Walking Your Talk

What does walking your talk actually mean? Simply put it means “You do what you say”.

When you are in business if you say you can do something, but don’t actually do it, it makes you look unprofessional and why would people want to do business with you?

A Couple of Examples

You want to hire a social media company to help you gain a great social media presence. You are paying for this service. You notice when you search for the social media company they do not have a social media presence, at all, or if they have one it’s very limited.

This may make you think about how they can help you, if they have not done the actual work for themselves to be at the top of Google search results.

It could be that they are likening themselves to a hairdresser for instance, because they often say they don’t have time to take care of their own hair. But, I feel this is an excuse for being complacent, and in some ways over confident the clients will come.

I Walk My Talk

My two businesses are successful and continue to thrive because I do walk my talk. I don’t claim to know everything and I can’t help everyone, but I can refer people to each other. I am a connector. Everything I do I have done for myself first, the hard way with no budget to spend. I have achieved everything I share with others hence I am engaged to speak at conferences on many topics. My clients engage me to assist them because I have “been there and done that”.

Why Bother?

I have had this conversation with many people and it would seem the challenge for some new business owners is the rush to get clients and to be paid. If they took the time to do for themselves what they promise they can do for you, they would not actively be working with clients and getting paid. So the result is they have no concrete proof they can assist you because they have not actually done for themselves what they want to do for you. I would assume that 99% of people want to be at lease searchable on line with some results, if not the top of Google.

This poses the challenge, though, that many new small business owners are not gaining clients, however hard they try and this is for many reasons:

  • They don’t see the point of networking which would ultimately get them more exposure and they would become memorable. Consistent networking means you get noticed and you are the person people remember when they are ready to make a purchase.
  • They don’t work on building a credible brand.  If they have a brand they can’t explain it easily and this confuses would be clients.
  • They see no reason to have an online presence, so when people search for their type of business they are not being found.
  • They don’t want to write content and be seen as an expert in their field, mainly because they don’t have time whilst looking for clients.
  • They cut corners in many ways in their race to gain clients and fail to succeed because of lack of trust and credibility.
  • They think everyone is their target market and this is not possible for so many reasons.

They underestimate the complexity of business!

In my best selling book, Business Networking in a Nutshell, Secrets From The Social Sweetheart, I talk about this very subject. Being professional from day one includes doing for yourself what you want to charge others to do for them. If you have not actually written a book, or had one published, how on earth can you sell your services and do it for clients? Obviously you can go on a course to find out the “how” but in my experience the businesses who are succeeding, have actually done what they claim they can do for you.

There are approximately 1.14 million small businesses in Canada alone, as of December 2015. In order to compete with that number you have to do something to stand out, you have to be different, unique and of course do all of the things I shared in my list.

As always I am here for you, I love reading your emails and answering your questions. I am happy to present at your event/conference so here is my contact

http://www.motivationalsteps.com/contact/booking.jsf