Five Exercises To Help You Get To The Heart Of Your Big-Hearted Business
I’m a big believer in getting to the heart of our business.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day of trying to build, run, and maintain a profitable and thriving business that we can lose sight of the fact that our business also needs to have a whole lot of purpose, clarity, and focus behind it too.
Especially if you’re struggling to feel confident and focused in your business, and that’s manifesting as feeling resistance around your content, your offerings, your messaging, and how you want to show up in your marketing and digital presence, I have five exercises for you today to hopefully help you go back to basics and really get to the heart of your business and your brand.
1. Here’s what I believe in...
This first exercise is all about getting super clear on what your core values, belief system, and point of view is in your business. This is ultimately what shapes everything in our business - it’s the heart behind everything we do. So whether you’re a photographer who believes in capturing the moments that really matter, a health coach who believes in ditching dieting and eating intuitively instead, or a fashion designer passionate about ethical and sustainable fashion, getting super specific on what you believe in is how you can then start to translate that through your brand, carve out a unique space for yourself in your industry, and attract the right clients and customers for you.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What core beliefs shape my perspective in my business, my work, and my industry?
- What core values underpin everything I do in my business?
- Why am I passionate about my business and the work I do?
2. Here’s how I want to make people feel...
I find this question so helpful for when it comes to uncovering how we want to show up through our copy, our content, our social media presence, and our visual branding too. How our brands and our work makes me people feel plays a huge part in defining the type of clients and customers we attract, and other opportunities in our business along the way too.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What are 3-5 emotions you would like people to feel when they experience your brand? Excited? Inspired? Supported? Encouraged? Clarified? Motivated? Connected?
- How do I want to translate these emotions through my website, content, copy, and social media presence?
3. Here’s how I help, educate, entertain, inspire, or bring joy to my customers and clients...
A business is, of course, more than just what we believe and how we want to make people feel - it’s also what we do. And finding clarity here is key to building a thriving business - because without actually offering something, there’s no way for us to make an income from our work along the way. But offerings without a purpose behind them are also not that useful to us - it’s when we blend our beliefs and our values with our purpose to outline and create our offerings that we’re able to build a sustainable, impactful, and fulfilling business along the way.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What’s the purpose of my business? (To help, educate, entertain, inspire, or bring joy to your customers and clients? And it may be a mix of these, or something not even mentioned in this list)
- What do I offer to fulfil this purpose? (Services, offerings, products, etc)
- What are some things I may want to offer in the future to fulfil this purpose?
4. If I could give my clients and customers 3 things it would be...
I love this exercise as it’s a great way to really get to the heart of what it is we do and what’s special about the way we do it. Maybe you’re a life coach and you want to give your clients and customers support and encouragement as they navigate tough life experiences, inspiration for when they’re ready to make big changes, and permission for them to change and grow along the way. Or maybe you’re a branding and website designer and you want to give your clients and customers a fun and stress-free way to create a website for their business that they love, visual branding that tells the story of their brand perfectly, and the confidence to go out there and share their work with the world.
A task for you: explore and outline what the three things would be that you’d love to give to your clients and customers through your business and brand. Think about what you’d love your customers and clients to walk away with after working with you or buying something that you sell.
5. If my dream clients and customers were to describe my brand to someone, here’s what I hope they would say...
Imagine a dream client or customer of yours was sitting across from a friend in a coffee shop and raving to them about your brand. Maybe you’re a jewellery designer and they can’t stop gushing about their latest purchase from your shop, maybe you’re a coach and they’re so inspired by the work you’re doing together, or maybe you host a podcast and they think that their friend will love listening to it as much as they do. How would you love for them to describe your work and brand to their friend?
Think about:
- How they would describe what your business/content/brand is about
- How they would talk about their customer/listener/reader/client experience
- How they would talk about why they enjoy your work/content/products
- Why they would recommend you and your work/content/products to their friend
This exercise will hopefully help you get to the heart of what you want your brand to stand for, how you want your clients and customers to experience your brand, and what type of word of mouth you’d like to cultivate around your business too.
To finish
More than anything, I hope these exercises can hold some space for you to get to the heart of your business, your brand, and the awesome work that you’re doing in the world right now. And if you ever feel lost, stuck. or disconnected from your business? Come back to these answers, work through the questions again, and see if they can help you reconnect to the very core of what it is you do.
As always, I’m rooting for you!
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