Reconnect To Your Purpose and Restore Your Passion
We've all heard of it happening to someone, or maybe it's happened to you. An entrepreneur who was once excited and passionate about their business starts to feel bogged down and uninspired by their work.
Our CEO, Stacy Jones, had a conversation with a life coach who helps entrepreneurs reconnect to their purpose and get committed to their passions, resulting in positive momentum for their business. In this blog post, Hollywood Branded examines how entrepreneurs can combat burnout in your business and maintain your drive with all business ventures from the expertise of Spark Collaborative's founder, Linsi Brownson.
A Little Background on Linsi
Linsi Brownson is the founder of the agency Spark Collaborative and the host of the Spark and Victory Podcast. Linsi is a coach and creative director who helps entrepreneurs banish burnout and boredom by rekindling their spark of genius, which we can all use. Linsi believes that small businesses are fueled by their mission and people they want to serve, but often get lost in a tactical or inside the box methods of thinking about their people, which becomes boring to everyone. She came to chat with us about helping entrepreuners find what excites them, and how that leads to surprising and delighting your customers.
Interview Transcript Highlights
Question: So can you start off by telling us a little bit about your background and what got you to where you are today?
Answer: Yes, absolutely. At this moment in my career, I'm a life coach. I work with entrepreneurs and small business owners. My whole mission is to help them fall in love and stay in love. That's really the bigger thing with your business, because I believe that that is really the core of what drives us when we are mission driven, that we need to have that continuous commitment and that feeling of passion and love for our business. Because that's what radiates out into the world - and that's how we really serve our clients and customers.
I've been in the branding world for many years. Before that, I was in interior design. It's all sort of been an organic, tons of stories to tell of course along that process, an organic evolution for me of really finding those ways to stay committed and to follow my own evolution as my interests changed and my skills developed. The client relationships that I built as those clients continued to need new and different things from me, for me to really be able to continue to show up and serve them.
One of the most powerful things I think in my business and in my story is that most of the clients that I currently have are clients that have been with me for the entirety of my business, which was almost 10 years, or for at least four or five years. It's a very interesting and I think unconventional story. I developed the business so that it's truly serving the people that I care about.
Question: That's awesome. That's really good. So what do you do? How do you help people? There's so many things that I was reading on your website that you offer. How do people miss the mark on having some of this sparkle in their own business?
Answer: I really find that the analogy of marriage or long term relationships, or even dating, is such a great visual for us to explore the relationship that we have with businesses. I think people miss the mark because honestly, they fall out of love. That what happens when you start a business, you know, we start businesses because we're excited about something. We have a passion and we want to go and do something in the world. As you get that going, the passion starts to fade or you get more and more into the day to day monotony of what again, what a relationship might look like in your life too. If you're not actively participating in keeping that spark alive and you just continue going through the motions. After a while, it starts to fizzle out.
So often, I see entrepreneurs get to this place. The time varies, but it's around three, four, or five years into their business where it's like they finally gotten traction. They've got the clients and customers that they want and things are going pretty well, but it doesn't feel good anymore. They try to apply the same tactics, the same methods that they used to use in their business in the situation now and they're just not working anymore. And that really creates this sense of disconnect of like, "Why am I here? What is this even for?"
The thing that we really help people with the most fundamentally is we help them reconnect to their purpose as it looks now. Sometimes it's very difficult for entrepreneurs to do because they've shifted gears. They're in a different place now than when they started, but they're afraid to acknowledge what's really fueling them, what really feels good to them now because they feel like it's maybe abandoning what they've already built. Sometimes it is honestly. But many times it's not. Many times it's just about really finding the new way that they can express that purpose within the business that they have and what that might look like.
What we help people do is really come back to their core and to get very committed to their own interests and their own passion and desire, so that they can implement it in their business in a way that works for them now and to move forward with. And we do that through coaching. We also do that through branding. Branding is a big part of the services that we offer in the process that we go through.
Question: The very first thing that I'm hearing you say is, what someone's purpose might've been when they first started their business, might be different than what their purpose is today. So the very first step is actually figuring out your why of what you're doing, why are you doing it, what's the purpose, what are you trying to provide?
And so how would you suggest starting? What is the first step to get to that vision of really digging into yourself and seeing if you're off the tracks a little bit from where you used to be, and maybe on a better train track?
Answer: That is a great question. I think that there's a little bit of a practice that needs to be implemented. Each of us need to come to this place where first of all, acknowledging that your purpose and your why may be different now. I think that's the number one thing. Because like I said, a lot of people really do struggle to even get to that place where they can say, "Maybe I don't love this thing anymore and I've got to look at something else." And as soon as you're there, that's a really good moment for you to start exploring, to start playing a little bit with ideas of what brings me energy, and who brings me energy.
That's a big part of it as well, to start to think about where do I enjoy spending my time, or what are the areas of my business that do light me up? And two, it's a little bit of a spaghetti at the wall kind of thing, but just to be willing to start to play again.
