Part #2: The Aligned Practical Steps I Took that Resulted in Signing Dream Clients Weekly

After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of our businesses with a single email your host Kathryn Thompson takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place. Be the sought after entrepreneur podcast is here to help you ditch that cookie cutter one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life. Welcome to be the sought after entrepreneur podcast. And here's your host, Kathryn Thompson.

Welcome back, super stoked that you're tuning in to this week's episode. And I cannot wait to dive into today's topic, because I'm going to be sharing with you over the next two episodes, the reasons why I believe I've been able to attract two to three, sometimes even four people into my calendar every single week to discuss working with me, which is absolutely insane if I'm being honest, and I absolutely am just sort of writing this beautiful wave because it's been so amazing. 

And there are some big shifts that I made in my business, in my online business specifically, as well as some practical steps I took, which I'm going to share on the next episode. But I wanted to devote this episode to really talking about the inner shifts that I made, that I know, have contributed to the results that I'm seeing in my business now. And if you are in a position in your business right now, where things feel really freaking hard, and you're constantly thinking to yourself, there's gotta be an easier way, then you're gonna want to keep listening, because last year in 2022, probably February or March, I remember thinking, There's got to be an easier way. Like, I don't want to spend 80% of my time marketing my business showing up on social creating content, thinking I have to write, you know, two minimum emails a week to my list. It's never how I have functioned in my life I've never functioned so calculated or methodically in my life, super spontaneous, I sort of just follow the flow of life. And I've always done that Intel, I entered the online world. And there was so much pressure for me to get this online business, right? One, because by the time I went all full time into it, I had sold my brick and mortar, and it was it. 

And the only other option I had was to go back to corporate, which if you've left corporate, you know, that's probably not where you want to go. And that just puts so much undue pressure on yourself. Because it's like, I can't go back to working in a nine to five, I've been out of the nine to five for I'd been out for about four years. And I couldn't imagine having to wake up at like seven and go to the office. I know, for all of you corporate employees, if you are listening to this, and you're like craving this entrepreneurialship journey, you're probably like, What do you mean? Like, that's what, you know, majority of the world does that go to a nine to five, but it's not for me in any way, shape, or form. And so I think I dreaded that. And I remember people telling me when I sold my brick and mortar, like, you're gonna have to get a job. Like that was kind of the thing people said, and I was like, There's no way I can get a job, like just any old job, like, there's just no way I need to be doing meaningful work. So I think I naturally put a ton of undue pressure on myself to get it right. Which is so weird, because, again, so much of my life up until that point, I never function that way, I never function with this idea of needing to get it right. And that there was some right way. I always just had these like ideas, and then I would follow them. 

And even my closest family and friends will say, you know, lots of the stuff will come out of left field, like where did that come from? I remember calling my parents in 2009, probably early June. And I'm like, I'm going to India. And I'm gonna go build houses with habitat. And my dad was like, What are you talking about? I'm like, Yeah, I'm going next month, I just put my application in. And it was just like out of left field. You know, I just got this idea that I wanted to go build houses in India. And I found habitat did this Global Village program I applied, I got accepted. And within a month period I was in in in India, and I had flown there by myself and landed by myself. And that's a story for a whole nother day. But I'll never forget walking out of that airport. One. I didn't have luggage, they lost my luggage. And the flight was excruciatingly long. We were delayed on the tarmac in Heathrow in London for like hours. And it was just, it was a really long flight to get to where I needed to go. And a long flight path. And I remember walking out of that airport, my Lululemon bag, like grasping like to my chest because as soon as I walked out, there was all of these Indian men swarming me to take their taxi. And I was advised by habitat like do not take an unregistered taxi. That was the one thing they said and they're like, just walk straight to the booth and I'm like trying to walk to this booth and I've got these men around me. And I remember actually naturally trying to back up to go back into the airport, because I was like, What have I done? 

Like I just need a moment to like regroup. I wasn't expecting this and I tried to backup and two men with machine guns just put their machine guns like in front of the door like you can't come back in, you've already gone out was a crazy experience. There's so many stories Isn't that but that was like, that's just one of the things that you know, would pop into my brain. I'd be like going to India. If you've heard my story about the Philippines, that's what I did with my master's research. I was sitting in my living room in on a weekend and I had my entire masters mapped out, it was approved, I had an advisor, I had already started doing the research with it. And I got this idea to do a National Geographic style thesis. I was a photographer, while I was playing and dabbling with photography. At that time, I was very, very amateur. And I was like, I'm gonna go do this. And I remember messaging the head of the department on like, a Sunday. And he was like, Yeah, sounds like a cool idea. But in his brain, he was kind of like, there's a lot to do with international research and you graduate in like, less than a year, like, is this what you want to do? And I was like, Yeah, I'm doing it. 

