Stop Copying Trends and Align Your Business with Your Own Goals

Some days it feels like there is a lot of noise out there in the world. Endless scrolling, one trend after another and more voices telling you what you should do to grow your business than you could ever listen to. One minute it’s “post on socials three times a day,” the next it’s “only sell your services in person” and before you know it, business feels like an endless game of chase.

So, here is a little bit of honesty. Your ideal clients aren’t searching for the person who does all the things you ‘should’ do in business, they’re searching for the person they connect with who will get them the results they desire. Believe it or not, they’ll be drawn to you because of who you are and what you can do for them, not because you remembered to jump on that one trend or you filed your tax return on time (but make sure you do that, it’s pretty important!)

Why Authenticity is Your Superpower

When you stop comparing yourself and start trusting yourself instead, everything begins to shift. You stop pouring energy into trying to ‘keep up’ and instead start to create and grow from a place of alignment. When you get yourself to that space, everything starts to click and it just feels right. Not only will you feel better, your clients will see that too. They’ll see someone who is confident in their decisions and abilities and they’ll feel safe around you. They’ll connect with what you’re talking about online and actually want to listen.

let go of what doesn’t feel like you

When you’re starting out in business we tend to take on work that might not light us up but it’s paying the bills so you do it. Sometimes that develops into a service where you’re offering the same thing over and over that just makes you feel flat. It’s time to let go of the services you no longer love, stop joining in with social media trends that make you feel empty. Embrace what makes you feel alive, excited and true to yourself. Fully immerse yourself in the side of your business that feels like home and your clients will start to gravitate towards the work that they can see is lighting you up. It might feel a bit scary at first but as clients get to know the real you and the kind of work that you love to offer, the work will come in, you’ll feel better and they’ll get a better end result because you’re so passionate. It’s really a win-win.

it’s time to be yourself online

For a lot of business owners, social media is where it can all feel a bit much and a bit fake. It’s hard to ‘sell yourself,’ you’re overthinking what you’re sharing and you’re worried people might judge you. It really doesn’t have to be that way. As long as your message is consistent and you’re being professional (don’t go on a rant about how much your last client did your head in), you can really be yourself online. Each time you post, ask yourself if you’re showing the true you. There’s literally no point jumping the latest trend if it’s so far from who you actually are that your best friend wouldn’t recognise you. One of the main reasons businesses use social media is to connect with new people and bring in new clients. If that’s your goal, make sure you’re showing them exactly who they’ll be working with. There’s nothing worse than connecting with someone on Instagram only to hop on a discovery call and find out they’re not who they seem to be at all and they’re exactly the wrong kind of person for you to be working with - not only does it waste everyone’s time but it can also leave a pretty sour taste in potential clients mouths.

Something to Try

Write down a list of all the jobs you do in your business day to day - it’s probably going to be a long list so stick with it! Once you’ve written your list you’re going to go through and score each job with how much you enjoy doing it. 5 is ‘this is my favourite job ever, I wish I could do this all day every day’, 1 is ‘this is the job that makes me want to give it all up.’ Once you’ve scored every job on the list, it’s time to go through again, this time you’re scoring on whether it actually makes your business flow. So if it’s a 5 it’s a task that brings in new business, helps you grow or is integral to the delivery of your work, if it’s a 1 it’s a task where you feel like you’re wasting your time every time you do it because who is it actually for.

Now for the fun part (if you’re a bit of a nerd like me): get your highlighters out. Highlight all the tasks that scored highly in both areas. These are the tasks that you love to do and they also help your business grow and progress. These are the tasks that you should be focusing your energy on. Next, look at the tasks where you scored low in one or both areas, think about whether any of these tasks could be outsourced or completely let go of. Unfortunately we can’t always let go of all of the jobs we don’t enjoy (finances, I’m looking at you) but recognising which ones are draining you is really important to help you feel more aligned in your business.