Thrive Academy

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The First Steps To Getting Clients

One of the biggest questions people ask us is, “I’m just getting started. What should I do first to get clients?”  People may tell you to do one of the following:
  • Create a website,
  • Try to get speaking gigs,
  • Create a business card,
  • Brand yourself or
  • Start building your email list, for example.
It can be totally overwhelming! theFirstStepstoGettingClientsWhile all of these things are important to consider, these aren’t the first steps to getting clients. And you can spin your wheels for months (or even years) working on the list above and get little or no clients from all of your hard work. We want to save you from the agony of working on the things that don’t really make much of a difference (contrary to popular belief) until you really understand what works to get clients fast. (BTW, the list above is an important list to consider…just wait to work on this stuff until you’re sure you have a sustainable business and you can count on yourself to attract the right clients.) We’ve made millions in our business over the last 10 years and we know what it takes to get clients. But 12 years ago, I thought that getting clients for my life coaching “business” meant hanging flyers all over town and waiting for my phone to ring. This strategy worked.  My phone did ring.  The only problem was that on the other end of the line was my mom… suggesting I get a J-O-B. Since I couldn’t even get one private client to pay me money, I took her advice. As I sunk into my depressing, full-time J-O-B, I found myself getting jealous when Sharla’s business started to thrive.  But another part of me was fascinated. Before my eyes, I saw a VERY simple, 3-step system to getting clients. You may be RELIEVED to know that you can successfully work this 3-step system, WITHOUT the following 4 things that most business coaches will tell you are necessary. You don’t need:  

  • A fancy business card.

    In a Heartselling™ Conversation, it is MUCH more important to their card (so you can check in with them) than it is to give them yours.  After working with thousands of clients and making over 10 Million Dollars in our business, we STILL don’t have business cards.  If you don’t have business cards yet, and feel insecure about this, you can simply say, “I am in the process of creating a new card, but in the meantime I would love to get your card so I can check back in with you about ____________(something from your conversation that is check-in worthy).”

  • A fancy website.

    Unless you are driving people to look at your website, it will get lost in cyberspace.  The best thing websites do, when you’re just getting started, is to give you a tiny bit of credibility.  But you can get credibility in other ways (that don’t cost anything) when you master the art of positioning yourself (you’ll discover more on how to position yourself in next week’s blog and in our new Client Attraction Mastery Home-Study Course that we’ll be unveiling soon). If you don’t have a website yet, “I am in the process of creating a new website, but in the meantime I would be happy to answer any questions you have about how I might be able to help you.”

  • A fancy flyer or brochure.

    Brochures aren’t a bad thing.  But don’t expect your brochure to do anything big for your business.

  • Fancy branding.

    When you are first starting out, you have 2 main jobs: 1. Get clients 2. Discover what makes your services unique.

You will actually discover your unique brand BY working with clients, rather than the other way around. Going through a branding process can speed up this discovery, but we would hate for you to brand yourself, only to discover that your business is different than what you thought it would be. 

After investing over $200,000 in total to re-brand our business, we can say that to go through a process like this when you’re first getting started might be premature.

A lot of people wait to get started until they have these 4 fancy things in place, not realizing whilst these 4 things are great, they are not necessary to attract clients. The best way to discover what to write on your business card or brochure is through having conversations with potential clients and noticing what inspires you and has your potential clients say “YES!” to you.  We call these types of conversations, “Heartselling™ Conversations.” This leads us to our simple 3-Step System:
  1. Have a Heartselling™ Conversation with a potential client and discover how you can help them
  2. Offer your Potential Client a Free Consultation
  3. At the end of the Free Consultation, invite them to sign up for a package of your services.
When I saw how easy this could be, I set a goal to get 10 clients in one month so I could quit my J-O-B. I gave about 10 Free Consultations that month, and got 5 new paying clients.  I was so fired up and confident that I couldn’t wait another day to give notice. I quit my J-O-B that month.  Shortly after that, I got 16 clients in one month.  That was when I knew I had mastered Heartselling™. That was about 11 years ago.  I haven’t looked back since! Let us know what you got from this article by leaving a comment below. And share with friends if you found this valuable.

"Want help with your free consultation?"