And I remember getting on that plane to the Philippines and not being approved to do research in the Philippines. They wouldn't approve me until I landed, met them. And even at every stage, like in order to get into the remote villages that I was going, I needed approval. And at every stage, there was an option or opportunity for them to say no and say, No, you can't be here. But I never once thought it wouldn't work. When I got on that plane to fly there in January of 2014. I never in a million years thought this wouldn't work. I just had this innate belief and feeling that it would and that is how I've guided and lived most of my life until I entered the online space. And it was like a light switch had gone off. That I forgot that, you know, I started to think with my brain and think with my head and and methodically calculate the steps I needed to take in order to be successful. I hired the mentors hired the coaches, I spent a lot of frickin time and money, investing in coaches and mentors to tell me what to do. And while I made money in the online space, while I made money, and sold things, it always felt really hard. It always felt like I was waiting for the next client to come or wondering where that next client would come from. And if I wanted to sell, I needed to push really hard, like I had to do these big launches and put a lot of like hype marketing behind it and be really excited and rah rah rah and like, buy my thing, buy my thing, and again was like, so counterintuitive to who I am and the energy of who I am. 

I've never had to really sell anything in my life. I felt like up until that point, you know, I just talked to people and had conversations, and I shared passionately about the things that I was passionate about, you know, when we own the wine business, I just shared passionately about it, I would talk about, you know, making my favorite pasta meal with my, this wine that we had, you know, I was just, it was just a conversation. And so much of the online space felt less of a conversation to me which what I started to realize was I started to sort of slip into what I call low level depression. I was depressed I really was because I wasn't in relation with other people. I wasn't having conversations the way I did in my brick and mortar, right? People would walk through the door every day, and I could have a conversation and really see people and talk to them. And I wasn't I wasn't having that in my business unless I was driving that I was pushing really hard to sell. 

And that resulted in this what I call low level depression, I was depressed. And it was also because I was spending most of my time trying to methodically figure out strategically figure out how to drive sales into my business and how to market and I was spending, like I said, 80% or more of my time in that area of my life, an area of my business. And that isn't my zone of genius. My zone of genius is being in relation with other people. It is having conversations, it is helping them strategize and figure out what they want to do in their business. It's about giving people permission to do it their way. And yet, none of what I was doing was my way. I was following what everybody else told me to do. And so this was one of the biggest shifts I had to make in my business.

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If I wanted one to continue doing what I was doing, because I couldn't do that anymore. I was like I said I was starting to get really depressed and not not feeling very great and not wanting to sort of know motivation. And again, because I wasn't in relation with other humans. I wasn't having conversations whether people bought from me or not, I just wasn't having those, you know, people would walk into my brick and mortar and not buy. But that human connection is is so important to me at least right now. 

And I wasn't I wasn't having that. And so I needed to make that shift, I needed to spend more of my time in my zone of genius. And I needed to spend more of my time having conversations and connecting with other humans, and coaching, ultimately, right, I needed to spend the time coaching my clients, which I was, but I needed some predictability in where clients would come from, and how they would come into my world. without me having to push and force and constantly be on and constantly be thinking about the next best piece of content that's going to move somebody down this customer buying journey, which I'm all about, but there, I think there's a way to do it. And I know there's a way to do it, because I'm doing it that you don't really have to do things you can you can focus your energy on what you're good at, and focus your energy on doing the work that you're here to do. 

And less energy on the marketing and sales aspect of it, which is what I hear from so many of you, you know, like you didn't get into business because you wanted to spend all of your time marketing and selling. And you didn't get into business so that you could think about, you know how many emails you had to send your list in order to generate more sales. Like, that's not why you got into business you got into business, because you were likely passionate about the thing that you're doing. And so the biggest inner shift that I had to make was really tune off and tune in. And I know that can sound really simplistic like yeah, Catherine, I get it, like I gotta tune off and not look at other people. 

But if I'm being honest with you, so many of us and I was one of them. You know, we heard that message, we got it, we understood it. But we never really allowed that to be what we did. And I literally went on and muted pretty much everybody in the online coaching space business coaching space, marketing space, just absolutely unmuted them. And so that that wasn't the thing that perpetuated on my feed on my social media feed, because I did need to go on to Instagram, where I predominantly hang out, have conversations in the DMS and to post when I posted and I didn't want to be distracted. So I really wanted to remove every ounce of distraction out of my life that was going to pull me off of my vision and my mission and my core. And muting people was one of them. 

