We’ve been talking at the Kitchen Table about how to get clients and customers.
About how long it takes to biggify your thing. And help I don’t understand what’s wrong how come no one is signing up for my courses and programs dammit.
So I wanted to talk about this here.
But I need to do some explain-ey stuff first about how I perceive business.
It might seem a bit yoga-teacher-meditation-ey at first.
If that’s not useful for you, use this as a map. A piece of my (admittedly yogified) philosophy of business.
Imagine a series of concentric circles. This is your map.
At the very center is a concentrated flow of rays of light.
Points of light. Converging.
It’s beautiful.
As the light radiates towards the outermost circle, it’s begun to diffuse.
It’s light enough to see. Light enough to get a sense of the quality of the light. Light enough to not be in the dark.
But it’s nothing like the clarity and intensity of the light visible towards the center circles.
What lives in the circles?
Starting at the outside.
The outermost circle, where you first sense the existence of the light — where you just begin to step into it — this is the first encounter.
This is where someone first hears about the fact that you and your thing exist.
This is someone mentioning you on Twitter.
This is someone googling random stuff until they click on you.
This is someone saying “oh, I think I know a person who could probably help you with that.”
Or saying something more like this:
“Ooh, if you like that kind of art, you’ll love the stuff my friend does”.
First encounters. Tiny seeds. Beginnings. A flicker. An inkling. A spark.
A website. A business cards. Where it starts.
The next ring.
This one is wider. Quite large, in fact.
It’s the largest, widest circle in the progression.
The light here is more palpable. Not bright, necessarily. But there’s a pull.
You can definitely feel that whatever at the center is real and powerful and … special.
This is where stuff gets shared.
It’s where people connect with the ideas, information, beauty, experience, techniques or whatever it is that you’re sharing with the world.
It’s what Mark calls the Second Journey.
For me and Selma (Pirate Queen aka Chief Eccentricity Officer of The Fluent Self and rockstar duck, respectively), this circle of light is the blog. And everything in it.
For you it might be a noozletter, or something else.
It’s the space or the way in which people regularly hang out with you and get a regular dose of you-ness. In the general orbit of your thing.
Where the light begins. Connection.
And moving inside.
Let’s skip — just for now — all the circles that make up the entire middle area between the outside rings and the center.
Let’s look at that inner-most space of concentrated rays of light.
That’s you. That’s your shining you-ness. That’s your place of safety and sanctuary — the canopy of peace.
No one gets to be there but you.
And outside of it is a semi-permeable membrane — a skin.*
* I got this membrane concept from Hiro, and it has made my life better in a thousand ways.
The job of this membrane is to let your light shine out into your world, while only allowing into your space the qualities that are useful for you (you know, stuff like grounding and support and sovereignty).
And it’s there to keep out anything that doesn’t help you feel safe, supported and loved.
The next layer out.
Just outside of this innermost layer of protection is where the circles of your business begin.
The circle closest to that center is where all the most magical things happen.
This might be your private coaching clients. Or a very tiny, very exclusive class. Or specially commissioned works of art that allow for total creative freedom.
It’s the stuff that involves the most you-time. And the most you-ness.
It’s the stuff that is the most expensive, the most desirable, the hardest to get.
It’s a small circle and it’s not for everyone.
This is where things go wrong.
When I’m talking with clients and students who have coaching or consulting businesses or who are artists in some form, here’s what generally turns out to be one of the main stucknesses.
There’s something missing between the inside and outside circles.
There’s nothing in the middle.
So you have your coaching at say, $200/hour. Inside circles. And a noozletter that shows up in people’s email inbox once a month. Outside circles.
Or you have a three month course that’s $900. Inside circles. And a freebie teleclass that you did once. Outside circles.
Or you have a gorgeous painting for $750. Inside circles. And your blog posts about your creative process and stuff you think about. Outside circles.
You’ve got great inside circles. And those are excellent outside circles. I love that you have them.
It’s just that all that no-man’s-land in the middle isn’t helping your people come closer to where the light is.
It’s too much space to ask people to cross.
Even if they’re drawn to you. Even if there’s a pull.
It’s just too far. Middle circles are a procession. An experience of coming closer. A way of testing how it feels to be in the presence of that kind of radiance.
To see how their light interacts with your light.
So you need stuff for the in-between.
If I’m going to hire you as my coach, I’d probably rather try a three-part class before I decide if you’re the one.
