Copy of STP 63 Strategies to have Genuine Conversations with Your Ideal Clients
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[00:00:00] James Marland: Hello, this is James Marlind, your host of these scaling therapy practice. This is a podcast, of course, creation studio.com. This is the place where we empower mission-driven leaders and helpers to launch life-changing online courses. Today, we're going to talk about the seven key aspects of confidently launching your next product. If you're like me, you might've struggled with knowing. Imposter syndrome. Type issues like knowing why would people want to buy from you?
[00:00:39] James Marland: What do you actually have to offer? What do you do better than other people? What connects you to people?
[00:00:47] James Marland: And then the trap of comparison, comparing yourself to other people and other products that and saying, oh, I'm not like fam or I am so far behind. There's nothing I can do. There's nothing special about me that I can offer. I want to give you seven key aspects of being coming confident. About launching your next product.
[00:01:11] James Marland: And then you'll be able to gather, you'll be able to connect instantly with your, your fans, the people who want to connect with you. So the seven items, we'll just go right off the top. We'll talk about these from the, we'll talk about these seven items. These seven. Aspects. Number one is your values. Number two is knowing your strengths. Number three. Is knowing your unique ability.
[00:01:38] James Marland: Some people might call it a superpower. Number four is knowing your stories. What makes you, what has contributed to your experiences? Good and bad. Number five is your alignment. Are you walking in your values and. Taking action daily to do that. Number six is your destination. Have you mapped out where you actually want to go? Number seven is planning, planning to make sure you are headed in the right direction. We're going to take those one at a time. Strap in for the episode.
[00:02:13] James Marland: So, the first item is values. The key aspect of being confident is actually knowing what your values are, values either fundamental beliefs and principles, that guide how you behave. They shape our. The value shape our decisions. They define what we consider important in life. They serve as our north star, our compass, and they influence how we interact with others. And the world around us. There aren't many different types of values.
[00:02:41] James Marland: Uh there's there's actually, you could look up lists of values and there's compassion, kindness, respect, honesty, community. One of the. Think of a time when. You had to make a decision based on your values. I go back to When Lord of the rings. The fellowship of the ring is about 20 years old.
[00:03:03] James Marland: Now, can you believe that? And I always think of what are the characters in there that I think. I admire their values. And I see some of myself in them is the Samwise Gamgee character. The helper. Of Frodo and Frodo was going on a dangerous journey and he was going to cross a dangerous land. And there was a point in the movie, I think so in the books, but it's been a little bit longer since I've read the book.
[00:03:27] James Marland: There was a point in the movie where Frodo is leaving the group that took him. They're on the river and he's leaving the group and he's going to go do this journey all by himself.
[00:03:40] James Marland: And a photo is in the boat and he looks back at Sierra and he's like, Sam, I'm going to, I'm going to go do this all by myself. And you can't come with me. And, and see Sam says something like, I know you're going by yourself and I'm going with you. Something, something equally. Profound in Societe jumps in the water. And Sam doesn't know how to swim, but he is so committed to helping his friend. That he's gonna, he's gonna jump in deep. Because of his values and what is important to him.
[00:04:11] James Marland: And so knowing your values helps you jump in deep, like it's, it's knows. Knowing what you stand for helps you be, get confident. It helps you with decision-making. Where there's some ethical choices that have to be made. It helps within alignment because if you act within your values, it's much easier and quicker and faster. To get to where you're going, because you're not fighting against yourself or fighting against. Your core. Your core person. So it's key for somebody who's who wants confidence, who wants to get rid of imposter syndrome to know. What their values are. Identify what you stand for and then start using them to navigate. Your the challenging decisions.
[00:04:57] James Marland: And when you're creating a course, And or creating a product for somebody knowing what you stand for. And knowing those values helps you identify who the people are that you can help the most, because if they have the same core values as you, if they have the same. They're heading in the same direction they have the same north star.
[00:05:16] James Marland: Then that's one less thing that there's friction on that you can That you can agree on.
[00:05:22] James Marland: All right. The next key element. The key aspect to launching confidently is knowing your strengths. Strengths are your innate abilities or qualities that energize you? These things come naturally and they contribute to your effectiveness. They're like tools in the toolbox. These are your strengths. When you're using your strengths, you know it because you're in, what's called the flow state where. You work through problems quickly. Time seems to. Go away that you could walk, work in it and you do a lot of work and you realize, oh, I've been doing this for three or four hours.