One of the first hurdles healers, coaches, and holistic practitioners face when they start doing free consultations is knowing what to do when someone whom you know in your bones you can help says, "I can't afford it." If you've ever heard this then we invite you to join us for a free Masterclass, "Transform 'I can't afford it' Into a Deep 'Yes'". Click here to register and you'll find out how to gracefully answer this question and much more.

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3 Keys to Accomplishing Your Goals

Today, we’re going to share a concept that our Personal Development mentors will disagree with.  Yet, if you follow our advice, you’ll find yourself not only feeling much better about yourself, but you’ll also be accomplishing your goals much more quickly.

I (Jesse) remember the day I became a Yellow Belt in Tae Kwon Do.  I was 10 years old. Kiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! I cracked that board in half.  I felt invincible.Accomplishing Your Goals Minutes later, I was changing back into my regular clothes and two younger kids came up to me: “You are SO strong!!! How did you get to be so strong???”  Insteadof taking in their compliments I said, “You think I’m strong now; wait until I’m 11.” This was my first memory of the belief that has run my life: “Nothing I do is EVER enough.” On one hand, I’m grateful for this belief.  It’s one of the reasons we’ve been so successful. Because we are constantly “aiming for the stars and hitting the moon.” For example, we’ve led nearly 200 events and at least 50 of these events have produced $100,000 or more in sales (in one weekend).  Most people would be THRILLED with these stats. But when this belief is running me, I won’t celebrate until we finally have a Million-Dollar Event. The self-development industry has fed this belief that “Nothing I do is EVER enough.” Many of my mentors told me: “You’re not thinking BIG enough!” And, “You’re playing too small!” So every day, I put way more on my To Do List than I could possibly accomplish. And despite accomplishing more in my average day than most people accomplish in a week, I’ve ended many days with an unsatisfied sigh… Often, I started the following day feeling overwhelmed by the insurmountable challenges I’ve established for myself. This reminds me of when we used to play the Darien Blue Devils, one of the best soccer teams in the country.  When we took the field, we KNEW we had no chance.  We were playing an UNWINNABLE GAME. Yet we took the field anyway.  And we played our little hearts out.  And we got creamed, 11-0. Luckily, we only played them once per year.  Imagine how you would feel if you did this to yourself every day! Most Coaches and Holistic Practitioners do one of two things: 1) They set themselves up with UNWINNABLE GAMES and expect themselves to do way more than they could possibly do. OR 2) They don’t set goals at all and let life take them by storm. Either approach is devastating because it completely knocks the wind out of you and makes you feel like you’re losingand will NEVER catch up.  ENOUGH!! Fortunately, there is an alternative approach.  This paradigm shifting approach will lead you quickly and joyfully to your success in three Easy and LIBERATING steps. It’s time to start playing a different type of game… a WINNABLE GAME!

Here are the 3 Keys to Accomplishing Your Goals:

1.Create a Clear, Winnable Game Choose three specific things you want to accomplish every day. They don’t need to be big, but they do need to be clear and specific. You need to be able to evaluate whether you’ve succeeded or failed at accomplishing them at the end of your day. And, if you’re having a Heartselling™ Conversation with a potential client, it’s a great idea to call it a WIN because you HAD the conversation, NOT only when you got a new client.  (Developing this habit alone will help you start attracting the right clients.)  
“Three Accomplishments each day make your Negative Gremlins Go Away.” -Jesse Koren
2.Be Willing to Lower Your Standards I hope I don’t get banned by the personal development gurus for saying this: If you’re continually losing your games, then LOWER YOUR STANDARDS.  The experience and feeling of losing will soon become a habit after a while.  The same goes for winning. The main way to develop the habit of winning is to… WIN!!! Winning will create it’s own momentum and soon you will be accomplishing things you’ve never imagined.  
“Choose battles big enough to matter and small enough to win.” –Jonathan Kozol
3.Celebrate Small Accomplishments like you just won an Olympic Gold Medal At our Six Figure Speaker event this past weekend, one of our members, Scott Sargeant, shared his amazing story. In 1999, Scott was ranked Top 10 in the US for the Hammer Throw and was on track to make it into the 2000 Olympics.  Just months before the Olympics, he fell down a flight of concrete stairs and was instantly paralyzed from the neck down.  His doctors said he would never walk again.  He literally couldn’t move a finger.  But, using the visualization techniques he used to become an elite athlete, he shocked his doctors and walked out of the hospital 6 weeks later.  You can learn more about Scott at www.formerquad.com Compared to this victory he told us nothing he accomplishes feels big enough or worthy enough of celebration.  He keeps setting himself up with UNWINNABLE games and feeling like he is constantly losing. I invited him to celebrate even the most ridiculously small victories in his life.  I challenged him to walk back to his chair, and if he made it successfully to his chair without tripping, to celebrate his success like he had just won a Gold Medal. He walked back to his chair (and did not trip). When he got there, he let out a loud “Whoop!”  And the entire group of Six Figure Speakers stood up and cheered and celebrated. It was both totally ridiculous and totally freeing at the same time.  The freedom comes when you stop expecting yourself to be superhuman all the time and you celebrate your small victories. Now it’s your turn to use these three keys for accomplishing your goals and set yourself up for success. Will you try it? Leave a comment and tell us what you think below.

