One of the things that many folks struggle with is when business is low – for example, when you don’t have as many clients as you want or need – you can lose confidence in yourself… and when confidence is low, well, it can affect your client intake too!
In this 4 minute video, I share my experience of this – plus two little gems of wisdom that can help you turn the negative client spiral around.
Watch the video and I’d love to hear how you deal with facing the negative client spiral.
With love and gratitude,
Yollana
p.s. from Mark Silver, Heart of Business founder and CEO
On a call recently with Yollana, she helped me walk through an issue around money that had come up for me and that was affecting Heart of Business. I tell you this so that you know if I’m leaning into her to help with Heart of Business, you can lean into her to help with your business.
Why don’t you schedule a conversation with her, or another of our practitioners, and see if it’s time to get individual help and coaching with your business?
25 Responses
Thank you, Yollana. As so often is the case with HoB, this message is perfectly timed.
I see now that sometimes, although I’ve managed to overcome ‘worry’, the techniques I’ve used have put me in a place of ‘indifference’, which has perhaps limited positive results. And what you’re suggesting is to take the next step, to move into ‘caring’ – not about possible outcomes, but about the business in the present moment.
There’s an ‘of course!’ ring of truth about this for me 🙂
Thank you!
Derek
So glad it was helpful, Derek!
And, yes, isn’t it a relief that we don’t have to resort to indifference?
Love Yollana
Wonderful post, Yolana, and I love the suggestion to ‘stop worrying and start caring’, which does have a completely different energy around it.
I used to worry a lot when the flow of clients was reducing to a trickle and it would send me into a head-spin about what I might be doing wrong or not doing at all and I know this is a sure-fire way to block the flow even more 🙂
What works for me is to notice my worry state when it’s triggered, come back into my heart, do a little EFT/Tapping, and choose to feel grateful for the space that’s being opened up for me to rest and replenish, and create something new.
I also use those times to learn as much as I can about marketing and getting clearer on my message – took me a long time to get my head around the fact that it’s not enough to be good at what we do, we also need to learn how to communicate that effectively so our ‘right people’ can find us.
Thank you for the inspiration and for all that you do.
Right on, LInda.
I love that you consciously use those quiet times to get clearer on your message and learn about marketing too! That’s wisdom.
Love Yollana
Thanks Yolande, really interesting and I can theoretically get that caring is different from and more productive than worrying – however making that transformation in day to day life is a bit more difficult for me! Your message has certainly given me food for thought though.
The trick is to do it one moment at a time, Caroline. You only ever need to do it once, in the exact moment that you notice it… To shift your attention to where your heart feels care and see if it makes a difference.
Sometimes it can be harder to do because when you shift your attention to where your heart feels care, you meet a whole bunch of other feelings that your heart is feeling too – sadness, grief, anger, loss, fear, unworthiness… All these human things! If that is the case, finding a safe space with a friend or counsellor, or using the Remembrance, to make space for those feelings to find their peace can help a lot.
Love Yollana
Thank you, Yollana. What you said met me where I am at this time in the summer. It affirmed the spiritual direction I’ve taken, trying to be more me and less what I think that should be–avoiding shoulds is a good idea. My teaching studio has shrunk a bit and as I face the fall teaching season I’m unsure what my income will be. I’ve tried to sell my home/business place and have run into a wall due to property line issues. Various things are stopping me from moving to a new location and trying to live differently than I have for twenty years. I’ve chosen not to worry about it, but to care about what I do every day, how I am with people every day, how I pray with concern for people every day—those kinds of things. I am confident that openings will come, openings that I can’t envision right now, if I just continue to be really who I am. Your sweet spirit in your message was lovely. Thank you!
Thank you Mary.
It sounds like there are lots of opportunities to care – for yourself – for your smaller studio – and for the students you have.
I don’t know a lot about your business, but one thing you might consider if you have less students than usual is to offer them an advanced / premium option of what it is you teach… A smaller group of them might want some extra hands-on individual tuition which would allow you to earn a little more income, and give a little more care, to the students you do have.
Love Yollana
This is so perfect and absolutely timely. I’m having a low self esteem period after really putting my all into kick starting my biz – but still nothing is happening. I know that I have to keep at it, keep going, keep sharing my value, but I feel drained and my ego is telling me I am worthless.
Thank you SO much for this. As soon as you said “stop worrying and start caring”, I felt the shift happen! I’ve been trying to take time off to recharge, but the worry was still there, niggling at me, so I couldn’t relax. Dropping into my heart and out of my head has instantly calmed me, made me feel like, yep, it’s all going to be ok. Keep loving, keep your heart open. Enjoy and share! <3
Thank you for sharing your story, Zoe.
