When you’re trying to figure out what to offer through your business, you can sometimes miss the obvious.
My client, Jo Bradshaw, and I are part-way through her session. We’re mining for her superpower: that sweet spot between what her ideal clients want and how she can package her passion to meet those needs.
I’d spotted on her blog that she’s amazing at creating one-of-a-kind drawings and other images. I share that I sense her ideal clients (who are entrepreneurs) would love having a bespoke visual to map out the process they use with people, so they don’t have to explain it a thousand times. Imagine a busy or not-particularly-artistic business owner who’d jump at the chance of having someone else bring their words and concepts to life.
Her clients could use these images in blog posts, as covers for their e-products, on their workshop handouts, and across their whole website. They’d build up a portfolio of unique marketing collateral that they wouldn’t – or couldn’t – create themselves.
Having waxed lyrical about how awesome this service would be, I check whether this is something Jo would actually enjoy offering. I’ve heard lots of people say things like, “I love cooking but it’d kill the joy if I had to cook for others”, so how would it be for her, to create bespoke images for clients?
She laughs. “Doing that all day? Oh well, THAT would be playtime!”
It becomes clear that the sheer joy she takes in creating these images is precisely what’s been stopping her from offering this service on full throttle. Because it feels so much like play, it has been virtually invisible to her when she was considering what would be her “work”.
Ringing any bells?
When I was involved with a volunteer group in Cambridge, there was an ongoing need for someone to stand up on stage and introduce our public events. I loved doing this but held back from repeatedly offering because I felt someone else should have a turn. Because it was such a treat for me, I assumed everyone else was eager and I’d be stealing their joy. The reality? The other group members dreaded having to do it; they begged me to keep taking on the front-of-room role. By indulging my playtime, I provided deep relief to them.
Your heaven is someone else’s hell
It’s likely there’s something that comes so naturally to you that you assume everyone can do it – and wants to do it. The truth is that others might actually hate it, or be terrible at it.
I’m Jo’s ideal client. Sourcing a suitable image for each blog post is a chore; when I find one, it’s rarely an exact fit, nor is it unique – and with the launch of this new website, it’s likely to be even harder to find photos that fit the colour scheme and style.
This is where the genius of Jo comes in. She’s created the gorgeous images you’ll see illustrating this post and if you want to go behind the scenes and see how she designed them, check out her joy-filled process here > > They were a treat for her to create and a treat for me to receive and use.
If you find something so fun you can’t consider it “work”, I have news for you:
It’s time to claim the easy
Your obvious is your genius. That thing you do so naturally and effortlessly is the perfect match for someone’s need. That’s what makes them your Tribe – in other words, your ideal client. You get to do what you love most and by doing that, you make their life easier, more joyful or less painful.
So, I’d love to hear from you. What is truly playtime for you? Does something come so easily to you that you’ve maybe avoided claiming it as your “work”? Have you found it hard to accept money for what you’d do for free?
We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below, let us know…
Did I mention I love to talk?
You can hear me speak at a few upcoming events – check them out here > > and hopefully see you at one of them.
News: The Getting Clients Starter Kit is now available. Three audio classes plus full transcriptions on the key topics of niching, pricing and what to actually say in consultations. Find out more and get your copy here > >
© Corrina Gordon-Barnes 2013
Corrina and Jo – that’s just awesome! Jo, your images are so beautiful, individual, light like little butterflies, they make the blog post so special. If you are able to adapt so well to the colour palettes + styles of other websites, too, your business will rock! Corrina, your new website is superb. And the images are the cream on the cake. This is truly inspiring. I was on a similar trip with my packages. Interviewing my clients, I learned that “small” offers make a huge difference to them, things I really like to do, like developing a questionnaire for job interviews. So instead of offering huge, long programme on hiring, I am working on nice little kits which is less overwhelming and more fun:
Clarity Kit (for entrepreneurs being unsure about if they should hire or not / if they want to be a boss or not)
Planning Kit (I talk people through the whole process, tell them what they need for each step and provide them with helpful forms/templates etc.)
Interviewing Kit (tailored questionnaire for your job interviews (eg how do I find out if a person is really committed, etc.) + guideline how to interview applicants professionally.
Jutta – Jo is definitely able to adapt to very different styles, as you’ll see from her portfolio here: http://www.minestronesoul.com/portfolio
Such skill, huh? – and such a precious resource to accompany entrepreneurs as they create blogs, products etc.
Hear hear to “nice little kits” – you’ve spotted the Getting Clients Starter Kit we just launched?
I’m having a hurray for easy work party right now!!! This is excellent.