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How to Make Nervousness Go Away

Do you ever wish your nervousness would just go away???

Lots of Coaches and Holistic Practitioners beat themselves up for feeling nervous.   They don’t want anyone to see how nervous they actually feel, because that would make them look like an amateur.

They don’t look for speaking engagements and they don’t talk to people about their business. They hide.   

Or, if you do venture out of your safe home to promote your business, you tell yourself, “Calm down; take a deep breath; ground yourself…”

nervousness_1But the damn nervousness won’t go away. 

So you STUFF it down.

And wonder if they can tell that you’re nervous... 

They can.  They see right through your confident mask and become bored by who you are pretending to be. 

Fortunately, there is a way to handle your nervousness… 

A way that will make you both endearing and respectable to your potential clients.

Use our simple, 3-step system to get over your nervousness.

Step 1. Embrace your nervousness.


When you feel nervous, it means that what you are about to do is IMPORTANT enough for you to care deeply about it.

Being nervous is a GOOD thing!

This morning, we begin our second event of the Six-Figure Speaker Program. 

I feel excited and nervous.  You might be thinking, “After leading nearly 200 live events, haven’t you gotten rid of your nervousness?”

No!!!  I believe that the day I stop getting nervous before our events should be the day I quit (or at least get a really good massage, so I can reacquaint myself with my body and my emotions).  

Being nervous means I REALLY care how this event goes. 

And I’d better care…there are people flying from all over the country to attend who have collectively invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to be in the room.

But if that wasn’t enough pressure, there is my own internal pressure. 

I REALLY want this to be the best event of this kind that I have ever led. 

This is my “Olympics” and I want these four days to be the most powerful, life-changing four days they can possibly be. 

So know your nervousness means you care deeply about what you’re about to do and we recommend you embrace it.

Step 2: Allow your nervousness to make you BIGGER.

Most people stuff down their nervousness, which makes them feel smaller. 

Breathe into your nervousness and let the juicy sensations fill your body with life and expand your energy.

The bigger your energy is, the more people you can impact. 

Step 3. Share your nervousness.

Your nervousness is endearing.  Hiding your nervousness is robbing your people of you. 

Sharing your nervousness (along with your expertise) makes you lovable. 

At a recent Client Attraction Summit, I found feeling myself more nervous than usual. 
So I told the group I was feeling nervous. 

But here’s the key:
You don’t want to share your nervousness in a way that has people feel sorry for you. 
In this case, I didn’t want all the mothers in the room coming up on stage to give me a hug and tell me, “There, there, it will be okay.” 

So it’s important to share your nervousness in a way that still positions you as the expert. 

I said something like:
“Even though I’ve led this event more than 70 times, and COUNTLESS people have told me that this event has changed their life, I am still feeling nervous.” 

As soon as I said that, my nervousness stopped distracting me and my energy went to a whole new level. 

If you haven’t led your event 70 times and you don’t have countless success stories and testimonials, you can still use this “Even Though” Template to maintain a position of respect. 

For example, you could say:
“Even though what I am about to share with you are teachings that I have personally experienced and refined over the last 20 years, I still feel nervous about sharing them with you.”