And I’d probably buy a homestudy of a class before actually taking one.
To have a way to connect with the stuff you teach without you seeing who I am or what my stuff is. Without having to be vulnerable or interact with other people.
And then when I am ready to work with you, I’d still rather try a, say, five-session package than signing up for some vague, amorphous, ongoing “until I’m done” thing.
If I’m thinking about buying your painting, it would be really great if I could pick up a print or a calendar or a something, while I’m saving up to have your art on my wall.
Obviously, these suggestions are EXAMPLES of possible middle circles. You don’t have to use these. The point is just that these circles of in-between are where everything happens.
Middle circles create spaciousness.
Room to breathe.
You don’t need a lot of them. In fact, just adding one will change the entire map.
And if things aren’t working, it’s a great place to start.
END TRANSMISSION 🙂
Comment zen for today.
Businesses vary. Use what works for you and skip the rest.
Remember that this is only one way of looking at things. And that since we’re always changing perspective, different things take on different shapes at different times.
You absolutely do not have to adopt my philosophy of business in any way. I’m not married to this. It’s just what works for me.
We all have stuff. And we’re all working on our stuff. So we tread gently with everyone else’s. Thanks!
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This one is very good. Thank you for sharing it.
Speaking as a potential client / customer: yes! There are so many wonderful people out there doing their great Things, but there is empty space between the twitter/blog space and the essence of what they have to offer. There’s no bridge. A nice wide and sturdy one with good railings to hold on to and signs explaining what to expect on the other side. A bridge that is big enough to linger or rest in the middle. A bridge that does not make anyone feel sad, guilty, disappointed, or generally shoe-struck if you decide to turn around and go back.
Thank you for this lovely post, Havi.
I thought it quite fitting that the Pirate Queen has her own kind of treasure map. 🙂
Havi, I love this image of concentric circles radiating from a central core of self-light. It’s a brilliant way of clarifying the relationship between me, my business, and the wonderful people who connect with me through my business.
Thanks so much for this…I’m thinking about the play of light within each circle of my business, where the boundaries between them blend and what happens at the boundaries.
I’m also thinking of laps–the way a lap creates spaciousness, safety and welcome. And how the middle circle of my business can be a lap too.
Love, Hiro
.-= Hiro Boga´s last post … Conscious Unraveling =-.
Thank you for this, Havi. This is very helpful. I am still figuring out what my circles are, but having these guidelines is useful. And so is visualizing myself as a shining light. 🙂
.-= Amber´s last post … Friendlier Dishwashing =-.
Oh! I really like this. Thank you for sharing!
I’m not quite sure how it fits with my various stuff yet… but it’s causing glimmerings of ideas and patterns to appear around the brain-edges.
.-= Juliet´s last post … 1 free bike, 1 non-free bike =-.
I love this metaphor so much I created a little pdf template to print out — one can use the wide rays of light to write in bridge ideas, fill up the circles, write outside or around, or whatever works.
http://www.notdeadyetstudios.com/files/PlanYourBridges.pdf
I hope someone besides me gets some use out of it!
.-= Amy Crook´s last post … Illustrations, Illustrations, Illustrations! =-.
I like the visual metaphor, but it makes me laugh because it reminds me of Dante’s Inferno. Incongruous rings to be sure. 🙂
Still, it helps me see how my rings aren’t exactly adjacent at present. Or bidirectional, though that was by design initially. Hmm. Might simply be a matter of blog design, inasmuch as such things are simple.
.-= claire´s last post … Sketchbook, page 14 =-.
Thank you for this visual! Immensely clarifying, and timely to boot.
.-= Cindy Morefield´s last post … Studio Stories – Toward an Artist Statement =-.
Beautiful, I love this post. I think I need to draw out my rings and work out what I want to put in them. Because at the moment all I have is my outside circles and all of those are free. Alas, my boat has a big blooming hole in it!
.-= Kirsty Hall´s last post … 8 Excuses Artists Make For Not Having A Website =-.
Amy, thanks so much for the gorgeous pdf! 🙂 I love being able to use the wide rays of light as bridges, and the fluid, radiant quality of your image is inspiring.
.-= Hiro Boga´s last post … Conscious Unraveling =-.
This metaphor is so powerful, Havi!
Your customers need a path to *you* that is fluid and seamless–no breaks in the path where they can’t see where to step next.