[00:06:04] James Marland: It. These things in a strengths empower you when you're using your strengths at the end of that time. You don't feel drained, you feel empowered, you feel strong. The book go put your strengths to work. Really helped me solidify this for me. What my strengths were. There was an exercise in that where you, you went through your week and you had green cards and red cards and the green card, you would write down what your strength was or what, what, what the activity you were doing that made you feel strong that empowered you, that you were in your flow state.
[00:06:41] James Marland: That was easy for you, where you got your best results. And then you wrote down on the red cards, what were the draining activities? The things that made you feel down or low or were time seem to drag or the things you procrastinated. And put off until the very last minute. And those were the DRA, the. Draggers the weaknesses, maybe not weaknesses, but the things that drains you. Th those draining things.
[00:07:06] James Marland: And then there was an exercise where you lined them up and you put your top strengths at the top and you're in the strong, the. Strongest drainers are the things that change you the most. At the bottom and then you tried. Ew. Ew. Tried to put more effort into the things that were your strengths, where you could contribute the most. There were the easiest for you and you tried to eliminate or delegate the things. In the list that were the biggest draggers and the ones that you probably spent way too much time doing.
[00:07:39] James Marland: And. You're only engaging in your strengths less than 20% of the time. So, it's important to. Work when you're launching. It's important to work within your strengths when you're creating something new for somebody. This helps your students get to where they want to go faster. And it helps you stay energized with your course in your product. So.
[00:08:04] James Marland: Somebody who's, who's just starting out in launching a needs to understand their unique skills and strengths so that they can help other people solve their problems.
[00:08:15] James Marland: When I I already told you my story of the go, go put your strengths to work. And there are things that that. It's good to keep redoing that, that process, that strength finder. Processing putting your strengths to work. So that you continually refine your ability to only what you can do. So a question for you is, you know, reflect on a project we're focusing on your strengths led to outstanding results. What strengths did you rely on?
[00:08:46] James Marland: And how did that. Help you. How did that help you focus and change the project projects, trajectory? And then the reverse is that when was there a time when you felt drained, what were you doing? What were you supposed to be doing? What were the things that. Brought you down. Or you can try the that card exercise. For you and I'll have some resources for that at the end.
[00:09:08] James Marland: Alright, the next key aspect of B of launching confidently. Is your unique ability. Some people might call this a superpower. This is popularized by, by Dan Sullivan and the unique ability. 2.02 tool kit.
[00:09:26] James Marland: If you're watching the video, I have the book right here. A unique ability, 2.0 workbook. It's a discovery process. Of understanding what your unique ability is and your unique ability is the intersection of your passions and talents that the essence of what you do best, it's the innate combination that makes you exceptional and allows you to create the most value for others while experiencing fulfillment and energy.
[00:09:50] James Marland: It's a little different than strengths. But it it's important because when you operate from your unique ability, your authentic, your teaching when you're teaching that ability, it becomes an extension of who you are.
[00:10:07] James Marland: The mark Twain said the two most important days in your life. The day you are born and the day you find out why, and I, and I think when you examine. Your abilities. Your unique abilities.
[00:10:19] James Marland: You, you understand? It CA. It unlocks. Why you're here. It unlocks why you are. Built the way you're built and why you experience things the way you do and why you think the way you think. It, it empowers you. To work only in those areas and then delegate or remove the other areas that you don't. Working.
[00:10:48] James Marland: Another quote that from unknown is when you find your UN. Unique ability you unlock your true potential.
[00:10:56] James Marland: And don't, don't be a copy being original. Your youth unique ability sets you apart. And once you discover what, what really sets you apart, you can really lean into that and lean into. Not just your strengths, but what, what is unique about you and yourself?
[00:11:15] James Marland: The next key aspect of becoming confident to launch your now your next course, or product is stories. And we all have stories and stories are powerful narratives that convey information, evoke emotions and connect people. They make learning memorable. And they're also your stories. Your history. Has unique.
