[youtube width=”600″ height=”352″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7k76o6_2qY[/youtube]

Here we are, almost at the start of a brand-new year! I had such a great year in 2011 and I hope you did too. I’m also really excited for the new year and to share with you the one thing I have been doing every year in my business since I started. I believe it’s because of this one thing that my income has always exceeded my previous year’s income. It’s very simple to do an and should only take you an hour two and with the weekend coming up, you’ll have plenty of time to do this assignment.

This is about projecting what you would like to have happen in the next year but we’re going stretch further than just making New Year’s resolutions or stating income goals. The best way to stretch so much bigger than you normally would it to create a 3-year vision for your life. Why a 3-year vision? Because a year plan makes us really self-conscious with worry that we won’t have enough time to make things happen.

Imagine that it’s December 31, 2014—three years from now.  You’re sitting down and you’re looking over the past three years. Begin a journal entry that says, “I am so happy and grateful now that over the past three years I have accomplished…” I want you to really map out what you would like to see your life be like exactly three years from today. Three years allows you to be a little less inhibited and more realistic (but still with a bit of a stretch…) Instead of thinking, “Oh, can I really get this done, “ when you have a period of three years, you actually let your mind open up to what might be possible if you have the time, the focus and the concentration to get these things done.

Your Video Assignment

Take out your journal or a piece of paper. You can journal in categories but include what you want to have happen over the next three years in your business, finances, personal life, relationships, family, spirituality, fun, health, fitness. Remember, this isn’t about goals because goals are more like “should have’s”. Write in the present tense what it’s like to live this vision. What does it look like, taste like, feel like? How do you feel inside? What are your surroundings? Where do you live? Who do you spend your time with? What do you do in your business? What do you no longer do in your business? How much money are you making?

All that good stuff—be sure to write it in the present tense. For example, “It’s so amazing to see what has happened in the last three years since I saw Fabienne’s video about creating my 3-year vision. I am now living in A,” or “My business is now like this,” or “I now have x clients,” all of that good stuff! Fill it in with imagery, lots of details and when you read it, it should start getting you a bit excited.  (If it doesn’t get your heart beating a little faster or make you a little nervous then you might not be stretching big enough.)

Don’t worry about the how! Just start writing. The key is to be in that feeling place and include as many details as possible. Then you’re going to take action on it in the coming year. The interesting thing is that when I do this exercise, I usually reach my vision within 1 ½ to 2 years—sometimes even faster! Pretty cool, right?

Lastly, share your vision! Share what you’ve written with your spouse, partner, team, and family. This is how you’re going to reach different levels of your business, different levels of your income and deep personal satisfaction in your personal life.

This is going to be the best year yet—for you, for me, for everybody—especially if you do this assignment. Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you all the very best in 2012.

“If you wish to be wealthy, then act to create real value.” — Ralph Marston, www.greatday.com

An aspect of setting yourself apart from competitors is the value that you add to your services, without wanting anything in return. Competition within one’s industry can sometimes be fierce. Once you’ve determined what you offer that your competitors don’t, it’s time to start adding value to your clients and create a relationship they’ll be crazy not to continue (and tell others about). And this doesn’t have to drain your resources.

What is a “client extra?” It’s something you offer, at no additional cost that is of great value to the recipient. Often a client extra is something low cost or no cost to you that doesn’t take much time to give away, but can really appeal to the client. People like to receive extra stuff. They feel special, they feel that you care and they tell others about it.

In the beginning of my coaching practice, I used to offer free Monday Open Office Hours (MOOH) to clients on Mondays, unlimited free attendance to as many live events I’m hosting as they like, occasional free editing of their documents, free handouts and templates and scripts and unlimited e-mail support in between calls. Clients tell me they really like the extra attention and resources, and none of these cost me anything extra.

What this could mean for your business: open office hours each Friday to answer any questions at no additional cost, a hot lunch in your office’s waiting room, taped recordings of your sessions so the client can review them over and over again, free articles, free attendance to your workshops, quarterly brainstorming groups, etc.

The key is to offer what someone really needs, and for this, you have to place yourself in the shoes of your ideal client or actually ask your ideal client what they would like to receive as a client extra.

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

What is it that you would want to receive as an extra if you were in their place? What is one element that you could offer free of charge that would help solve a client’s problem more quickly or help them achieve their goal in record time? What could you offer as an extra that would make them remember you and talk to others about you?

Make a list of them all, however far-fetched the idea, and then add it to your services. Put it in your marketing materials (along with the benefits of such client extras) and see what happens. A buzz about your services is  likely to be created and people will start talking about you and start signing up with you as clients in greater numbers.

