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There are an estimated 7.8 billion people living in the world today. It’s no wonder it feels so hard to stand out in the crowd. If you weren’t who you are, who would you rather be? I’d like to share with you why I believe it’s important to be yourself and why everyone matters, no matter how old, young, tall or small.

You might think being yourself should be the easiest thing in the world. Yet so many of us hide behind a veil or mask. We sometimes present a shadow of our true selves or portray ourselves as something we’re not. The impressions we make on others can be dictated by childhood events, relationships we’ve been in or life changes we’ve gone through.

We may be afraid of showing our true nature in case we are ridiculed, or walked over, or distanced from friends, family, colleagues or business associates. We might want to fit into a circle of friends or be visible in social media groups. To conform, we change. It could be a change in vocabulary, dialect or accent. It could be a change of clothes, car or holiday destination.

Some changes are so subtle you might not realise how far from your true self your alter ego has travelled. Just stop for a moment. Have you done anything recently that felt out of the ordinary, something you wouldn’t usually say or do? This could be a sign you’re not being true to yourself.

When you’re being yourself and when you feel comfortable being yourself, that’s when you can flourish and grow. However, if you continually supress your real thoughts and real emotions it can be draining and stressful, especially if you don’t think your opinion matters or you’re not being heard.

Being yourself means people get to see the real you. They’re not seeing a fake version of you.

Being yourself means you don’t have to act up or act down. Your true friends and clients will stick with you for who you are, not who you’re not.

Being yourself means you can set your own goals and celebrate your own achievements. You don’t have to compete with anyone else to succeed.

Eventually, if you have been wearing a veil or mask, cracks will show. It’s not possible to maintain your cover indefinitely. You will get found out. It could be an innocuous comment or a trail on social media and someone will notice you don’t own three homes and a Ferrari, even though you were adamant you did.

It’s much easier to be up front, genuine and real to begin with. Being yourself, mentally, socially, spiritually, emotionally and physically adds up to the person you truly are. If you want to make changes that’s ok, but keep being yourself.

Through Focus Guru I help small business owners find their inner image and help them to be themselves at work and on social media. I help individuals and teams draw out key skills buried under layers of veils and masks. If you would like to find out more, book a free 15-minute chat, but remember to be yourself.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way with no Squirrels

Does your business rely on making phone calls to sign up new customers? It’s possibly one of the easiest ways to chat with potential clients, yet many people would rather run a mile than pick up the phone.

This is where chatting through the problems with telephone calls can make a big difference.

In my Focus Guru Power Hour I explore the reasons why making phone calls as a marketing tool is often perceived as futile, forgotten, or even frightening, for some business owners and their employees.

Are Phone Calls Futile?

A client recently said to me they don’t use the telephone to follow up enquiries because it’s a waste of time, that no one answers the phone anymore, they don’t know what to say if they have to leave an answerphone message, no one rings them back, etc. We chatted about their phone call strategy and how to include phone calls in their daily routine.

I recommend allocating a portion of your day to picking up the phone, especially if you’ve recently been to a networking meeting when your company, products and services will be fresh in someone’s mind. Just as you’d rehearse your 40 second introduction, I recommend having a short sentence or two ready in case you have to leave a message. You’ll be surprised at how many calls are returned and how successful phone calls can be.

Are Phone Calls Forgotten?

With social media readily available, the idea of actually making a phone call might be a long way down your list of methods to make contact with customers. Unlike messages, texts and emails, a phone call is one of the quickest ways to reach someone and a great way to get an instant answer.

I recommend aiming to make 5 to 10 phone calls each day. Some calls might be 40 seconds leaving a voicemail. Other calls might take 10 minutes or longer. If you can prepare a list of questions in advance to ask your potential customer then you’ll be able to guide the phone call and draw it to a conclusion, perhaps with a sale or a referral.

Are Phone Calls Frightening?

It’s not unheard of for someone to be scared of using the phone to speak with potential customers. Fear of rejection and fear of failure are common reasons why people are reluctant to pick up the phone. If you’ve just started a new job and are worried about speaking with long-standing clients, or if you don’t know answers to product or service questions, you might prefer to send an email or social media message, and that’s ok.