[00:11:38] James Marland: Unique meaning for you. So for example one of my stories is I, I moved, like I changed schools like 12 times. From kindergarten to. High school. I went to 12 different schools. Tech school. Three kindergartens, one preschool. Four or five. Elementary schools and then finally in junior high and high school. I think I went to three. So, is that 12 anyways? It was a lot.
[00:12:09] James Marland: And that made me feel like an outsider.
[00:12:12] James Marland: Most of the time, like I, I was able to be very friendly, but not very deep. With people and get to know them because I. I never growing up, I never had the opportunity to develop really deep relationships. So what that does for me, how does that help me? What, how does that story help me? How does that connect myself to my core audience is my core audience might also feel like outsiders.
[00:12:36] James Marland: They might also feel like they don't belong. They might need somebody to look for them and say, oh, you have potential. I felt like I never, I never developed those relationships until my later years. Shout out Scott, Kira and her. But up until the later years I never developed those relationships with adults that built into me and told me I was special and that I had something to give. Not until much, much later. You know, into high school. I never had those people.
[00:13:07] James Marland: And so I notice. Somehow through my stories. I noticed people who are struggling, who might be on the outskirts or the edges, and they just need somebody to believe in them and to. Spend some time with them and nurture them and get them going in the right direction because. I do. Yeah. I personally believe that. People can contribute more than they. They know they can, because they might not have the belief that they're they're worthwhile.
[00:13:40] James Marland: And so all that to say, you know, your stories are important. So if you write down some of your stories, That are personal to you that are meaning to you. You can actually find that. Some of your struggles and some of your strengths have led to some of your the personality and the attachments that other people who hear those stories will. We'll immediately connect with you. And immediately have resonance with you.
[00:14:08] James Marland: And those people are ones that probably share some of your values, but also need your strengths. So the more you can write down your stories, the more you can identify, what makes you, you. Through your stories and experiences, the easier it will be to connect with your core audience and launch, whatever, whatever you're making confidently.
[00:14:32] James Marland: So a prompt for a personal story is think about a significant success or failure in your life. And what were the key lessons?
[00:14:41] James Marland: And how am I sharing these experiences? Connect you to the people you want to. Build relationships with.
[00:14:51] James Marland: Thomas Edison said, I've have not failed. I found 10,000 ways that won't work. And I do feel like that is my experience as well.
[00:14:59] James Marland: So it's okay to write down your failures. Yeah, just reframe it. You're you're experimenting. And that's those failures are a huge part of your story. Every time I listened to a business book. That they always, they always say, you know, it took me five years to get here 10 years to get here. And, oh man, there were so many failures along the way, but I wouldn't trade those failures in because they taught me this lesson and I'm like, oh, I really connect with that.
[00:15:27] James Marland: So. Work out your stories so that you can launch confidently. The next key aspect of launching confidently. Confidently launching your next program or product program. Is alignment. Alignment means you're doing you are. Living out your values and heading in the right direction. It refers to cons. Consistency and congruency between the different elements of your life.
[00:15:57] James Marland: So, what does that mean?
[00:15:58] James Marland: Well, if you, if you know your values, if you know your destination, if you know. Your strengths.
[00:16:07] James Marland: But you don't live in them. You don't act in them. You're not, you're not purposely seeking to remove the things that distract you and wear you down. And you're not trying to replace them with your strengths. You. You know, the 10% or 20% that only you can do the energizes you, where you add your most value. Then you're not living in alignment. If you're serving people that have different values than you. Let's say one of your values is equity and kindness. But one of your main suppliers you find out is somebody who is not fair to their employees.
[00:16:45] James Marland: Well, that's an ethical dilemma for you. Do you, do you live in alignment with your values? Taking that easier money. Or do you, you.
[00:16:58] James Marland: Choose a different supplier that costs more because they pay their people more. That might be a very simplistic example. But it also shows that when you're not living in alignment, you're spending energy on. Churning through the, that decision over and over again, and really, probably feeling bad about it.
[00:17:18] James Marland: And then that makes you feel bad about your whole business. Where, whereas if you were living in alignment with. Working with a business or somebody who is aligned with you. There's just much less friction. There's much, much less emotional friction. There's also alignment with your, with your actions.
[00:17:41] James Marland: And yourself. So let's, let's say As your behavior take you where you want to go. If you're, if you're trying to. Launch a group practice, let's say, or do something with groups, but you keep. You, you never delegate anything. You don't. Hire people. You don't get contractors, then you're not in alignment with where you want to go. You. Assigned things and then take it back and micromanage.