But I also needed to shut out coaches or mentors that told me that that I had to do things this way. And I have really amazing mentors and coaches. And they're all well to do like well meaning, and they're not here to, you know, force me to do things that I don't want to do. But I really needed to just tune out for a moment and just think about and feel into what I would want to do how I would want to say it, I predominantly sell using and I'm going to share this on the next episode where I share the practical steps. But the way in which I'm driving, you know, people into my world is through an online, on demand masterclass. And I had to really tune out the way in which master classes are supposed to be written and the strategy behind them because I don't follow the rules. And I do it in a very different way than what's taught.

 And I had to do it that way. Because it's the way that I freaking live. And the big piece of that is, is that at the end, you know, there's this whole taboo thing of like, Oh, don't share the price, you'll scare people off. And I'm of a totally different school of thought I'm one of the most transparent human beings you'll ever met meet. I remember when I was younger, my mom would always laugh because we were when we were growing up, I'd go out on the weekends with friends or something. And she'd be like, where did you go? And who are you with? And I tell her like the entire night in story form, you know, and I wouldn't leave anything out and I probably blurt out shit that you wouldn't maybe want to tell your parents, but I just told them because I just didn't care. It was such an open book. 

Whereas my brother, my oldest brother would, you know, would be like, where are you going out with who people you know, those would be his responses. And I'd be just this like, open book developer, like telling the whole thing and not holding anything back and have been like that my whole life. I'm just such an open book and so frickin transparent. I'm like, just ask me anything. I'll tell you the truth. Like, I have nothing to hide, you know. And so when it comes to sharing the price, I was like, I can't not share the price. It feels like there's an elephant in the room. 

This elusive thing like, let's just call a kettle black. You know, like, here's the price, here's what I have to offer. And you either want it or you don't. And if you don't want it, I'm not here to like twist your arm or convince you like, that's the last thing I want to do. And so I had to really tune that off because so many people say don't share the price. You're going to turn people off create the demand and value. So they'll pay anything and I'm like, well, that's not the type of buyer I even want in my world. I want an impact. or buyer, I want someone who is informed in their decision making, and how can you be informed in your decision making, if you're always just being given breadcrumbs to then do the next thing. 

Next thing, next thing, right? Just doesn't, it just didn't vibe with me. And so I was like, Screw it, I'm not doing it. So I really had to tune off and tune in and just go like, who am I? And how would I want to sell this? And how would I want to be sold to? And can I match and mirror that to my audience? And can I show up in that way? And the biggest reason is, is because that's what I asked people to do. That's what I'm here to do is to help people carve their own path, be their own human, do it in their own frickin way. And how can I preach that message? If I'm not actually following that, you know, there's something about integrity, they're like, if I'm not actually living and breathing that, then how can I say that's the way to do it? You know what I mean? So there was also that it's like getting really back to the core of what, who I am, and

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there was something about getting back to the core of who I am, and really just following what my intuition was saying, instead of thinking my way through it of like, is this the right way? Because I also think, and this is just me, but maybe you as well is that when we're so stuck up in that thinking brain of what is right and what is wrong. We put this chokehold, literal chokehold on our creative process, because it's like, we can't, we're rigid in this box of like, I can't move, somebody told me to do it this way. And I've got to do it this way. Because this is the right way, the right way really is is like tuning into who you are, and what you want to say and how you want to say it. And when we don't do that, I truly believe that our message doesn't land, like a lightning bolt in the hearts of our people, because there's something off energetically about it. They're static in your frequency, as I call it, right, you're doing things maybe going through the motions, but it's not in full resonance of who you are. And so that's the importance of tuning off. And tuning in is one of the biggest things, biggest shifts I made. 

The other big shift I made was, I just stopped doubting my ability to support and help people. Because I know what I have to offer and to bring to this world is absolutely freaking amazing. And I don't think I had the conviction for what I was necessarily selling prior to, because it was such an extension of who I was. So when we're in service based business, and we're delivering something through us, there's something so connected to us. And if we doubt our worth in any way, which most of us do, from time to time, or all the time, we doubt our worth, or we connect a lot of our worth to what we produce and how we produce it and the value that we bring to the world. And I really needed to separate that because in my brick and mortar, I was selling a product, it was not an extension of me, it was very separate from me. So I never dealt with that in in my brick and mortar right? 

