How to Be Fearless and Step into Your Leadership Role

Sep 02, 2019

Do you want to create your ideal business on your terms? Have you stepped into your leadership role? Are you in charge of your business or are you still being reactive in your business?

I want to empower you to grow the business of your dreams and not the business that just comes to you, but to intentionally create a business where you become an expert in your field. You want your ideal clients to come to you because you become the go-to for that specific area. 

I’m working with my dream clients. These are clients I visualized and knew that I could do an incredible job for them. I felt they would be the ideal client on my client roster. The next thing I know is that they are coming to me. I give them my rate based on my expertise and they sign without any negotiation.

That’s what happens when you build a business intentionally and become an expert in your field.

Intuition is so important in running your business, especially at the beginning stages. You can  recognize that there are signs for you if you’re open to receiving them. If you pay attention to the feelings you have, directions you’re pulled in, or gut instincts on certain things, and you realize this is telling you something about you and your business and your clients, then intuition can be an extremely powerful tool for you as you grow and scale your profitable agency. 

Step Into Your Role As An Expert

Clients don’t always know what they need.

They call you and they say what they think they need and a lot of times you respond and say, "Sounds great, let me get you a proposal for that." 

But what I would challenge you to do is step into your leadership role as an expert. Become the authority and a guide for them on these sales calls. The discovery call process is when you should already be establishing your expertise. 

Instead of feeling like you have to say yes to everything they're asking for, really think it through.

You don’t give them a strategy that they can run and execute on their own. But give them enough guidance so they can see that they can trust you. You can show them you know your stuff and that you’re looking out for them. 

Ditch the Reactive Mode

Clients don't always know what's best. Reactive mode is taking work that comes your way. It’s believing that every client who comes knocking on your door has the opportunity to work with you. But this isn't true. 

Not everybody gets to work with you. 

Just because you provide a service and they're interested in your service, you're still in charge. 

There are huge red flags that come up in sales calls where you can say to yourself, "You know what? "Kinda don't really wanna take this work on. "I can tell this guy's gonna be a nightmare. "I don't really think I want this work." 

A lot of new starting agency owners think they have to get any clients in order to have a business. They think that if someone is willing to pay them for the service they provide then they should take on that client.

I challenge you to be more strategic and more intentional with how you’re growing your business. You don’t have to react to every lead that comes your way. A friend may call you and ask you to help someone they know, but you don’t have to feel obligated.

If you take on every lead you get, you end up building a reactive business. 

Choose Where To Take Your Business

Everything you do in your business becomes stepping stones to bigger and better opportunities. 

Go down the paths that you want more of and want to learn more about. This is how you’ll naturally  gain expertise, contacts and industry know-how in certain industries.

If a client lead comes your way and their industry doesn’t interest you and you don’t want to do work in their industry long term, then don’t go down that road. Take a stand for yourself and your business right away. 

Take a stand so you’re not going down these paths that you don't ultimately want to grow and scale your business in. 

You can be intentional and narrow your focus on your niche and your service offering. 

Develop Expertise In Your Niche

You may think that the more services you provide to more types of clients, that more opportunities will come your way.

But successful profitable agency owners know and what you need to do is to develop a deep expertise in your niche that you want to be known for. 

Then your dream clients will seek you out. They will pay you a premium for your services and the work comes to you. It’s easier to sell what you know how to do.

And I'm not saying one niche like, “I'm a nail polish PR person” or “I do children's educational products.” 

We do baby and kids, beauty and cosmetics, and health and wellness. We also have said our niche is ‘lifestyle’ in the past which was kind of a catch-all category for things that interested me. Now we've refined it down a bit to health and wellness. 

And we have attracted billion-dollar brands in those industries because they come to us for what we are known for. 

Related Post: Learn How To Make More Money By Doing Less

Calculate Your Value

You can put your rate out there that is a calculation of the value you provide to the client. 

Not an hourly calculation, but a value-based calculation. When you do this, you will attract premium clients, higher-caliber clients. 

When you're a generalist, nobody looks at you as the must-have authority in what you are providing. So think about that as you're building your business.

