Finding the Next Step

Recently, I registered for a three-day marketing event intending that I would walk away with a new and brilliant tagline for my company. I felt that the tagline would solve several of my marketing issues. I was straight up desperate. I filled my notebook with tons of next steps during that event, but the tagline eluded me. I even hunted down the facilitator in between sessions to beg for an answer. She gave me some good stuff but it never came together. After the event, I hired the facilitator to coach me. That was actually the next step I needed to take to solve my marketing issues. We changed my niche, created a brand for it and came up with an entire plan. It felt good and it worked. I thought finding a tagline would solve my issues, but it would have been just a temporary band-aid for a bigger problem. I knew I needed to do something different. I’m glad I followed my gut and hired her. What about you? Are you looking for your next step to bust through a perpetual glitch in your business? It seems that every time one of my clients is looking for the next step in their business growth, they have too many ideas and don’t know which to choose or have zero ideas. Or so it seems. When you get to a real stuck place in your business, it’s your Inner Business Expert tapping you on the shoulder to get your attention to move in a different direction. I don’t mean give up on what you’re currently doing, but to seek out a solution that will resolve the real issue at hand. Here’s how to prime the solution pump… 1. Write down what you don’t like about the situation and why. Clarifying why will give you the key. 2. Identify if the problem is your perspective, another person’s ability or a system breakdown. It may be a combination. 3. Take some nice deep breaths and do your best to relax about the situation. Open your mind, stay curious and ask yourself, “If I were to make up my next step out of thin air, what would it be?” There may not be angels singing when an answer pops in your head, but that doesn’t discount its relevance. 4. Trust the answer and take action. In almost every coaching situation where a client says they don’t know what to do next, they do. They just think that it should be more complicated. You may be doing the same thing. If you’ve been toying with offering a new product or service, letting go or hiring a team member, changing your website, or hiring a coach, then you know where you need to focus. What’s the very first step in the process?