Emma – There are a lot of people joining your party
This is a great post, Corrina and so delicately animated by your drawings, Jo. It is a challenging question though, ‘What is truly playtime for you?’ I’m not sure work has ever felt like play or life for that matter!! I’m wondering what that one thing might be or if there are several things – food for thought.
Leda – That’s sadly very normal, I think. Let’s imagine the whole rest of your working life gets to feel like play. And that your most joyful ways of working will serve your ideal clients most powerfully, giving them exactly what they’re looking for. Now there’s food for thought
Love the post ond your new website is really great. Would love to know who designed it as am looking to create my own website. Many thanks
Marie – Thanks so much. Design by Flourish – you can see the link to them right at the foot of this page. I first took their Branding Masterclass which helped me give them a clear brief.
Wow girls, this is a marriage made in heaven! What a stroke of genius!
I’ve often thought myself that I’d love to be able to illustrate my posts, and Jo your creations are wonderful. I’m off to explore your fig tree.
Linda x
Linda Anderson´s last [type] ..Money blocks and the games we play …
Linda – Yes, illustration is an amazing skill to have and one that I don’t possess, hence the wonderful jigsaw effect where her talents are the perfect match for my (and your?) needs
PS: So bowled over by the illustrations, I forgot about the content.
You are so right, Corrina, it’s very easy to undervalue or not even recognise that what we’re good at and what comes easily to us actually has any value at all.
Reminds me of the IT-whizz who was on some kind of weekly course and the tutor’s laptop kept freezing and needing sorting so the lesson could continue. She was always the first up to fix it, and after a few weeks started to wonder why no-one else was volunteering. Then she discovered that no-one else in the class knew how to do that – and that it would be a good way in to working with the kind of people she was passionate about helping.
The thing that comes easily and naturally to you is your genius and what you can expect to be well paid for. I love that idea!
Linda Anderson´s last [type] ..Money blocks and the games we play …
Great post, and as always perfectly true!
I am currently writing my latest mini-detox which I will be launching soon and should be stressed about, but I am having a blast writing it – I am actually guffawing out loud at my own copy, which is both cool and a little disconcerting. The trouble is that when something flows so easily, it is very hard to put a price on it. It is so much fun writing, I almost feel sinful pricing it at more than just pennies. Silly, of course, but hard to overcome all the same.
Clearly this is something I need to get over if I am going to earn enough to do another one in the summer!!
The new website is soooooo brilliantly you – or at least the ‘you’ that we see in your busienss (although I somehow feel you are pretty much the same in real life too!)
Great job,
claire
claire´s last [type] ..Starting running? Do this first.
Claire – This is certainly me in “real life” too
You raise such an important point. As a society, we’ve created this “pay as compensation” model so we’ve started thinking we should only get paid if we wouldn’t do something otherwise. I take a stand for the opposite way of thinking – that money should flow in response to what we would do for free. This will be one of the core themes in my next book…
I am slowly starting to get that concept! Looking forward to the next book!
claire´s last [type] ..Starting running? Do this first.
Hey lovelies
So beautiful to see such warm and genuine feedback. A real joy of a project to complete, and a sense of relief – having a wonderful guide like Corrina to help me lift that veil of invisibility and internal censorship from what’s under my nose comes highly recommended!
For me the litmus test is to ask myself whether a task or direction has a “I GET to do this” energy rather than “I’ve GOT to.”
Then of course, you have to give yourself full permission to indulge in that passion and receive an income from it. If it feels like ‘cheating’ to do it, then it’s probably close to your most playful in-flow self, huh?
x Jo
Jo Bradshaw´s last [type] ..In the studio: You Inspire Me blog illumination
Jo – Thank goodness for ALL of us that you’re not invisible
Thank you, thank you, for blessing this page and all of us with your talents.
Corrina, your website is gorgeous AND I really LOVE these illustrations by Jo – how beautiful.
So true, trawling through various stock photo websites is incredibly boring and invariably I can find something that is nearly right but not 100% right so I shall keep her details in mind for a next time.
To come back to the essence of your blog post though, I have 3 criteria when choosing a ‘supplier’ to work with and one of them is: is this person motivated and excited to do this piece of work for me (the other 2 are: will we get on and have they got the skills to do the job well). So the idea of someone ‘whistling as they work’ gets my money everytime!
x
Sarah – “whistling as they work” – love it. My main brief to a local cleaning agency was, “Please find us a cleaner who loves to clean.” They looked at me in surprise but they were successful and Jo (ah, coincidence!) is a complete delight and fills our home with that spirit of being in service, doing what comes naturally and joyfully to her.