I’ll definitely be working on this concept for myself and my clients…
@AmyCrook Thank you for your work on that awesome download 🙂
.-= Ana´s last post … Burlesque Dancing, Feminism, and Entrepreneurship: An interview with Nicole Carlin =-.
Oh. Lovely imagery – circles, support, connection.
So I’m new to all this, or at least I still feel new. Helpful to have so much contained in an image, a metaphor that connects all the parts which compete for our attention some days. But sometimes it just feels there is more and more to do and to tend to! I guess that’s a sign from Me to Me – that I have enough to chew over, absorb and do without more and making this into a should or an anxiety. All in good time – I’m sure you would say to me and others too if you could (and probably have in the Archives and recent past!)
So I’m going to bookmark this post and sit with it until it’s something that I need to respond to – when I have a thing, or am ready to share my current thing as it develops, or I have enough ‘capacity’ to improve my blog as it needs doing some time soon!
Good luck to all with their circles, their rays, their bridges, their rings, finding their ‘right people’!
xx
.-= Leila Lloyd-Evelyn´s last post … How can we better support ourself as we journey towards our buried treasure? =-.
Oh. Lovely imagery and great to have so much contained in an image, a metaphor that connects all the parts which compete for our attention some days. I’m going to bookmark this post and sit with it until it’s something that I need to respond to and some biggification is required.
Good luck to all with their circles, their rays, their bridges, their rings, finding their ‘right people’!
xx
.-= Leila Lloyd-Evelyn´s last post … How can we better support ourself as we journey towards our buried treasure? =-.
Transmission indeed. Your light straight into my heart.
And totally. As a customer, I want free stuff to check you out. I want more stuff to get more of your light. I want paid stuff where I can really see you *without you seeing me*.
Then ways of getting further in.
And when I get further in, it had better be more, and more of the same light.
And actually I want it to be at my pace. Yin.
***
This. This image is really really helping me.
Thank you, oh business savant.
.-= Cap’n Jack Lightheart´s last post … How to present like Jill Bolte Taylor =-.
Havi, thank you for sharing this! I love the idea of the middle circles.
It’s kind of like teaching–give your students the big picture, and the technical details, but you also have to show them how they can connect the two.
Once I figure out what my inner, glowing center is, I feel that the rest will fall into place now that I have this image from you.
Thank you for this image, Havi. I was just looking at a visual interpretation of my astrological birth chart which uses the same image of concentric circles. I have been floundering out here with the Twitter and the Facebook and the Plurk, and feeling like I needed to lower prices on work instead of making new work which costs less and not knowing how to make the bridge or creamy nougat or something like that. The new work which I’ve been making helps fill that in- between gap, I would like to get a bit more focused with the Tweets now 🙂
.-= Andi´s last post … In Process =-.
This is just. Freaking. BRILLIANT. (And not because it has light at the center of the metaphor.)
It’s a perfect complement to a discussion I had with my business coach today. We were talking about my workshop model and why I was resisting pushing it forward. Adding this concept to the solution we reached makes it substantially better.
Thank you.
.-= Todd J. List´s last post … Braving the Shave =-.
Hey Havi,
I think I got my outer rings goin’ on pretty good.
I’m just about ready to show off some wild inner-ring stuff. Intense.
I’m wondering though… which rings are the best to work on first? Do you want an awesome shiny inner ring so people can see all the awesomeness from a distance even if there’s not an outer ring (yet) to grab onto? Do you make that easy outer ring first even if your right people might miss out on the cool inner stuff because it’s not ready yet?
.-= Mark W. “Extra Crispy” Schumann´s last post … Do what you gotta do. When you gotta do it. And not a moment sooner. =-.
Havi,
Thank you! With one mighty leap by Mapping Mouse (who I think must be the cousin of Metaphor Mouse) you brought into sharp focus a whole bunch of disparate things that have been bouncing around in my head about my business.
I think this is so important, at least for what I’m doing.
And I also think that it’s important to offer things in all the circles – because we’re cheating our Right People if we don’t give them the opportunity to work with us closely, and also if we don’t give them the steps to get to the point of knowing they want to.
Thank you thank you thank you!
Andy
http://binauraljourneys.com
.-= Andy Dolph´s last post … Chicken Techno =-.
Oh, I love this. I expect that I’ll be spending some time this week doodling concentric circles, playing with colors, shades, and patterns, and asking myself what treasures could be hidden there. Thank you!