But, if you can conquer your fears, then there’s a whole world of potential customers out there. I recommend standing up to make important phone calls, to take a sip of water before you dial, to speak slowly and clearly and remember to breathe. Another tip is to reward yourself for small wins. Remember, making 1 phone call is a big achievement.

To find out more about using phone calls in your marketing strategy, please contact me for a free 15-minute no obligation phone call to chat about you, your company and what you would like to achieve. It’s easy to use phone calls as an effective sales tool. Let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way with no Squirrels

Starting a new business can be a complicated minefield, especially if it’s your first business venture after a lifetime of employment. You’re setting things up from scratch and no-one’s telling you what to do, how to do it or when. A new business process is a structured way to start your business the right way.

A Focus Guru Power Hour will help you get the right processes and procedures in place.

To help new business owners, especially those starting MLM businesses. I can provide a no-nonsense look at effective and proven strategies to manage your productivity, energy and time. I’ll help identify your time thieves, brain drains and squirrels.  I will show you software and tools to make the most of your working hours. Not sure what I mean by Squirrels, then check out my blog “Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel! How to Beat Your Distracting Squirrels”

I give you control of your time, freeing up hours so you do the things you really want to be. It starts with the “Right Attitude”.

New Business Process – Right Attitude

I believe everything starts with the right attitude and it comes down to the way that you speak to yourself. If you say, “it’s too difficult” or “I haven’t got time” or “I’ll do it tomorrow”, your brain listens and the task becomes more difficult, time consuming or never gets started. Equally, don’t listen to the nay-sayers and negative people who, if you let them, will erode your positivity.

“The right attitude starts with confidence and self-belief.”

New Business Process – Track Your Progress

Almost anything within your business can be tracked, monitored and adjusted where necessary. At Focus Guru I help business owners track everything from tasks, to time, to sales, marketing and accounts. Everything is measurable eg visual charts / graphs gives you an overview of your current and projected workload and finances. Would you like to know how much time you give your number one client each month? Or whether you’re on target for this week’s sales? I can show you software tools and apps to measure your progress and I will work with you to help you stay on track.

“Without tracking, how do you know how you’re doing?”

Outsourcing

It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting your business or have been running multiple companies for years, at some point you’ll find you can’t grow while trying to do everything yourself. You’ll either run out of time, or energy, or both.  At the same time the quality of the products or service you’re providing may suffer. Consequently your customers may leave to go elsewhere. I work with business owners to identify key areas that can be outsourced. Review and set up safety nets.  You will see how much you’re saving in time or money compared with doing the tasks yourself.

“Never outsource something you don’t know how to do yourself.”

Not sure how you could chose what to outsource, check out my blog “How A Time Intensity Grid Will Help You Choose What To Outsource”

These are just some of the tips I give you in the Focus Guru Power Hours. If you’re starting out in business or fancy a fresh look at how technology could save you time and money, please book in a free 15 minute call.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way with No Squirrels

How many times do you go to networking meetings each week? At each meeting you’re likely to see twenty people or more. Over the course of a month you might have made over a hundred contacts. But how do you know who will buy from you? Do you need a Focus Guru Power Hour to help build an efficient and effective follow up system?

It’s not as complicated as you might think. Some of the clients I’ve worked with are amazed how easy it is to connect with people from meetings they attended today, last week or even last year. It’s never too late to follow up.

If it’s that easy, why don’t more people do it?

If it’s that easy, why don’t more people follow up after a meeting? Have they sold a product or service to everyone in the room? Has everyone bought from them already? Are they too busy? Or are they procrastinating, thinking it’s too difficult, too complicated, or not going to make a difference?

With only a small percentage of people following up from a meeting I can guarantee it will make a difference. The simple act of sending a message, email or card to someone you met at a networking meeting shows your attention to detail and that you care about them as a person.

I explain more about this in my Focus Guru Power Hour, showing you efficient systems and software you can implement to simplify your follow up process and to make it much more effective.

These are three of my top tips to help you get started:

Follow up Tip 1 – Make a note of who was at the meeting

When you make a written record of who attended the networking meeting it’s much easier to remember who you have met. I recommend making a note of each person’s first and last name, their company name, email address, website and a summary of the products and services they offer.

If you can also collect any extra information, such as their location, dog’s name, favourite car, last holiday, or other detail, this can kickstart a conversation in the future.