The bottom line is that your nervousness, if harnessed powerfully, holds the key to you becoming an even more inspiring leader.

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What to do when you feel like collapsing

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Have you ever had one of those days where you just want to collapse? 

Where everything seems REALLY hard and REALLY big... And you feel really weak and small?

Where everything inside of you is screaming to just give up?  And you would do anything to release the pressure?

Sometimes people think that once you "make it," it's all roses and puppy dogs, LOL. 

But the truth is that no matter how successful any of us are, our lives are designed to give us all the challenges we need to grow.

Over the last 10 years, we've made millions of dollars and taught over 25,000 coaches and holistic practitioners how to get more clients.   We've had hundreds of JV partners, team members, and vendors.  And we also have two boys under 5.

LOTS of opportunities for breakdowns! LOL.

You better believe that there have been days where we just wanted to throw in the towel...When giving in to our desire to collapse seemed like sweet freedom... When every cell in our body CRAVED the release of all of the responsibility and pressure we felt.

In the early days of our business, when things became too intense, my (Jesse's) body would literally collapse.  My neck would lock up.  I wouldn't be able to move it for days.

It was terrifying.

But it was also freeing.  When my neck locked up, I gave myself permission to take the pressure off.  I didn't have to prove that I was "the man" anymore.

Yet I knew that there had to be another way to take the pressure off of myself.

So I attended a live event.  The speaker led me through a powerful breakthrough exercise and gave me a new name: "Uncollapsable."  This new name gave me a new window into my Spirit.  Since then, NOTHING has taken me out.  And, it has felt SO good to know that I am Uncollapsable.

But lately, I have discovered a new problem.  Our life has become SO good that I sometimes find myself terrified that I could F*#$ everything up and that we would lose everything.  Our home, our cars, our team, our gourmet lifestyle.  Gone.

Will Smith once told Oprah, in an interview that he is "just as financially nervous right now as he was 20 years ago." He shared that he has a "poor person's mentality" that he is trying to shake.

I get it.

This last week has been especially challenging for us. I wanted to collapse.  I wanted to not care.  I wanted to say,  "To HELL with everything." 

Fortunately, I had an insight.

What if, instead of collapsing,  I SURRENDERED my life to the Highest Good? One of Sharla's spiritual mentors, Cheri Huber says, "Worry is not preparation." So, instead of worrying, I breathed in the gratitude I have for the amazing life that Sharla and I have created.

And on my outbreath, I released our amazing life to the Highest Good.

Today, the challenges in our business are still here.  But I feel bigger than the challenges.  And I feel free.

I invite you to presence an area in your life where you feel a lot of pressure. (If you can't find one, it's time to play a BIGGER game!J)

Try this simple practice now. 

Breathe in Gratitude.  (For one thing that is amazing in your life.) Breathe out Surrender. (Surrender this one amazing thing to the Highest Good.) Breathe in gratitude.  Breathe out surrender.

Do this 10 times.  How do you feel now? Jesse PS. There is a real down-side to collapsing.  If your life was a movie, would you want to step into the hero's shoes who had just collapsed?  Would you want to pick up the pieces and deal with the mess?

Luckily, there is another way.  Breathe in gratitude.  Breathe out Surrender.  Surrender is so sweet.  And it allows you to be the man or woman you've always known you could be.

We'd love to read your comments below.

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What To Do When You're Going Through Hell in Your Business

What to do when you're going through Hell in your Business Have you ever noticed that when you’re preparing to take a big step in your business, “all Hell breaks loose (and it seems like the Universe just isn’t on your side)?” This has been our experience many times over the past 9-1/2 years. We know some mentors will tell you it can be all roses and buttercups (LOL), but the journey of growing your business isn’t always fun. Sometimes, it feels like a true test of your commitment (and can even feel like torture when you’re right in the middle of the test)! Fortunately, we’ve figured out how to get through to the other side without giving up. Today’s video is about what to do when you’re going through “Hell.” Watch the video now and leave a comment below. And if what you hear is helpful to you, share the love by sharing this video with a friend.PS. The Client Attraction Summit in May is almost SOLD OUT. Reserve your seat today.

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