It’s painful. You’re at a networking event — or on the phone with a potential client — and you realize that what you’re saying just isn’t connecting.
You know you can help them, but you can’t seem to find the right words.
You can feel your frustration throughout your body, and it’s not fun.
Why is it that so many small business owners and independent professionals struggle to articulate what they do ... in ways that make sense to their audience?
You know what you do. You know it so well, it’s instinctive — your ability is unconscious.
It’s hard to talk about something you live and breathe, that flows in your bloodstream and is as solidly a part of you as your bones.
It’s especially hard to describe it to someone who not only doesn’t get it (if they did, they wouldn’t need your help), but doesn’t want or need to get it at the level you know it.
They just want their problem solved. They want to know if you can help them. And they want to hear about it in their language — plain and simple.
And when you only have your language — describing it from your side of the desk — they glaze over ... and go away.
Gaining deep clarity about your message is a very personal journey.
It’s a journey that seems to have no clear starting point — and no clear steps along the path.
Without a guide or a map, how can you progress from confusion to clarity?
It’s tempting to believe that the quality and value of what you do should be enough to speak for itself, without your having to take on the uncomfortable task of marketing or selling yourself.
Accepting the fact that your clients don’t naturally, automatically understand the value of what you do can leave you feeling like you have to learn marketingspeak.
And no matter how proud you are of your work, no matter how confident you are in your abilities, skills, and talents, it’s just not easy to be comfortable with marketingspeak.
(Fortunately, there’s a profound difference between authentic, effective communication and marketingspeak.)
You can gain conscious, articulate awareness of your unique competence.
You can learn a process for discovering clear, simple, and joyful words to describe your work. (A dependable, repeatable process you can use over and over again as your business grows.)
And you can connect with your best clients and referral sources — without resorting to marketing techniques that don’t feel good to you.
I will be eternally grateful for your great gift of taking in to the fullest extent what it is that I have to offer, living it, and then reflecting it back in terms of the potential experience of others. You have given words to a process that defies words.
- Jon Hansen, therememberingroom.com, Richmond, Illinois
This workshop is your opportunity to find the understanding — and therefore the words — and to learn a powerful, dependable process that you’ll use over and over again to help your business grow.
In 3 months, 8 conference calls, and focused, experiential homework, you’ll explore your business, developing your experience, vision, and understanding of who your clients are, what your business is from their perspective, and what they really want and need to hear from you.
The work you did on the testimonials was extraordinary. We started the testimonial process to get some good “sound bites,” and obviously we ended up with far more than that. Those stories are a major feature of my website.
- Daniel Stone, danielstone.com, Washington DC, New York City, Delaware, South Carolina, and India
And that’s what we’ll uncover: a clear, deep understanding of your unique approach, the many things you give to your clients, and the true value they find in you and your service or product.
(And you’ll be delightfully surprised by some of it!)
You’ll gain the ability to speak with simplicity, clarity, and real joy about your work ... in ways that give your best clients the information, inspiration, and hope they need to say yes to your offerings.
Because of the process we went through, and the validity that came with that process, I trust what I think and trust myself to speak about it. I have greater confidence and clarity in my message about who I am and what I do.
- Bev Dwane AICI CIP, bevdwane.com, Durham, North Carolina
The workshop is for you only if you have a real commitment to understanding your clients and your business so you can
It’s full of practical knowledge and exercises that you’ll use over and over again to continue developing your business and the services and products you offer.
The emphasis is on your experience — because your experience is all that matters when it comes to developing language and approaches to marketing that really work for you.
The only purpose of this workshop is to develop your understanding of your work so you have clear, simple, commanding words that come naturally when you write and talk about what you do.
In 3 months, you’ll do a lot of work — and you’ll have practical results within weeks.
Unlike other soup-to-nuts small-business programs, you don’t have to wait 6 or 9 months — or a year — to get what you need. You’ll quickly begin to have the understanding and words to talk joyfully and powerfully about what you do so your clients feel safe and confident in saying yes.
Two weeks before the workshop starts, you’ll receive an email with the program guidebook, your log-in credentials for the online forum, and worksheets for the pre-work exercises.
The group calls serve two purposes.
You are masterful at hearing what someone is saying and truly understanding them. Your ability to actively listen and tune in to not only the words but the emotion, what that person is really saying, makes the person truly feel valued. Regardless of what else was going on in the call, whoever was speaking, you knew Grace understood where that person was.
- Lauren Midgley, Dallas, Texas
Every call will be recorded and made available in MP3 format within 24 hours.
Your commitment to the workshop includes your commitment to being available and present for every call. Still, life can intervene unexpectedly, so the recordings ensure you won’t miss out if you do have to miss a call.
Even more importantly, you’ll have the recordings available for review, to remind yourself of material or to listen to your coaching time on the call. Review is a powerful aid to progress!
This is a workshop on finding the language and unique voice to describe your work.
And it’s in the on-line forum and in completing the homework that the rubber meets the road.
You’ll be asked to write.
You don’t need to feel like a “good” writer. In fact, it’s perfectly okay if you feel like a not-so-great writer.
You simply need to follow through on your commitment to full participation.
The forum is where you’ll engage with me in an ongoing conversation about your written work, in which I’ll help you go deeper, see patterns, extract powerful key phrases, and put it all together in a cohesive, natural-to-you form.
You’ll post your homework exercises on the forum — and you’ll receive concrete, supportive, constructive feedback within 1 business day of posting. (Usually within just hours.)
As I’ve been developing my writing, it’s taken a tremendous amount of pressure off of me to know that I just need to get it to the “good enough” place and you’ll clean it up. That helps me relax and just say what it is I’m trying to say. And as a “perfectionist in recovery,” that’s huge for me! Your editing helps me not have to struggle as much.
And you’ve never edited something in a way that no longer sounded like me!
- Sherry Essig, flow-dynamix.com, Raleigh, North Carolina
Throughout the workshop, I’ll be a consistent presence in the forum and on group calls. I will:
From the beginning, your question-and-answer process was clearly focused on learning about me, not telling me what I was going to do or what I needed. It’s a very participative program with you.
- Jim Heaton, heatonconsultinggroup.com, San Diego, California
The workshop is limited to just 8 people, to ensure that you receive my undivided attention, support, and feedback on your progress.
Group interaction is encouraged but not required. Your participation in the workshop is all about you; your focus is on your business. Feedback, suggestions, and brainstorming are not expected of anyone in the group. Support and feedback is my job as your facilitator.
At the same time, there’s a lot to learn from observing the ways in which others progress. When someone asks a question in the forum or on a call, it’s your opportunity to ask yourself how that question applies to you and your situation — and to learn from the experiences of everyone in the group.
And I also encourage you to interact and reach out to each other, especially when you feel a sense of connection and synergy between you. A group like this is a terrific place to find brainstorming colleagues and referral partnerships that last long after the workshop is over.
Registration for this program is currently closed. If you’d like to be notified when it’s scheduled again, please fill out the form below and I’ll add you to the early-notice list.
The first four calls are weekly.
In the second and third months, there are two calls each month.
Enroll by the earlybird signup date: $750, paid in three equal monthly payments of $250 each.
Enroll after the earlybird signup date: $900, paid in three equal monthly payments of $300 each.
Either way, just fill out the form below.
I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible — within one business day, and usually a lot sooner.
We’ll schedule time to talk, I’ll answer any questions you may have, and we’ll discover if this program is right for you.
Our conversation will spark ideas and help create new perspectives — even if you choose not to participate in the workshop.
If at the end of the workshop you have...
And you don’t feel as if you’ve made measurable progress in your understanding of and ability to talk about your work, I will...