Serendipity! Corrina you’ve given me a great idea for my business. If it flies I may owe commission!. And Jo gorgeous drawings. Cx
Caroline – Ooh, I’m intrigued! Look forward to hearing more…
Since I’ve decided to focus on intuitive work, I’ve done 99% of my readings for free and as I’m still learning, that’s okay with me. I’m learning where my passions lie…today, I was working on socialization skills with a shelter dog and thought, it would be amazing to do this full time. This is FUN and I’m actually pretty good at it! Wow…the thought of being paid to work with animals makes me smile big time.
Melle´s last [type] ..Love this story!
Melle – Congrats on knowing your passion and pursuing it. Sounds like interesting and valuable work.
As you move from offering for free to offering for a fee, you’ll probably find the new Getting Clients Starter Kit useful as there’s a whole class on pricing. For full details, click here: http://youinspireme.co.uk/support-and-resources/getting-clients-starter-kit/
So true…it is hard to feel you “deserve” your fee when you feel like it’s playing and not work. Although sometimes when it’s really challenging I do feel like I’ve earnt my fee!
Corinna – a second book? Wow, where do you find the time?
Must get me a copy of your first one, first!!!!
Claire´s last [type] ..How to make a busy life less stressful
Claire – From my point of view, you’re allowing your gifts to flow through you to them, they’re allowing money to flow through them to you, and so each is giving from their talents and receiving to their needs. “Deserving” doesn’t really come into it.
And yes you should definitely get the first book, I highly recommend it
http://youinspireme.co.uk/support-and-resources/passion-to-profit-book/
I changed the name of my To-Do list boards to ‘I am safe, happy & it’s easy & money is flowing in’ last year. There is so much ‘it’s reaaaaalllllllly hard’ content out there, that without even reading it, it was affecting my experience. The re-title balances that out.
For me, using my people and communication/coaching/counselling skills in the very practical context of helping people with their business money all made sense when I suddenly thought of it one day. I’ve had a few people say my true calling is being a coach, but it’s partly about what you identify with, and coaching to me is a skill. My identity is helping people help themselves out of practical very real life sticky places, where they feel stuck and it gets in the way. To me, it just feels like a chat with virtual cake.
Rosie Slosek @1ManBandAccts´s last [type] ..3 Reasons Tax Returns Belong With Cake
Feeling so inspired by this page and all the wonderful comments that I’ve actually got my act together and uploaded a video of me doing my ‘easy thing’ that you couldn’t stop me doing if you paid me.
If you have the time to watch, I hope you’ll find it helpful in those occasional moments of self-employed overwhelm
http://www.tapintoyoursuccess.co.uk/blog/how-to-tap-for-stress/#more-1014
Linda Anderson´s last [type] ..How to Tap for Stress
Wonderful, Linda!
I watched it right through and was happily tapping away. Loving seeing you in your element with all your loving, warm presence coming through.
Amazing just how many different ways of presenting information there are and how many different types of learners there are. Funnily, although I’m a visual person, when it’s something that involves a movement, I need to see it in real-life or video to get it. Playing follow-the-leader on your tapping video was very engaging
Feeling blissed out now! x
Jo Bradshaw´s last [type] ..In the studio: You Inspire Me blog illumination
Glad you found it helpful, Jo.
I’ve had inspiration for more posts since allowing myself to play with the ‘easy’ notion – will be in touch soon to talk about illustrations. I have all these pictures in my head and wonder what you will make of them
Thanks again for your support and encouragement.
L. x
Linda Anderson´s last [type] ..How to Tap for Stress
Linda – Fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing
Stress is unfortunately common on the path of self-employment so you are offering a true gift.
Corinna – oh my. Yes! Even a year down the track of starting out on my own, I’m only just now getting the reality of “I can choose to do what’s play for me.” Some days I have it more than others… and I think it’s interesting that even as grown people who have agency in our lives we can still tell ourselves the story that we need to be ‘not playing’ in order to earn money.
Jo – lovely to see you here, and your beautiful work… I feel a header-design request coming on
Will chat via email!
Tamara´s last [type] ..Keep your mind off your audience
Oh, goody Tamara! Having seen your gorgeous mood board, that WOULD be fun
Don’t you think it’s a beautiful irony how we break away from employment in order to achieve fulfilment and self-expression, and then too often we actually end up getting scared and falling back on that sense that we have to think, act and be ‘proper,’ and end up kind of half-heartedly mimicking the blue-chip, straightjacketed employee-self we’re trying to escape from.
Like a battery hen who is suddenly set free and doesn’t realise she can run around and fly!
Jo Bradshaw´s last [type] ..Don’t let me fry, superhero…
Was looking at your website Tamara, and there isn’t a way to contact you. Just checking it is meant to be a business site, not just a personal blog.
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