Often times, in order to take the next step in business, you must go against what others think is right for you. Let me teach you how to overcome this obstacle and a simple strategy I use to stay on track and reach my goals while building a new program or launching a live event.
In many of my programs I have talked about "the cycle of quitting". It is a pattern that many people fall into in business,
in relationships, in all facets of life. There are very specific points in which people go into blame, they go into regret, and they start making excuses.
One of the things that happened to me when I decided to do my Help More People tour, which was a series of low-cost live events all over the country, was that people told me not to do it.
They said things like, "You know, with the economy the way it is, people just aren't going to live events right now." A lot of my colleagues, friends – some very smart marketers and business owners – were saying things like that. Some of my coaches told me not to do the tour. They said that it would be very hard to get people in the door.
This is an example of well intending people getting in the way of what knew would be the right next step for my business. I just knew I was not going to get into the cycle on quitting. I knew that connecting with people in person is the most powerful way to build and grow a business, to get my message heard, and to help more people.
I knew that I had a movement, and I knew what I had to share was important, so I simply told myself, "I've got to make this work". Quitting was not an option, and I knew the tour was the best way forward. A technique that I used through this time is called "The Bubble Technique". It's something a colleague of mine showed me, and I'd like to pass it on to you now.
It's very simple. First, you start with a big post-it note, and whatever event, coaching program, consulting program, training program, or any other program you're trying to fill or similar type of goal you're trying to reach. It doesn't matter if you want to get five one-on-one clients or 20 people in a particular program. Maybe you just want to get 100 more people on your newsletter list. This is useful wherever you are.
Wherever you are and whatever that next step is for you, you start with the big post-it note and you draw circles with numbers in them – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on.
Next, whenever you get someone to sign up for your program – so for me, when I got someone to sign up to come to the tour – cross one of the bubbles with the respective number off. For the first person, I'd cross off "bubble #1", and then I would cross off "bubble #2", and so on.
It gave me a beautiful visual representation of my goal coming into fruition and how far along I was and it really brought me a higher level of energy on a daily basis. In doing this, I was more inclined to take inventory each day. "What are my numbers? Where have I gone?" I would ask myself, "Where do I still have left to go?"
This is not an exaggeration: I credit the "Bubble Technique" with allowing me to exceed my goal of 150 people in attendance of my tour, to actually having over 260 people show up!
This technique – and my commitment to it – made it so that I was not allowed to quit.
The most important part of all was that it wasn't just a technique, but there was real emotional energy behind it. Here's why: once that chart was on the wall and I had a few people signed up for my event, the numbers weren't the important part any more. Behind each number was a human being. Eventually, when I had 20, then 30, and more and more, I told myself, "Wow, that's not just #1 or #15 (or whatever number it happened to be), that's John, that's Sarah, that's Adela, that's Sally, that's Pamela, that's Billy."
It is at that point when I realized the awesome responsibility I had, a moral obligation, to continue to share my message because those people were depending on me. It's the same for you and your movement. When you help those people that need you most, it is going to create a beautiful ripple effect. That is what this technique, and the important lesson behind it of resisting the urge to quit pursuing your movement, is all about.
