Recently I spoke about the importance of understanding what our customers need along each step of their buying journey. Customers need to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you BEFORE they buy from you. This happens, sometimes subconsciously, other times their decisions are conscious ones – either way, this needs to happen FIRST.

In the late eighties, early nineties, way before podcasts, we had motivational speakers who first shared their insights on cassette tape, then on CD and then on DVD. I remember hearing one of those speakers talk about the word enthusiasm – that the last four letters ‘IASM’ meant I AM SOLD MYSELF. Of course this was made up because enthusiasm is not an acronym but it was effective. I never forgot it. Not to mention that it really is the first step if you are selling anything – from your ideas, a service you’re providing to any tangible product. If you’re not sold first – then it is unlikely that you will be able to sell to anyone else.

This first step is often overlooked, because we are usually impatient and just want to go sell something.

The first guiding principle in my book is this:

BELIEVE IT TO RECEIVE IT

I could reach out and hand you an entire “done for you” file on how to start or scale your business right now, but if you don’t truly believe that it is possible for you, then you won’t invest your time and energy into making it happen.

If you don’t KNOW yourself, then you won’t be confident in your abilities. It follows that you won’t like who you are very much, and of course won’t trust your own guidance.

Sure you may be writing and posting, visiting clients, and putting on a good front, but if you don’t believe in yourself and have faith in you then you’re losing before you even begin.

There is a book recently made into a film by Anthony Doerr, called ‘All the Light we cannot See”.

I don’t think that we see all of our light. We may see glimpses of it but not all of it. We are all operating below what we are capable of, me included, and so we all look for the light in others to guide us to our own light. This is helpful to a point. However the keys to ignite our light, are found within…where it is dark at first…so we often avoid going there. We are like the guy looking for his keys in this cartoon:

We look to others for answers, and neglect our own insight because we easily see their light. But there’s a whole lot of light buried right within us, that if we start digging, will become more apparent.

Here is why this is so important

Successful living requires that you devote yourself to fulfilling a worthy life plan. You are the captain who must steer and guide your ship. You are part of a master plan and have a place where you and only YOU ALONE fit.

It may well be that you are experiencing problems because you are not in the right place. There are things perhaps that you ought to be doing that you might be neglecting and/or avoiding.

You need to fully appreciate that you are a unique individual with a special place to occupy with a purpose to fulfill.

Your contribution is valuable and important yet you may never discover precisely what that is if you only seek the lights that shine around you.