Follow up Tip 2 – Connect with the attendees via social media

Don’t wait for other people to connect with you. Be proactive and send a greeting. Ask to connect with each person via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If you don’t know what to write, try using these template messages (you can copy/paste or change the text):

“Hi, It was great to meet you today. I’m sorry we didn’t get to chat in the meeting, would you like to arrange a 121 to share more about what you do?”

Or, if you had a 121 and want to continue the conversation, try this instead:

“Hi, It was great to meet you today. I enjoyed our 121 chat during the meeting, and I would like to continue our conversation. Would you like to arrange another 121 with me this week?”

If you wish to personalise the message, include their name and the meeting you both attended.

Follow up Tip 3 – Be proactive and arrange the follow up call

After sending your connection requests and receiving the replies, now is the time to arrange those follow up calls. One of the popular methods for keeping control of your time whilst making yourself available for clients and prospective clients is to use an online calendar appointment booking app such as Calendly.

With Calendly you choose when you’re available and send a link for people to book your time. You may find this uncomfortable at first, but the app provides a structure to arrange your working hours. Booking specific timeslots helps you and the caller to focus on the call objectives, whether to get to know each other better, to arrange a future meeting, or to close a sale.

Bonus Tip

Remember, the follow up conversation isn’t supposed to be a sales call. The purpose is to get to know the other person and turn a stranger into a friend. If this sounds odd or unfamiliar remember the saying that “people buy from people they like, know and trust”.

If you’d like to find out more about follow up calls, how to record prospective customer details, how to set up Calendly, or any stage of the follow up process, please book a free 15 minute call let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way, with No Squirrels!

Focus Guru Power Hour Mailchimp Training – Make Your Mailshots Work For You!

Sending a personalised email is still one of the best ways to communicate with your customers. Whether you want to talk about a new product or service, relay industry news or share a special offer, sending an email gets your message directly in front of your customer at any time of the day or night.

There are several ways you can set up an effective mailshot and through Focus Guru, I recommend using Mailchimp, the easy-to-learn software that gives you full control of your mailing list. You can create emails to go to every customer, or set up custom tags, for example to email people you met through 4Networking, or at a trade show, or those who haven’t bought from you for a while.

“I was really impressed with Rachael’s knowledge of Mailchimp and how she helped make it really easy to keep in touch with my customers.” – Jenny Leggott, Transcend Zero

A number of my clients are using Mailchimp to send out a weekly newsletter promoting their services and announcing time-limited special offers. The response rate is excellent and Mailchimp includes a comprehensive dashboard so you can see at a glance how many emails have been opened and who has clicked on your links.

Armed with this level of detailed information, follow up messages can be sent, phone calls can be made, deals can be done, and sales can come flooding in. In your Focus Guru Power Hour covering Mailchimp Training, I show you from start to finish how you can make the most of your list of business contacts.

How does it work?

In your Focus Guru Power Hour, I’ll show you how to set up your Mailchimp account, or if you already have an account, we’ll start in the “Contacts” section. I’ll help you add your contacts and tag them in appropriate categories, which will be used time and time again to match the right contacts with the content you want to share with them.

For example, if you have 1000 email addresses, you can sub-divide your contacts into places where you’ve met, or services they are interested in, by location, or any demographic you choose. Sending relevant content to the right people will automatically increase your read response rate and reduce unsubscribe requests

We’ll run through a test email and then set up a real-world campaign so you can begin using Mailchimp straightaway. Or you can schedule your email if preferred. I’ll show you how the Mailchimp Scheduler enables you to send emails at your chosen time, on your chosen day.

Following the Focus Guru Mailchimp Training Power Hour, some clients choose to send their emails using the scheduler, for example regularly emailing their targeted customers first thing on a Monday morning. Others prefer to only send emails when something happens in their business or business sector.

The final step is the analytics, where I show you how to analyse and act on the response from your email campaign. This is where you can assess the effectiveness of your email. How many people opened your message? Who clicked on a link? What happened next?

“I’d definitely recommend the Focus Guru Power Hours to anyone who wants to learn more about Mailchimp and set up their own campaigns.” – Jenny Leggott, Transcend Zero

If you would like to book a Focus Guru Power Hour on Mailchimp Training, please contact me on 07756 772950. I also offer Focus Guru Power Hours on using Zoom, Hootsuite, online calendars, plus building organisation, networking and accountability. Let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru