I have long thought that being yourself and speaking exactly what you’re thinking about your business, your clients, your prospects and your industry is the number one way to market your business. After muzzling myself for the first 20 years of my corporate career, I have let loose with my thoughts in my own business. The results have been interesting. Sometimes rewarding, sometimes painful but in the end, it has been the single most effective way to attract clients. And not just any clients, the RIGHT clients. Let me explain.

Speaking Your Mind Lets You Be Different

When survival in life meant being part of the majority, even from your earliest childhood memory, why would any rational human want to set themselves apart by being different? Unfortunately, business is the only part of life where it’s actually good to be different than every other person who can provide the same service as you. Case in point: I don’t know how many people have told me “I always read your blogs because of your outrageous titles”. What they don’t know is that I actually think this way. These titles go through my head most of the day, they’re not designed to incite, insult or disturb. It’s just me and that seems to be noticeable because very few people think like me or are willing to tell people that they think this way. Remember this: in business, different is GOOD.

Speaking Your Mind Lets You Be Authentic

Authenticity is a buzz word nowadays. It’s because in today’s world of make-believe, it’s actually really hard to find people who tell the whole truth about anything. Trust is established between humans when vulnerability takes place. And vulnerability is virtually impossible in a perfectionist society. Of course, perfectionism on the other hand is linked to clinical depression and anxiety disorders but who’s counting? The confusing thing is that while on the one hand, being Authentic is now revered and noticed in our society, on the other hand, it’s at war with the insecurity and perfectionism that your clients, networks and prospects surround you with. So, yes, authentic is rare and rare is different, which in business is GOOD.

Speaking Your Mind Helps Others

Every time I get a hate letter about one of my blogs, I get a new prospect emailing me to meet because they loved what I was saying on the same blog. Every time I have a person who tells me it was unfair of me to say such things on my articles or that it wasn’t very respectful to so-and-so group, I have people stop me when they meet me and say that that same article really helped them confront a certain part of themselves they’d been refusing to look at. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I’m generally wandering about the world, in my own corner of the universe, doing the best that I know how to do. Each day, I get up, I help my clients, my friends and family and write this thing called a blog to talk about what little I know and what I think about the little that I know. I don’t have any grand ambitions of changing the world or causing world peace but once in a while I stop to reflect that speaking my mind is exactly why I was put on this earth. Some people can hear the same message but only understand it when they hear it from a different teacher. That’s why you HAVE to speak in your own voice and be open with your thoughts because we were all brought here to serve someone in our very specific way.

Speaking Your Mind Clarifies

As the ideal client attraction tool, there is no test, no intake assessment, no interview and no conversation more powerful than having people call you because they’re attracted to the way you think. And unfortunately there’s no better way to let people hear the way you speak than your blogs, videos or posts. If your marketing content is about what you think and what you know, then how can the right people not show up? You’d have to be dumb, deaf and blind not to know how direct and straightforward a person I am once you’ve even done the slightest Google search on my stuff online. That’s what Speaking Your Mind in your marketing does for your business. It clarifies who is and who isn’t the right client for you. Not just to you but most importantly to the client!

Speaking Your Mind Heals You

Recently a post I wrote triggered a dear friend and client and we came close to calling quits on our relationship. I was devastated, blamed myself and felt deeply ashamed. I questioned whether I should’ve written what I did, I questioned why I took on a risky subject when I could’ve written about the latest marketing tech news or some other innocuous topic. Incidentally the same article got me 2 new prospects from Linkedin. What it really did for me though was to cause me to understand the thing that I need to heal in ME, and that is the ability to Speak My Mind even if it puts me at risk of rejection. If I was truly comfortable being authentic and people told me that I was wrong, why would it even bother me if I were at peace with myself? Clearly I have some work to do here. So everyday I push myself out of my own comfort zone and heal another piece of the wound that triggers me every time I trigger rejection in others. It’s not easy but it’s oh-so-why I was born to this life and so were you.
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