[00:18:09] James Marland: That's not in alignment with where you want to go. So. A key element of launching confidently and giving yourself a sure footing. It's making sure. Doing an exercise and making sure you're living in alignment and then not comparing yourself to other people, but compare yourself, you know, Every month or every 90 days, compare yourself to where you were to where you want to go.
[00:18:33] James Marland: Am I taking more actions? Am I. You know, not just thoughts. Am I not just thinking about it? But am I doing one more thing to put my life in alignment so that. My relationships are easier. My business is easier. I'm less distracted.
[00:18:49] James Marland: Think of a time. Think of it. If you, if you want to think of a time when you did live, according to your values in your actions were in alignment. What did you do to better achieve your desired outcomes? What did you give up or what did you add? What were the goals and why, why was it, why were you successful this time?
[00:19:09] James Marland: Why were you able to overcome some of the distractions this time? And say, yeah, I am going to live in alignment rather than. A cave. Or crumble under the pressure of the immediate.
[00:19:25] James Marland: John F. Kennedy said efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. So, where are your footsteps? Where are your actions taking you? The next act, the next key element of confidently launching your next course or product is. Destination. Hey. You got to know where you're going, the destination represents the ultimate goal or outcome that you aim to achieve.
[00:19:54] James Marland: Destination leads to more motivation. Because if you clearly define where you're going, it's easier to take steps to go there. You know why the journey matters. If you know where you're headed, you know? You can invest emotionally and physically and intellectually and where you're going and put your energy behind it. You also get to measure success.
[00:20:16] James Marland: If you just say, oh, I want to launch a course someday, or I want to help this group. But I'm not sure how that's really not a destination. That's like a hope or a wish. But if you say. I'm gonna create a course, every. I'm going to create a mini course every three months. And add it to my main course offering. And do a webinar on that. And just I'm going to build 10 courses. Or 10 mini courses for my main mega course and using.
[00:20:49] James Marland: I'm using. Slang here. So, how about, how about I step back? Let's just say I'm going to release a course for groups of people who work with adopted kids. In the school system to help them navigate. Relationships with other kids and relationships with their teachers. In the next three months. And that is a specific goal.
[00:21:14] James Marland: You know, who your target audience is, you know, who it's for, you know, the benefit. And you gave yourself a deadline, a destination for it. Now. Destination.
[00:21:26] James Marland: For that those are like small destinations, like, Destinations. With short-term or immediate goals this quarter, I'm going to do this something this year. I'm going to do something. But something that helped me a destination planner type thing is, is right out of eulogy.
[00:21:46] James Marland: I did an exercise where I wrote out what I want to do accomplish in one year three year, five year, 10 year. I think it was just one year, five year, 10 year. And then wrote out, did one of the exercises that you can find in a lot of books. I think the toilet paper entrepreneur. Entrepreneur. The toilet paper entrepreneur from Mike McCollough, has it in it here on a mission from Donald Miller, has it. Seven habits of highly effective people. Has this type of exercise. So you probably have. You might have one of those books on your bookshelf. And find the exercise in there. But it's a eulogy exercise. Where you write out. What people. Who. Your, your dad. Who, who is there?
[00:22:32] James Marland: What did they say? Who reads her eulogy? And if everything went perfect, what are the things you accomplished and what were the relationships you had? It's a little more detailed than that. That's basically what it is, what were those things? That you want people to say about you and the things that you want to do accomplish, and then you write it out. And you write your own eulogy. And the exercise I did was write it out so you can read it in a minute or two and then read it every day. So that every day you are realigning yourself. In feeding yourself the. This, this is why it matters.
[00:23:07] James Marland: This is why I'm doing it. And I, I wrote down things about my relationship with my wife and son. I wrote down my relation my, some things about how I want to impact the community with my life story. I wrote down some things about my business, the. Basically and some other family things. So three, three to five big categories that I wanted people to say about me.
[00:23:28] James Marland: And then I able to look at what I'm doing and evaluate we yearly. Monthly, yearly, weekly, and even daily. Am I taking actions that lead me to that destination? I really think that was an important change in my life. I think I did this like three diff. Three to five years ago. Just because life had stopped giving me missions, like life had stopped giving me. Activities to do like the standard activities. Aye. I graduated high school.