It was like I'm making wine for people. And here's the wine, the only thing that I ever question more than anything was, hopefully they like it. And hopefully we didn't screw it up or something didn't screw up in the process of it when you're producing food like that, or an edible or something that you drink right is you want it not to obviously go bad so so that was the that was the extent of it. I never felt like my worth was attached to the wine, it was a very separate tangible entity from me, but work through me my coaching, my mentorship, my strategic thinking, my brain my intuitive guidance, which comes through and so much of my coaching me being able to just see and feel things I had a client recently there was like you've been so bang on with with your intuition and what you see and feel. 

And that's because I've allowed myself to really trust it, and not hold back when I when things are coming through. And I just need to say it. But my work was an is almost like going through me right? So that that worth that validation that needed to be healed or, you know, work through that component of it. But I really needed to also create and see my business and what I offered like a product that wasn't an extension of me so that I could physically detach from it, that like this is the thing I'm offering but it has nothing to do with my own inner worth and my value to the world. And that was another really big internal shift that allowed me to have the conviction, like literal frickin conviction for what I offer because what I know what I offer is absolutely amazing. And I know the way that I see business and the way that I see the online space and the way that I can be in relation with clients. And things come through, I was working with another client, and we were reading through her stuff. And she works with intuition as well, but never really talked about it. Because the people she was talking to she was like, I don't know if they're gonna get it, or if they think I'll be too woowoo. 

But literally, that word leapt out on the page, like, literally, when I was reading it, it was like it leapt out on the page on me was like, you have to follow that path. And so she just sent out a poll to her Facebook community, and they all wanted to learn about the intuition. And she was like, I'm so surprised. It's like left field. And I'm like, it's so interesting, because that was the word that leapt out. And I was like, you've got to follow this path, I don't know where it's going to lead you. But that's the path you need to follow. And the community basically just reassured that in every way, shape, or form that that was one of the areas to lean on, in our messaging and content. But that's the beauty of the containers that I created. And I knew that that was priceless in so many ways. And the work that I bring to this world is phenomenal. And I needed to really ground myself and be convicted in what I sold and believe in it. Like really actually believe that. Number one, everything in anything is going to work, like go back to where I was, before I entered the online space of like I just trusted I just, you know, I want to start a brick and mortar, it's going to work like there was no doubt, you know, a lot of people said, oh, brick and mortars are hard to run, yada, yada yada, all the feedback you get might not work that at all, like my brain didn't even go there. When I went to open the brick and mortar, you know, like, I just knew that we would sell things, I just, I just knew there was no doubt or hesitation there. 

When I went to the Philippines, I just knew it was going to work out even though I didn't have the approvals. And there was things, hoops to jump through and all of that, like I just my brain never went there. My brain went there in my online business, it went to what if this doesn't work, which was such a weird place for me to be for a while, you know, it was such like two years, probably it was such a weird place for me to be that I was always questioning will this work. And I needed to flip that and just believe that it would work. And that was a huge shift, right? Because I just was like it's going to work, just stop thinking about it. And just show up and do what you do. And do it in a way that to you. And stop listening to everybody else of what's going to work, which is the other big piece of this shift, right is that you can have an idea. And you can want to go and make it work and you run it by a coach or a mentor or Guru. 

And they're like, ooh, that's not going to work. Yeah, that doesn't really work in the online space. And boom, your ideas completely shot down. And I had to stop listening to that, what worked for them, or what works for others. Because if you're a thought leader, a change maker, an innovator in any way, shape or form, you're going to be walking a path that other people haven't and it might not make sense to them. I have another client right now who is creating one of the most phenomenal frickin quizzes I've ever seen. And it's going to just blow up because it's it's such a unique quiz. And the way in which I was sharing about how I created my quiz, I was like, yeah, he wants, you know, for Max kind of avatars or archetypes, and her quizzes, doesn't have that. And she said to me, Well, mine doesn't have that, should I go back to doing the four? And I said, Well, just let me look at your quiz and share with me what you want to do. And I was like, don't listen to me. And those are the coaching spaces. And mentorships you want to be in? You want to be in one where the coach is like, yeah, don't that's a phenomenal idea. You need to run with it super innovative. No one's doing it. Let's just see what happens. Because it gives people the space to create, be themselves be innovative for thinker, independent thinker, right? They come up with an idea, like who am I to say that it's not going to work? Who am I to say that that's not the right way. And that's the other big shift, like I needed to make is that I needed to stop listening to what people said was right or wrong. 

