Be You
I wanted to be known as Australia’s Female Fat Loss Queen, because I’d been told I should have a title and represent myself as a guru in my niche. So dutifully I thus titled myself and dutifully I created a business and a brand around my title.
I wrote about fitness and fat loss and nutrition and emotional eating and motivation to get in shape, and I created The Look Great Naked (Bikini Body) Bootcamp. It was good stuff, life-changing stuff for many people. I loved (still love) the topic of female fat loss; particular the mindset side of it.
But the title? I always felt like a bit of a wanker about it and every time I saw it on my website I cringed. Every time I announced myself as such I followed it up with something self-deprecating; showed that I was embarassed about it. I felt as though I had to justify it to others when really what I was trying to do was justify to me why it was good business sense, good growth sense to pigeonhole myself for my chosen niche.
Time passed; my business evolved.
Part of my evolution was that I stepped into more of a formal role as a business coach. Something I’d been doing on the side for years, if unofficially. People have long come to me for help and inspiration on their businesses. I decided to make it official and so I re-titled my website ‘Creating Wealthy Woman Entrepreneurs’. I wrote about making money online and creating ebooks and courses and getting traffic and building a following and getting clear on your business strategy. I taught sales and marketing and lead gen and I created my Fearless Wealthy Woman brand. I loved (still love; still teach) the concept of Fearless Wealthy Woman and I can’t get enough of talking ideas for business success and creation.
But the title? Creating Wealthy Woman Entrepreneurs? I definitely feel/felt proud of that and of my Fearless Wealthy Woman brand but yet it still gelled. I still looked at my website, at my Facebook page and felt like something was missing. I’d sit down to write a blog and sometimes be inspired to write about business or money but sometimes I still wanted to write insights around body stuff and getting in shape and much of the time I receive a ‘download’ of sorts to write about different elements of living life on your terms. But all of that, it didn’t fit with Creating Wealthy Woman Entrepreneurs, just as all of the things I am and wanted to be could never line up with ‘Australia’s Female Fat Loss Queen’.
What new title, I wondered, do I need to come up with?
What can I call myself or my brand or my website in order to encapsulate everything I want to do, and be. Will I be a ‘business coach’, a ‘success coach’, go back to being a body transformation coach? Will I call myself a strategist?! A marketing expert? A traffic guru? A niche-building specialist?
Which parts of who I am do I need to leave out in order to properly ‘niche down’ and create my greatest business success?
I couldn’t answer it. I kept changing my bio, my banner, my intros.
And then it hit me –
It covers all of me, all of who I am. The body, the business, the life, the lifestyle. Kids, relationship, travel, more. It is a portal for women who dream big and are ready to make stuff happen in all areas of their lives, to live their best life. The theme, the summary is – Live Your Dream Life. Well. Really. It’s Life is Now. Press Play. Which has been my tagline since 2007, when I first started online.
In my dream business I teach vibrancy and wealth and fun and adventure and self-confidence and belief and choice and freedom and connection and alignment and being true to you and manifesting your dreams and dreaming even bigger dreams.
In my dream business women come to me because I INFUSE them with the desire to live every part of their life to their utmost. My site is brimming with my personality. With me. With who I am.
In my dream business, essentially, I am being me. ALL of me.
Who should you be?
I agree with the popular idea – you do have to have a niche. You do have to know who you’re speaking to. But I think we take this thing of niche too far. You can focus on teaching one thing, if that’s your passion and that’s what you want to teach and grow. You can be the business expert, the body expert, the life coach, the money coach, the strategies, the leader.
But you can’t leave the essence of you out. Not if you truly want to be fulfilled by your business and not if you truly want to connect with your audience on a soul level. I can tell you for certain – whilst strategy and targeting is awesome, and knowing the latest marketing and sales techniques can make a dramatic difference, nothing creates business success like truly connecting, heart to heart, with your community.
It’s hard to connect heart to heart if you’re leaving the heart out of what you’re doing.
You can enjoy something, be great at it, even love it, have crafted it so carefully, so strategically, but still forget one part. The most important part of all, the part that, when you add it, will draw your TRUE audience to you like moths to a flame. Will create a community of people who adore you and who YOU adore equally, not just because you have knowledge that they want.
But because they see the future of themselves in you.
Who should you be? I don’t know if you should call yourself a coach, a strategist, a leader, a specialist, a guru. I don’t know if you should teach fitness or fat loss or self-belief or business or money or strategy or love. I don’t know if your topic is narrow or encompasses many elements of life and business, as mine does.
But this I know for sure –
The most important thing is that you be you.
Communicate honestly. Show your weaknesses as well as your strengths. As my favourite blogger James Altucher would say, ‘bleed onto the page’. Don’t publish something if you’re not scared of what people will think. Reveal your cracks, your deepest fears as well as your greatest hopes and dreams. Show people where you can help them, what your gift is and then show them where you screwed up.
People don’t want you to be a ‘Queen’ or a ‘Guru’ or an ‘Expert’ or a ‘Specialist’ unless you can also be you.
So give them you.
Of course the best part of this has nothing to do with your audience and your marketing message or sales plan. It has to do with you. You want to be happy, fulfilled, feel aligned and that you’re living on purpose and with tremendous passion? You want to live your dream life, reach success on your terms, have it all? It’s very simple, and this applies to life as a whole not just to business.
Be you.
Great post. Love it – off to implement some of that now 🙂
Thanks for commenting Melanie! Have an awesome time being you x