[00:23:57] James Marland: I went to college, I got married. I had a son, I got a secondary degree. I got a job. I started. Business men, what, what do you do? Like. Is there another mission card like you do? I go for a doctorate? Like there were several years in there where I just, I just wasn't sure what my next step was.
[00:24:15] James Marland: So I felt. Aimless. I felt like I wasn't going anywhere. And I really wasn't going anywhere because I was just in motion. I was not heading towards the destination or heading towards anything. Worthwhile. It was just sustaining things. And that kind of in any story, if the hero is just going through the motions, it's, it's a. It's kind of boring.
[00:24:37] James Marland: Nothing really happens until the hero takes action or there's a call to action that the hero.
[00:24:45] James Marland: Picks up. And says, yes, I'm going to start. I don't know how to do it, but I'm going to go this way. So think about any movie or TV show that you really liked.
[00:24:56] James Marland: That, that person, the hero, the main character of the story was going somewhere. They started. They started with just a normal day and then something acted on them to propel them. To the next adventure and their story. So if you haven't, if you don't. Have a mission. You know, if you're, if you're a. You know, twenties, thirties, forties, and you're like, okay. I have accomplished everything. I highly recommend doing this eulogy exercise. To give yourself a next mission. You probably, if you've already done the strengths and values and your written down some stories of your life and you get to this part. You probably have a good direction of where you want to go and who you want to help and how you can make the next 10, 15, 20 years of your life meaningful. So destination, a key aspect of launching your next product is putting it, putting it on a destination.
[00:25:51] James Marland: Like this is where I want to want to end up. These are the people I want to help. This is the relationships I want to have with those people. Just write it in, write it in a eulogy.
[00:26:03] James Marland: Yeah. Lewis Carroll said, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. And Zig Ziegler, what am I. My favorite. Motivational speakers or Yeah. Motivational speakers. Is a goal properly set is halfway reached. You know, If you don't know where you're going, if you have no destination, spend some time figuring out where you're going. The last element is planning. So, When you're going to confidently launch your product.
[00:26:32] James Marland: Planning and, and getting, getting it set up is, is vitally important planning, involves organization strategizing and creating a roadmap for development. Creative planning is efficient. It does take time. And when you're researching your product researching what you're going to be doing, and you're looking up. Keywords on Google.
[00:26:54] James Marland: You're talking to people talking to your ideal client. You are. Writing down problems that people have that you can solve. That takes work. It's it's.
[00:27:09] James Marland: It's hard to convince people, oh, you need to do these things instead of like selling and building things. But if you don't plan ahead of time, And you go down. You know, 3, 6, 8 months down the wrong road, planning in the wrong direction. That's not really efficient. Is it so planning? Launching confidently, you gotta plan.
[00:27:28] James Marland: You gotta do your research. Also planning helps you adapt. Well thought out plan allows flexibility to adjust when unexpected challenges. Arise. If you. If you have a good plan, you'll be able to adapt. And stay in your core vision, mission values. You don't have a plan. And something comes up. You're going to be tempted to. Go off course.
[00:27:56] James Marland: Go off your strength. Oh, sure I can do. W here here's an example. I can do social media. I can make slides. I can Publish things to social media platforms I can make. Slides I can make. reels. I can look up means I can add music. I can do all those technical things. But it doesn't. it doesn't. It's not a strength for me. It's something I can do.
[00:28:21] James Marland: It's sort of like a middle thing. I get to use technology and it's fun and I like to be creative, but it's also not something that makes the time go fast. I'm like, oh, this is like the best thing I've ever done. It's something that kind of pays the bills. So I am not going to build my business.
[00:28:37] James Marland: I've had people ask me to do social media. Oh, you do this person solution media. Can you do mine? I'm like, I, I'm kind of at my limit of social media with only a few clients, because I don't want to fill my business up. With social media clients. Those are one of those things that as I build. I can hire somebody or get somebody to help me do that, to do my social media and some clients, social media. It's one of those things that are on the bottom of my strengths list.