.-= Kathleen Avins´s last post … An open letter, from me to me =-.
‘zackly! Beautifully put. Amen, amen. Woo-hoo! Lovely.
.-= Mark Silver´s last post … No Article Today–A Workbook, Audio and Interviews Instead =-.
Oooh, yes, of course. Even if it’s not a totally new concept, this metaphor is making my head crackle. I’m not sure I’m yoga-teachery enough to really appreciate the light business, but the circles, and the bridges, and the skin, yes, I’m there.
I will play with this.
@Amy: nice work!
This is a wonderfully clarifying post, very much the sort of thing I experience all the time but never actually noticed before.
It also took me back to the days of studying physics, made me think of electrons jumping between energy levels in atoms. The wider the gaps between the shells, the more energy needed for the jump… and some electrons just don’t have that much energy.
.-= Paul´s last post … What If I Could Play Guitar? =-.
Havi – thank you so much.
The concentric circles and the light emanating from the center give a clear visual (and my mind works better with pictures!)
The picture also helps relieve some of the fear involved in creating a thing and wondering if anyone will come. (What if I had a party and no one showed up!)
But instead of having a big, elegant, complicated gala – maybe I just have someone over for tea… And then the next time over for cocktails with hors d’oeuvres, and then a dinner party for 6, and then…
.-= Jacquelyn´s last post … Teaching Peace =-.
Wow! Great explanation with awesome visual of starting and growing a biz! Thanks for insight!
.-= Martha Giffen´s last post … Time Management Tips =-.
What a great metaphor. I can already see ways in which I can implement this – for myself and others. Thank you, Havi. 🙂
And Amy, that’s a great-looking PDF. 🙂
.-= Chris Anthony´s last post … On degrees of uniquity =-.
Yes! Havi Yes! Thank you for making my brain all swimmy with goodness and shedding light.
You Mark Silver and the @$$ kicking from Dave Navarro – this week so far has been …WHEW! YES! and it’s only half-way over.
@Jacquelyn I know about having a party where no one shows. And where I cower in the corner from fear, doing everything I can to make sure no one shows up.
http://www.getcaughtthriving.com/just-what-was-needed/ Oh yes, fearful and it still turned out okay.
Oh, this makes my plan to sell quicky PDFs while I work on my book sound BRILLIANT 😉
Thank you, as always – a faithful lurker.
.-= Suzyn´s last post … KnitPicks Staff Picks Knit It Together =-.
Wonderful. Am in the midst of re-inventing/re-structring/re-designing various aspects of a bunch of stuff, and this concept is very helpful. I suspect my map will look more like wedges than concentric circles, which raises the question of how to guide those on the outer fringes along the rim to the wedge that best suits them. Don’t know yet. Lots to ponder. Thank you.
Havi! Havi! were you talking to me, you WERE weren’t you? I’m a painter, and I have blog posts.
Thank you for such a delicious timely metaphor as I grow my circle!
“That’s you. That’s your shining you-ness. That’s your place of safety and sanctuary — the canopy of peace.”
I have heard this concept several times but not in this manner. You have opened a door for me that I never thought was there. Thank you so much.
I have work to do now.
.-= Jonathan David Goins´s last post … quelsen: RT @PaulaKathlyn Remember me? I’m in the Army too!: Twilight Goats Milk Soap Giveaway http://is.gd/aTDsZ =-.
havi-
this is so beautiful… thank you! why do things make so much more sense in yoga-teachery-meditationey-talk???? oh… *right*… =)
@amy – what a beautiful image! multi-colored light beams of appreciation for sharing!
.-= Michelle Marlahan´s last post … Permanent Retreat =-.
Hooray! This is exactly the kind of thing that I needed to answer one of the doing-my-thing questions that has been on my mind a lot in the last few weeks. Thank you!
Havi, you are a right-brained biz-wannabe’s dream come true. Thank you for this spacious metaphor with lots of comfy wiggle room.
And thanks to Amy for creating a tangible visual aid!
.-= Tracy´s last post … Awakening from a Fallow Season =-.
This “thing” that you “do” is very helpful to me. I do need to make prints, etc. cheaper stuff of my “art” while people ‘try me on’. Very good, very observant. I like the way you think. I stumbled upon this site, don’t ask me how, I think it was twitter, and I’m glad I did. Great stuff!
I like your way of explaining yourself. Concentric rays of light sounds beautiful. Thanks for helping out during the rough patches.