Write a list of 10 free (or close to free) added-value offers you can start providing to clients.
Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

This time each year, I am reminded of my many blessings and wonderful memories of past holidays. I am grateful for everything in the life I have created for myself with Derek, our family and our business. And I want to give back – give back to the community, give back to entrepreneurs.

During my Mindset Retreat this past September, many attendees worked hard to identify their Big Why – the ultimate purpose of their work.  It was heart-warming to see clients work through their inner gunk, take their vision and turn it into an action plan. I was moved as they revealed their stories, dreams and their Big Why.

Then something happened that I just didn’t expect: One of our private clients, Diane Conklin, was telling her story – and some folks wanted to donate money to her cause. What happened next moved everyone in the room… Everybody wanted to contribute. It was amazing to see so many people rushing to the stage to donate on the spot to support her. Over $1,300 was raised in a matter of very special moments.

It was so inspiring – right then and there I decided Client Attraction would also donate – we matched every penny.

We wanted to update you and let you know where we donated over $2,600 for a worthy cause. It’s helping other women around the world realize their dreams and create their own businesses in order to make lives full of their own blessings. We realized we could support women entrepreneurs around the world– many of them – through these two programs:

Leveraging the Internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. We have donated to several female enterprises all over the world.

Women for Women International has given hope to more than 299,000 women survivors of war and conflict and helped them move toward economic self-sufficiency with our year-long program of direct aid, rights education, job skills training, and small business development. We donated a significant financial contribution to this amazing organization to help so many women around the world.

I hope during this time of year you’ll consider making a donation to your favorite charity or organization – it makes such a BIG difference.

[youtube width=”600″ height=”352″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keb66IWWpKM[/youtube]

It’s the end of 2011 and the holiday season is here! Whether you celebrate Christmas or not during this time of year, there is something universal we all share. No matter what religion or belief system you have, a feeling of gratitude is something we all know.

The more that you are grateful for something or someone, the more you will attract of that thing or that someone, the people, into your life. Like the Law of Circulation, the more you put out there, the more you get.

During this holiday season, it’s important to be grateful for what you have. Start by making a list of a hundred things, people and events that you experienced this year that you are grateful for. The key is I want you to think about every client that you had this year, every experience that you had, everything that you’re extremely proud about having accomplished, and write it down.

Be in that place of gratitude and be in that place of thankfulness – because most people look at the 2% that’s not going well as opposed to the 98% that went really well during the year.

When you make out that list, I really want you to be in that feeling of, “Oh my gosh, I would like to attract more and more of this.” You might think that this is not very much about client attraction and is more abut the Law of Attraction, but it actually is very “Client Attraction-y”. That’s a new term, by the way, because when you are clear about some of the things that you really enjoyed and are grateful for, you can then put those in your goals. The key is to get really clear on what it is that you really enjoyed getting.

By the way, I’m grateful for you. You will be on my list this year when I do this assignment this weekend.

Your Video Assignment

Write down a list of at least 100 things, people, events, experiences that you are grateful for having attracted and then to go back along that list and circle the things that you would like to attract more of.

To keep track of what days are meant for what in your calendar, you need to figure out how much business development time you’ll need, how many client days you’ll need and how many “off” days you’ll need, including vacation time. I recommend buying a laminated year-at-a-glance calendar and designating each day’s “purpose” with a colored sticker (mine are blue for client days, red for business development days and green for free-days, vacations and weekends) similar to the Excel spreadsheet I created for the “Be sure to take time off” section. Build these in to your schedule at the beginning of the year and you’ll never feel like you don’t have enough time off or time for marketing. Client example: A client of mine, a real estate broker, decided to take this even one step further. Because much of her marketing depends on several mailings to specific buildings she covers in her territory, she wanted to keep track of them on this yearly at-a-glance wall calendar. On it, she designated a system for seeing what mailings would go to which buildings on what weeks. So it looked like this:

• Mailing 1 would go to Buildings A, B and C on the first of every month.
• Mailing 1 would then go to Buildings D, E and F on the second week of every month (and so on for the rest of the month).

Each week of the month, she now has a system for sending a mailing, staggered so that she doesn’t get overwhelmed, but that will also keep her on track. Then Mailing 2 goes out to the first set of buildings on the first week of the month, and so on. That way, each month, each building receives a systematic mailing, that’s 12 mailings per year. Best of all, she doesn’t even do the mailings anymore. Her assistant does it for her. Your Client Attraction Assignment: Get yourself a wall calendar that is erasable.  I also use the color coded removable round stickers. Then spend some time putting the colored stickers on the days that correspond to the sticker. You’ll find that you have a bird’s eye view of your entire year and now, you just need to follow the simple system you’ve set up. So easy!