There's a thing that we do called business parties. The whole purpose of the business parties is to bring people into a space where we're playing games. We're just doing creative thought exercises. Sometimes there's doodling involved, sometimes it's physically creative, sometimes it's just energetically creative or just sharing stories. There's all of these different ways that we are able to tap into our creativity to start to see what in this feels good.
Instead of the approach where you're saying the way that I used to market to get new clients really isn't bringing me the clients I want anymore. What are the steps that I should take to get the right clients? I find that so often, that feels really limiting. And then there's a lot of resistance. People do not want to do that because it doesn't feel good.
When we can back off of the pressure a little bit and just start to acknowledge and have this practice. When I say practice, I'm saying every day. Have this moment, create the space for yourself every day where you're asking the questions. What is so freaking exciting to me today? What would make my day feel so amazing? Maybe it has nothing to do with your business. A lot of us as entrepreneurs, we want to be very productive. This can help take the pressure off of that. What feels really good, what would make this day feel good to me?
You can start to follow those threads to really see what the things are that are lighting you up in this moment. And trust that the next evolution of your business is going to be something that's very organic and natural. The people that you want to work with are going to respond to that stuff as well.
Question: So what are some good ways to surprise and delight your customers?
Answer: All right, so I have a few, I think really great examples. I want to share a couple of small business examples that I've seen recently. But one of the first things, because I do really like this example. There's a juice company. So this is on a broader scale and we're thinking about social media. So going back. So I'll stick with my dating analogy here. So if you are out on the market, so you think about it that way. You're out in the market, you want to reach lots of people and give them this great energy of yours.
This company is a juice company. I think it was called Suja Juice, S-U-J-A. They did a campaign where they would search hashtags for people who were saying, "I'm having a bad day," or, "I'm sick." They would just have some kind of bummer happening in their life, and they would send them a private message and give them a free juice. I love that example because that's something where it's just like, that's a way if you need to be methodical about it, if you want to do a campaign around it, it's thinking about what does this person need? What will make their day right now? And you can do that on a bigger scale.
But for the most part, a lot of small businesses come up with specific client gifts. There are cookie companies that will send a whole box of custom made character type cookies that have the company's logo that they just developed, and maybe a little mascot and little messages. To send these very personalized gifts, I think that's really fun. I'm seeing a lot of right now, a lot of popularity with personal videos. So if somebody sends you a new client inquiry that you respond to them not in an email, but you actually make them a little video. Or if they become a customer. And I just had this recently because I subscribed to, it's a podcast called Sleep With Me Podcast. It's to help you fall asleep. I subscribed to their Patreon and account, and the host of the podcast made me a video.
He made me a video, and he sent it to me and told me a little personal story. Not his personal story. He actually made up a story to tell me in this little video, it's a five minute thing. Think of the like thousands of people, or who even knows actually? How many people are subscribed to this. And he took that five minutes out of his day to actually send me this personal video. That meant a lot, right? I love stuff like this because it's so easy and we don't have to do this. It doesn't have to be a huge investment of time or money, but it's the thought. It literally is the thought that counts.
I love that, and making personal invitations the same way. Instead of sending out a blanket email out to your email list, inviting them to come join this course, or program, or workshop, you're sending a personal message to them. It's just that extra thing.
I was on a podcast about a year ago. This was Kickass Masterminds. This is a great company. In fact, I think this company does it the best of anyone that I've seen in all different ways. But I went on their podcast about a year ago. And a couple of weeks after that recording, I got a little gift in the mail which had this little, I think it was a citrine crystal in it. So it was a prosperity crystal and a handwritten note. "Thank you for coming on." She sent me a few additional, they do really fun postcards, things that say, "You belong here," and, "I believe in you." And it really took, because their audience is entrepreneurs who are needing that community. If you're thinking about joining a mastermind, you're looking for a group of like-minded people. And so to send these messages saying, "We hear you, we see you, we've built this thing for you." It's really, really incredible. And never underestimate the power of sending gifts or things in the mail.
Even just like featuring people on your social media. One of my favorite things to do is to actually show my audience what podcasts I'm listening to and give them the three bullet points. "Here's what is amazing about this and why I think you should go and listen to it." And that is sharing other people's work. That is giving my audience value. And that's making this connection between people I know and ... well people I know. People I know who are the podcast hosts and the audience that I have. I love doing that for not just podcasts, but promoting other people's workshops and events and things, just because I genuinely believe in them. And that benefits everybody. It's things like that.
Check Out The Podcast!
Want to learn more about falling back in love with your business, and delighting your customers? Check out the rest of this informative interview on our podcast!
The Next Steps
Want to learn more about ways to improve your business, internally and externally? Check out some of our other blog posts on how to do just that!
- The Law Of Attraction And It's Impact On Your Business
- Building Culture In Your Company
- Customizing Communication For Success
- Integrating Strategy And Tactical Plans
- Developing Effective Sales Strategies With Anthony Kirby
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