And I also needed to stop coaching in that perspective, and showing up in that perceptive perspective as a coach, because not that I did I always encourage people to do it their way. But I would share you know, this is what's working for me kind of thing. And now it's more of like, how can I get you to flourish and your innovative ideas, which is also a beautiful evolution in my coaching journey, which as coaches or mentors, we're always evolving. We're always changing, you know, the way we do things and whatnot, which is which is a beautiful thing for us. So that was the other big internal shift I had to make was, it's part of the tuning off and tuning in, but it was also you know, not listening to people saying things wouldn't work because your idea, your vision the way you want to do Things might not make sense to other people. And that can slow you down big time. And that leads me to spell bound, which is the new opportunity that you can work with me with was an idea I had two years ago, and then a year ago, and nobody was doing it. And so I didn't think it could work, nobody was doing it. So I thought, well, this isn't going to work. And so much of my ego every time I went to, like launch something like this, or do this was like, you need to add in like, all these course modules and step by steps and all these things. And I'm like, but I don't want people to follow my steps, I want them to create their own. So spellbound is a unique experience. It's an implementation hub, it's not a course not a program, it's not a mastermind, it's not me going,

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this is the step by step process I took, if you take it, you will be successful. This is create your own, like, this is about creating a business that feels really frickin good for you in a way that feels good for you, and innovating the industries that you're in. And so there is it isn't a course it isn't a program, it's implementation with a very clear path designed for each human. Does designed for each human that comes forth into spell bound. And my ego, like I said, ran rampant when I launched it, because it was like, You need to fill it with all this stuff. 

And I'm like, No, I don't need to do that. Like my intuition is like, no, there was nothing about it that I wanted to create all this curriculum was step by step, like my intuition was like screaming, please don't do that. And it's because nobody's done it. You know, there's nothing like this on the market. Nobody's done in every other program, or course or mentorship is the cookie cutter step by step. And if there are individualized process or steps, there, still course curriculum modules, all of those sorts of things that are walking people through stuff. And this was like, How can I create a blank canvas, there is a curriculum in there or modules, but it's literally, you know, helping them use their intuition to write really high converting content and copy. So it's a beautiful experience. And again, everyone was like, that's not scalable, that's not doable, that's not going to work, yada, yada, yada, all of the things you hear and I was like, Well, I just got to do it my own way, and create this thing in my own way. Because it might not make sense to everybody yet. But I have a vision, and I need to follow it. And if I don't follow it, then all I'm doing is shrinking within my brilliance. And that's what I don't want for you guys either, is to shrink in your brilliance. And so those have been the major inner shifts that I've had to make, number one tune often tune in, and just how do I want to run my business, what feels in alignment, regardless of what everybody else says, I really, really, really develop that inner frickin belief. And what I do by sort of separating my worth from the work that I produce. And three is like, really just having that vision and running with it, and not allowing people to squash it or squander it. And that might mean again, like tuning off or cutting off or, or whatever, or just not needing to explain or justify. So you have a vision and you want to bring it to life, go do that be the innovative, innovative in your industry, go be the change maker or the thought leader, the person that's carving their own path, we don't need more same same z's, we don't need more people doing the same thing. 

Talking about the same thing, like you have your unique perspective, you have your unique way of doing things, you have your unique way of looking at the world, let's bring that out. And that is one of the biggest reasons why a lot of the women joints fell down was because they said, You kept saying I'm gonna pull this out of you, I'm gonna pull the words the language the way you do things out of you. And in order to do that, that's in relation that is in co creation, which is what spellbound is all about. And so that was the beautiful feedback that I got when I launch it was like you're not telling me what to say and how to say it. You're helping me pull out my own words, my own language, my own way of being, which is what spellbound is really all about. And that to me is what I would love to see more in the industry is these unique perspectives, new ways of doing things, new ideas. I get so excited when people come with this brand new idea or innovative way of doing things. I'm like, yes, yes, let's run with this. So with that, I'm going to be sharing with you more of the practical steps that I took in order to put this all together but I do want to leave you with this is that I needed to make these inner shifts in order to be able to decipher what felt good for me practically. Right? Which I think is the thing we get backwards which tried to practically do the thing. We try to practically take action. And we're not in alignment internally. But when we can make those shifts internally, then the practical steps that we need to take just unfold for us, so be sure to tune into the show. Register subscribe so that you don't miss when this episode drops next week. Cheers