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

The only way to make sure that you always have a full practice is to always market. And the best way to do that is to make all the pieces of your marketing pie run on a system, like a well-oiled machine that doesn’t need you to be there the whole time, just once in a while to make sure everything’s going smoothly.
As clients get to know me in our one-on-one private coaching, they tend to see how fanatical I can be about systems. I’ve created systems for EVERYTHING, probably because I’m not a very disciplined person by nature. (And I know I’m not the only one.)

So to counteract that (and because I need to consistently have high-paying clients) I make sure that everything I do runs like clockwork.

Here’s how I do it and how I’ve taught countless clients how to do it too.

Let’s go back to the example of my Marketing Pie:

• Breakfast networking group (WEEKLY MEETING, paid for once a year and booked in my calendar for the entire year)
• Associations (MONTHLY MEETING, paid for once a year and booked in my calendar for the entire year)
• Free teleclasses on how to attract clients, MONTHLY
• My own seminars (BIMONTHLY, paid for and booked at the beginning of the year)
•  E-zine (BIWEEKLY, goes out every other week, without exception—my assistant makes sure that it does)
• Articles for association newsletters (MONTHLY, schedule of article and deadlines are set by the association)
• Speaking for associations/organizations/conferences (OFTEN WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY, I have a list of speaking opportunities that I’m constantly following up on to get booked regularly)
• Strategic alliances (OFTEN WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY, I have a list of strategic alliances that I’m constantly following up on to do things with regularly)

Do you see a trend? Everything I do in terms of Client Attraction, every single piece of my own Marketing Pie, is set up to work automatically and systematically. I set these things up ahead of time and then all I have to do is show up. I don’t ever have to worry about what I have to do next. It’s already in my calendar. And because of all the Prioritized Daily Task Lists, the Daily Breakout Schedule, the Low-Hanging Fruit list, etc. I end up doing things daily to make sure these systems stay on track.

This is the one thing that I have rarely seen in any book or course that teaches you how to get clients, yet I think it’s one of the most crucial. If you don’t set things up to be systematic, then you won’t stay on track. And if you don’t stay on track, you won’t market consistently. And if you don’t market consistently, then you won’t take action and get results consistently. And that means that you’re going to have a much harder time keeping your practice consistently full, UNLESS you set things up to work on their own, with a little tweak from you here and there.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Set up systems for everything that is marketing and Client Attraction. Figure out what you will do daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly so that you too can go from being undisciplined with not enough clients, to disciplined with a full practice.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

If you’re having trouble getting clients, it could be because your business has a split personality. When I was first starting out, I met a lot of business owners who, when asked what they do,  would reply, “I’m a holistic nutritionist…and I do reiki…and I teach yoga…” and the list would go on. I’ve also met so many coaches who would describe themselves as a sales coach but would also add in that they do relationship coaching and career coaching, etc.

They were offering too many things. You see, the more things you focus on in your business, the harder it is to grow. Why? Because if you are not able to be 100% clear about your offerings, then your prospects will be confused (and they won’t buy.) Split personalities in business simply don’t work. Instead, I want you to be known for ONE thing and ONE thing only.

Now, you certainly can use the Umbrella Concept in your business. This is where you can have different, related offerings but they all fit nicely under one big umbrella. Let’s take my business as an example. I teach small business owners how to get more clients but I also teach systems, leverage, pricing programs and packages, organizational infrastructure, mindset, universal principles, and spiritual marketing, etc. This is different than having a split personality because everything fits neatly under the umbrella of Client Attraction. All of these things help you grow your business, make more money, while working less. See the difference?

Think about your business. Do you offer lots of different things? If so, is it messy and confusing or does everything fit under one umbrella? When your services can be captured under one umbrella, people get it.

Your Video Assignment

Answer this question: What are you known for?  I want you to get really clear on the answer to that. Keep in mind the cream rises to the top. You want to be known for one thing in order to stand out in your marketplace and really become an industry leader—that’s what I want for you.

There’s s standard marketing term called the USP, Unique Selling Proposition, that’s going to be very important in helping you (and prospective clients) figure out why they should work with you as opposed to your competitor down the street. Use this along with your Credibility Factors to close clients.

Let’s face it, as human beings we are all unique and different. As professionals (especially self-employed!) we all have something that sets us apart from everyone else, including our colleagues and competitors. We may have a different idea of service, a product that has more benefits, a specialty or niche that we know better than anyone else.

Whatever sets you and your business apart from others is crucial for you to identify and communicate is your Unique Selling Proposition. Why? Imagine one of your potential clients looking through the phone book and seeing 65 listings and ads for your category. How would you stand out? What would make them call YOU as opposed to the next listing? (And no, we’re not talking about you naming your business “AAA consulting” so that you come up as the first listing!) Be able to clearly communicate what your USP is whenever speaking to a potential client, referral partner or even a current client.