It can take a while to get a new business started… And I am glad to hear you express your own knowing that you have to keep going and keep sharing your value…
Persistence is powerful, as I’m sure many of our previous clients and Heart of Business community members will testify.
Love Yollana
Lovely distinction, Yollana: replace worry with care. Goes hand in hand with some of our previous conversations; I’m thinking of the concept of ebb and flow in business (ebb of any magnitude used to cause so much worry in me!).
I’m so grateful that I took the four minutes to bask in this wisdom. Thank you.
xoxox
Sue
Thank you, Sue!
Yes – the natural ebb and flow – what a relief to be able to relax with it a little!
Love Yollana
Thank you for this Yollana. Perfectly timed – and a beautiful distinction. It brought up the question, what would I be doing if I was taking care?
Funny how I know that when I take care of my physical environment, everything shifts – but I don’t bring that same loving care to my business very often. Hmmm. A shift for today. Thank you, lovely.
Thanks Donna,
Yes! What a great analogy and inquiry… When we take care of our physical environment, everything shifts… What would taking care of the business in a similar way look like?
Love Yollana
Thank you Yollana–great video and indeed as so many are finding, so timely! I too am finding myself in a low emotional state of being, Your advice is spot on –replace worry with care…again thank you and to all who have shared their stories.
Thank you Blake. Wishing you peace.
Wonderful video Yollana and love the distinction between worry and care. Sometimes I can make the shift quite easily but at other times it can be quite hard and it’s about just hanging in there until there’s a bit more space between me and it. Trying to shift the worry and trying to be in a place I’m not, isn’t useful to me when this happens.What’s most useful at these times is to honour the feelings of the worry for what they are and realize they need care and to look with kindness towards myself and my humanness. Someone who can hold this space is worth their weight in gold!
Yes, always looking to ourselves with kindness!
I came across the email leading me to this video at the perfect time. Last night a class that had thought was a sure thing fell apart and had to be postponed. Driving home all the familiar feelings of ‘I won’t have enough money’ and ‘it must have been something I did wrong’ came up. However after many years of practising the Reiki principle of ‘Just for today do not worry’ I tried to let the worries go. Watching your video today was really helpful in showing me the next step: to care about the students who felt unable to join the class by offering out a new date today.
I believe my jewel is compassion and I was also reminded of this by your video and saw that for each of the students concerned I was able to share this quality with them, so that the class when it happens will not be according to my personal needs/agenda/ego, but will truly be what serves them all best.
So my thanks!
So glad to hear that this video inspired you into practical action on your next steps, Kate! Wishing you all the best with the next class 🙂
Beautiful, Yollana. Can’t believe what a difference it makes to me to consider from a place of “care” not “worry”! When I put a question to myself just now: “If I put care into finding an efficient solution to problem x, what next step can I take?” … I received a response: “ask so-and-so for help.” So: seems to me this practice of asking how I might put care into a question/problem can be a really great way to access my heart in a direct, practical way. A subtle yet awesome shift! Thank you!
Yes! Brilliant 🙂
Yollana,
Thank you for the tidbit of replacing worry with care. When I heard that, it felt inside me like, “Ahhhh, yes. I can do that.” I can hold that worry in my heart and care for it, I can care for my business, and as Kate said above, I can care for the clients who are not yet (and may enver be) working with me. It just feels so much better in my body-heart-mind to do that.
Summer is a slower time for my business, so this vlog topic was right in sync with me. A few weeks ago, I wrote this http://shula.ca/2014/07/13/transforming-lack-abundance/ and have been applying the idea of seeing the so-muchness in any experience of “lack.” In my business, “so few clients” became “so much space.” Then I was able to appreciate all that has been happening related to working on my business, not so much in that space created by “lack of clients,” but around it. It has been really delicious to appreciate that the space has made room for so many seeds to sprout.
Shulij
Yes, its incredibly freeing to recognise the value in Life, beyond the value in income – as much of our social programming would have us believe. Once this value priority is clear, healthy finances can be tended like healthy body, healthy relationships, etc, as one of many important plants in our gardens.
You’re so awesome! I don’t suppose I’ve read
a single thing like this before. So good to find somebody with
a few genuine thoughts on this subject. Seriously..
thank you for starting this up. This site is something that is needed on the internet, someone with a little originality!