Think about when you take those opportunities that come your way because it's a friend's cousin or because somebody emailed you and they're looking for PR and you provide PR services. Don’t always think it’s a match. 

In your leadership role you can feel confident saying no to opportunities that are not the right fit for you. 

Trust your instincts and trust your gut on what you want in your business because when you say no to things that aren't the right fit, you're keeping space and energy for your ideal client. 

You don’t have to tie yourself up with small clients, discount your services, or turn around and say yes to every client that knocks on your door.

If you say yes and are doing all the things for all the clients, like influencer marketing, email marketing, copywriting, web design, etc, you will never get in a flow state.

Get Into The Flow State

A student in the Agency Accelerator Fast Trak said that in the beginning of our working together that the flow state seemed like an impossible goal.

She said it seemed really hard to get there and she didn't quite understand why she needed to get there and what that would look like. 

At the beginning of our coaching, her clients were starting at different times and they all wanted different things and they were all in different industries. 

But after some coaching she said that now she understands the flow state of narrowing down what clients you’re working for, and narrowing down the services you provide, and having the processes for how you run you business. She is now in the flow state.

She is now proactively building her business that she wants because they are flowing with their existing clients.

That’s how you can build your business. It starts with being intentional with who you work with, what areas you want to focus on in terms of service offering and niches, and what types of clients you want to work with. It’s being really intentional and being your own advocate on your discovery calls. 

It’s not reactive where you think you have to please this person on the other end of the phone. Your prospective client may need to hear that what they’re looking for may not be the right thing for them.

You can recommend to prospective clients what you feel they need and what the right approach would be. 

Know that as you build your business you are in the driver’s seat. You can be intentional with how you grow your business and who you end up working with.

Guided by Instinct

When I was an attorney, I found a fragrance when I was on my bar trip in Europe. I loved it and wanted more. Even though I found it in Europe, this company was based in California.

But they had no presence here, no one had ever heard of them, and they had no retail stores. 

Because I loved their brand I wanted to help this company reach more people, I had a huge pull to this company and I followed it. I felt I could get their product into stores and also tell magazines about them. 

I reached out to the owner and offered my help for free. And she accepted. I got her one mention in a weekly magazine and it had a huge impact on her business. It woke me up to the fact that I was in the wrong profession. I was getting a ton of money working as a litigator. I worked hard to get where I was but I was unhappy.

I loved working with that fragrance company so much and helping her business grow in California, that I quit being a lawyer and decided to start my own PR agency. Now I run an agency that supports billion-dollar brands. 

That was my intuition that pulled me to help her company. 

I still love what I’m doing almost 14 years later.

One of the things I want you to think about is trusting that intuition for yourself and seeing where you're pulled. 

Related Post: Learn How To Make More Money By Doing Less

Step Into Your Greatness

You may struggle with your niche and who you want to serve and how you’re going to serve them. One way to choose your niche is to pay attention to those feelings you have about clients that you love working with and industries you really enjoy,

 Also pay attention to the things you do that is a drag and feels tedious and you can't stand.

Why would you build a business around a service that you don't even enjoy doing or an industry you don't like supporting. 

My challenge for you is to step into your leadership role as the expert that you are and overcome imposter syndrome if you feel that. Imposter syndrome makes you think no one would want to work with you.

I was an attorney and I thought why would anybody hire an attorney with no training to run an agency? Well they did because I believed in myself. A huge piece of my success was that I believed in myself and I still do.

I believe in you too and I want you to step into your greatness. Step into your leadership role as an expert. 

If you feel imposter syndrome, I want you to reframe it and tell yourself that you’re feeling this way now because you’re stepping into a role that's bigger and you’re serving in a bigger and better way. 

Anytime you grow there's resistance. It's your self trying to protect yourself because you're doing something new. Maybe you’re outside of your comfort zone but you're growing and you should feel great about doing that and stepping into a bigger role. 

Be a Leader

I challenge you be a leader. Be in the leadership role of your agency. Be a leader in your industry. You're driving this ship. Build a business that you love because you deserve it.

 

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