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Your Unique Selling Propositions answer these questions:

• Of all the people in my field, what do I do that others do not?
• What features of my practice set me apart from others?
• What benefits can I promise that others do not?
• Why should a prospective client work with ME as opposed to
  someone else?

Grab a pad of paper and take some time to think about what your Unique Selling Proposition is – what you offer as opposed to what your competitors or colleagues offer and write this down. We’ll use this later on in the system to help you go out there and educate your environment on what makes you unique in your field. Clients will pay attention to this.

Extra credit assignment: Sometimes it actually helps to write down the 10 things that make you different from your colleagues and give it to potential clients as a Client Attraction tool, or existing clients as a referral tool that will educate them on as to how you are different from others (especially if you’re starting out. This also boosts your own self-confidence if you need it).

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

Speaking of going away… I know, you’re probably thinking, “What do you mean, schedule time off? I thought we were just getting started here?” But the thing is, it’s important to also schedule time off so that you can really focus on work while you’re at work. (How many burned-out entrepreneurs have YOU met? Yeah, me too, and they’re not that “Client Attractive.”)

Why does scheduling time off belong in your business? Because when your schedule allows you to feel rested, have plenty of time off and feel all-round good, you have more energy to devote to attracting new clients. Potential clients don’t want to hire overworked, cranky and unhappy service providers.

Figure out how many hours you want to work per week and per month. When you’re self-employed, you can make whatever schedule you’d like and then educate your environment (clients, etc.) about it. I was recently interviewed me about my schedule, after hearing that I work what seemed so little to them while still being highly successful. Here’s what I told them at the time (now, I work even less): I work with clients only 12 days a month. Yes, only 12 days a month. That’s 4 days per week (taking every Friday off) and just the first 3 weeks of the month, leaving each 4th week of the month completely blank (by the way, that’s more than 12 weeks of vacation a year, not counting the months that have 5 weeks each.)

Those days off can either be your marketing OR vacation days. I recommend using them as your marketing days until you have a full practice, and then taking half of them as downtime days when you no longer need to work so hard to get clients.

On my days off I either go to the beach, write my own e-mail newsletter, or write my book (as I’m currently doing). I tell my clients that those are my writing days and that I’m not available for consultations. They respect that and it gives me time either to work on my book or market my practice. Or else it allows me just to enjoy life knowing that I’m not making any less money by living the kind of life I want.

Your Client Attraction assignment:

How can YOU structure your clients so that you have some time to keep your sanity? What days will you consider off-limits to your clients? Put together a full year’s schedule around this using an Excel chart.

Now, no one can enforce this but you, so be careful not to get sloppy around those boundaries. If you don’t actually follow these boundaries, you’ll find yourself exhausted and that’s not going to help you get clients quickly.

Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

[youtube width=”600″ height=”352″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0dw2GwsqSk[/youtube]

Failure is GOOD. I mean that. Of course, I don’t wish it upon you every day but in healthy, small doses failure is the best thing for your business. And here’s why. If everything went well all the time, you would never have the opportunity to improve. The goal is for you to continually advance in your business because the better you get at what you do, the more people will be attracted to you, and the more they will pay you and the more your business will grow. That’s what we’re looking for for you—growth in your business. And one of the best ways to grow is to fail.

Speaking personally, I’ve made so many mistakes in my business and have experienced failures (both big and small) so many times. But here’s what you must remember—they only stay failures if you don’t learn from them. The growth happens when you learn from your mistakes. If you just sit there and wallow in your failures and not do anything about them, you simply cannot make your business better.

One of the things I teach my clients is a concept that I call Groundhog Day.  Remember the movie with Bill Murray? In it, Bill’s character has to re-live the same day over and over again. Toward the end of the movie, by knowing all that went wrong previously and learning from his mistakes, he is able to perfect all that he has to do to win over his love interest.

Look what has happened in the Mastermind program we offer. The first year, things were good but I made a lot of mistakes. The second year, things improved because I learned from those mistakes. Now years later, the reason our clients get so many amazing results from being part of our Mastermind is because we have perfected the system, through failure after failure.

Your Video Assignment

I want you to apply the Groundhog Day concept to all that you do in your business. After every thing you do in your business, whether it’s an event, a video, signing up a new client—I want you to write down the answers to the following three questions:

1. What went well? What about this experience really worked?

2. What didn’t go well? What about this experience didn’t work well at all?

3. Knowing what you know now, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

When you can document and learn from each experience, then you can create a system so that you never have to repeat that failure again but instead continually improve.  Here’s to your success!

This is just one of the many best practices we dive deep into with the students of The Client Attraction Business School, the premier training school for growth-minded entrepreneurs looking to quickly attract more clients and make more money. If you’re interested in finding out more, visit www.ClientAttractionBusinessSchool.com for more details. To speak to an enrollment advisor, send us an email at info@clientattraction.com.