[00:29:04] James Marland: Right. But. If I didn't have a plan right. Then I would just take on any client that gives me any work to do anything. And. That is just something that. that. does, it's not in alignment. It's a friction. And so I said no to some people on helping them out with their social media. Can I build your course?
[00:29:27] James Marland: Yes. Can I edit your videos? Yeah. I love a videos. Can I, do you want to meet with me on a weekly basis to talk about your next steps? Sure. Those are things I love to do. I love progress. I love helping people. Get there, but don't, don't ask me to, to build out your social media. Platform.
[00:29:44] James Marland: Cause that's just not in my plan. Like my plan, my future plan is to help people. Punch life-changing online courses. Not. Create viral reels. So. What's your plan. You know what. What are you going to have you done the research to let you know that you're headed down the right way. So, have you talked to enough people to launch your course that they, that You know what. problem they want solved and you are guarantee that you have the strength to solve that problem. You got a plan it's it's, it's foundational, but if you have done all these other things, if you've identified your. Values. If you know your strengths, if you know where your. unique. If you have your stories written down and how that impacts your life. If you're working in alignment. You know, you're aligned with your stories and your values and your mission, and there's less friction there. If you know your destination. Then the planning. It is not as hard, the planning and the. the. narrowing gown of what you're going to launch.
[00:30:50] James Marland: It's not going to be hard and you will be able to launch with confidence. When you do all this work, you're going to have way more confidence launching. Than you than you ever thought possible. So in conclusion, as we wrap up today as we dived into the essential elements of becoming confident to launch your product, I hope you found these, these insights. Not just informative, but transformative. Remember when you know who you are, when you know your values and strengths, your unique abilities, the stories that define you. And you. do a little bit of planning.
[00:31:25] James Marland: It's not merely about self-awareness. It's about aligning with w it's alignment with what you truly want to do. It's alignment with what makes you feel good and strong, and that is what's going to build the strongest business for you when you when you. work within your strengths, when you work in alignment. When you work in confidence, you're going to be able to jump out into that river. And say, I'm not sure how I'm doing this, but I am confident. That this is the way to go.
[00:31:53] James Marland: And you're going to break out of your comfort zone and you're not, when you know the truth of your strengths, you can beat down that nasty. That nasty. imposter syndrome that really hurts a lot of people. And say, I know who I am. I know my stories. I know my strengths. I know who I can help. I know I've helped people in the past and I'm going to help more people in the future.
[00:32:18] James Marland: And I can confidently launch my life changing course or product. So you're ready. You're going to do that. I asked them several questions in here. If you go to the show notes, you'll see, see those questions in the show notes. If you want more resources I've, I've gathered a lot of my tools that I use that have helped me feel strong and confident in what I'm doing and really refined what I'm doing.
[00:32:43] James Marland: And I put them into a mini course for you. On course creation, studio.com. Just go to the show notes, or if you go to course creation, studio.com. click the store, you'll be able to see. What is offered there? If you're subscribed to the newsletter. I will. Also, if you subscribed to the newsletter in honor of launching this this new confidence course confidently launching your online course, I'm going to give you a 50% off coupon for the course. So it's for the next two newsletters I'm going to put in. 50% off coupon. So that you can get these to celebrate. You know, to celebrate. with me the launch of the course and get. It's really my desire to help people match courses.
[00:33:26] James Marland: And it's hard to launch things when you're not confident and it's hard to be confident. If you don't know who you are, your visions, values or destination. So get on. I want to help you get on. board with this. So, take advantage of that 50% off coupon in the newsletter. If you're not subscribed to the newsletter, just go to any webpage on course creation, studio.com. Subscribe to that newsletter and you'll get that coupon for the next couple of weeks.
Okay, well, thanks for listening to course creation studio. Dot com. Podcast the scaly therapy practice. This is the show where we empower light mission-driven leaders to launch life-changing online courses. If that describes you, please go to iTunes or your podcast of choice and subscribe to the show. So please like, and review. Check out the other resources in the blog page. There's thanks again for listening to the scaling therapy practice. Remember that this is, this podcast is for information And. educational. And entertainment uses only if you need professional services, lawyer, accountant. Therapist, please seek out one in those areas. Everybody's, situation's unique and different.
[00:34:36] James Marland: So please seek a professional in that area. Scaling therapy practice is a proud part of the psych craft network.
