained by my dead-end job, I let my pain and emptiness inspire me to get out...F-A-S-T. I breathed in to my pain and allowed my pain to make me bigger, stronger, and a better coach. I got HUNGRY for change.

4) I Offered a Free Coaching Session to Nearly Everyone I Talked To.

Armed with my business training and my newfound passion, I was public about my enthusiasm. In one month I did at least 10 free sessions. Not everyone wanted to continue working with me, but five did. (We now know that Free Consultations are much more effective than free sessions, but we'll save this for another post.)

I gave notice in August of 2003. Several months later, Sharla and I joined forces and attracted 16 new clients in one month. That's when we knew that we had mastered this thing we now call Heartselling™

That was over 10 years ago. Since then we've taught our Heartselling**™ System to over 25,000 people.

I hope you're inspired by this story. But inspiration, by itself is not enough. Inspiration fades. Commitment stays. I invite you to take this a step further than inspiration and actually write up a story about all the amazing things that are going to happen to you in 2015.

Yes, that's right, write about your success before it happens. Because your mind hates change, even positive change. By writing the story of your future success, you are preparing your mind for the change that is coming next year.

Here's to an epic 2015!

Let us know what you think!